BEACON HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE ANYTHING “SMART”
Think of a park bench; with a beacon, you can assign a lot of different metadata to that object. Your phone discovers it and tells you someone’s life story on YouTube.
It’s no longer necessary to have an app to interact with beacons.
With the introduction of Google Nearby, anyone can buy and register a beacon. Triggering a notification and creating an experience for any one with Nearby enabled. Check out our quick 5-minute guide to starting with Nearby Notifications here.
This can be a simple link to a promotional page or a deep link into their app, but that’s not all.
RUN APPS WITHOUT INSTALLATION
Google Instant Apps allow running “mini apps” on Android devices without installation. These disappear straight after the interaction.
Imagine walking into a restaurant to be presented with the menu and guidance to your table. Bus stops showing arrival times notification. Airport concierge apps guiding users from the point they leave their cars all the way to the plane.
There are two sides of the beacon story:
1. The infrastructure for the potential experiences – which indeed must use an app. This is currently rolled out by brands such as Uber, Macy’s, Foot Locker and National Rail.
2. “Nearby Channel” or Physical Web – using beacons as an engagement prompts. A starting point in the localised and most importantly, personalised user experience.
Beacons range can go up to 70 meters and battery can last a couple of years depending on the model. There is a large number of different manufactures to choose from at the moment. We’ve tested the EON beacons, which serve both iBeacon and Eddystone protocols. You can order them from our website
