I have a client that wants to use beacons and I just wanted to clarify somethings, as I am new to the capabilities of beacons.
They want to put a beacon in a car so that when they take the car to a car show people can interact with the beacon. Is this possible? Or do the people at the show have to have their iPhone app?
What are the steps in how a user interacts with a beacon? I’m under the impression that someone without the app, would walk by a beacon and get an alert asking them to download the app and from there they can interact more with the beacon because they downloaded the app.
Or could a user, without an app that we developed, walk by a car, and get an alert on their phone with information about the car, and not have to download anything?
Or can a user not interact with a beacon unless they first download the app?
What is the range per foot for a beacon? And is that the radius or the diameter in every direction?
There’s a problem with this use case. You see, beacons broadcast Bluetooth waves so a car will block them and act as a Faraday cage. If you want to know more about beacons’ physics read this.
To get signal from beacons you a user need an app and Bluetooth turned on. Without that, a notification won’t be shown, even the one about downloading a specific app. At the beginning you may see this as an obstacle but when you think about it then it’s also a challenge how to attract users to use your app.
Maximum range is 230 ft. in every direction, but also keep in mind that very much depend on the environment. A radio wave are prone to fluctuations.
