The complete process of the Google Beacon setup

Table of Contents

Background on Google Beacon Setup

Beacon technology is very popular among marketers since its arrival. According to the Global Market Insight, beacon technology will surpass almost $25 billion by 2024. So it shows that beacons technology has a lot of potentials and gaining more popularity in the coming years. This article will explain in detail the process of Google beacon setup.

Google Beacon is one of the most prominent types of beacons. Google launched Eddystone Beacon in 2015. This beacon is capable to transmit three types of frames. We will discuss these frames type in this article.

Another most important requirement is to have a beacon app. It is crucial for you to have a beacon-enabled app to push convenient and relevant notifications to the customers. This article explains different important things that you need to know for your own beacon app development.

First of all, we take a complete overview of Google Beacon. How to set up Eddystone beacons? Furthermore, this article covers different ways to use beacons as well.

The complete process of the Google Beacon setup

This guide explains different steps required to start Eddystone Bluetooth Beacon offered by Google. It offers a proximity-based experience for your customers. First of all, we take a glimpse of different ways to use beacons:

Ways to use beacons

Majority of the use cases for all type of beacons fall under one of the following categories:

Receiving nearby notifications and messages

Receiving nearby notifications and messages

In this way, you can add different attachments to your beacons. Moreover, you can access these attachments as notifications with your own apps. A cloud storage stores these all messages. You can update messages whenever you want even without updating the beacons themselves.

Interacting with the physical web

beacon Interacting with the physical web

This way provides an easy, quick and seamless interaction with beacons. In this way, you can connect your beacons with your web page. So you can broadcast that link by using Eddystone-URL frames. Users can read these URLs by using Chrome or Physical Web.

Integrating with Google services

Integrating with Google services

When you register your beacons with Google, different parameters from Places API use to improve the accuracy of location detection automatically. For example, these parameters include latitude and longitude coordinates.

Tools and documentation of Google for nearby beacons

MokoSmart beacons support almost all Android phones. These beacons push notifications on the cellphones why they come nearby. This is a way to associate an app or URL with a beacon. So that people receive a notification when they enter into the range of beacons. The messages or notifications come from the Android operating systems.

But how you can enable this feature? Unfortunately, tools and documentation of Google are not that clear to evaluate the entire process. Here is the complete process and tips to set up Google beacons set up:

How to set up Google beacons?

Google beacon set up

The process to set up Google beacons is easy and straight forward. You can complete this entire step just in three basic steps. First of all, you need to buy some reliable and high-quality beacons. You can choose MOKOSmart to make a purchase which is a trustworthy platform. After this, you need to configure your beacons.

If you want to advertise a URL, you need to use the Eddystone-URL frame type. Furthermore, it facilitates you to advertise both HTTPs and HTTP URLs. Besides this, it helps you to interact with the Physical Web. In addition to this, when you choose Eddystone-URL, you cannot register your beacons with Google. Furthermore, there is no need to continue further steps.

To set up a nearby beacon, you don’t need an app or even browser like Chrome. Moreover, nearby beacons don’t need any beacon platform or API. So you can use the cloud platform of Google free of cost.
Remember, if you have used the Eddystone-URL frame format, you cannot register your beacon with Google. For other formats, you need to register your beacon ownership with the Google Beacon Registry. You can use the Beacon Tools app for this registration purpose. Follow the steps below to register your beacons with Google registry: Launch the app. Choose your desired Google Developer project. Move your device nearby the beacon. You will see a list of beacons.

Different tips to create your beacon app

The creation of an app is the most important part of the Google beacon setup. If you want to develop your own beacon app, there are some important things you should keep in mind. This section explains different fundamental keys that facilitate you to develop the beacons.

1. The right feature set for Google beacon setup

You need to pay special focus on three important things while selecting a feature set for your app:

Include elements that enhance user experience and it non-cumbersome and seamless.
Select the features that do not cripple the app when beacons are out of range.
Always ensure transparency to protect user privacy.

2. The Permission matrix

You need to meet some most essential parameters to utilize different features linked to beacons. Here are a few important parameters:

To support beacons, the device should contain proper Bluetooth specifications.
The app should have the authorizations and ask for enabling location services.
The app should ask to turn on Bluetooth to interact with beacons.

3. Hardware

Understanding hardware to build an application is very important. Since beacons are transmitters so there involve some factors to transmit a signal. So a developer should know the signal strength. Moreover, the distance between a beacon and a device. Some other important factors to keep in mind are:

Device power and temperature affect beacon signals. Moreover, the difference between describe and actual power also have an impact on beacon signals.
To know the distance between a beacon and a device: you should calculate the difference between the broadcasting and the measured power of a beacon. And the change in signal over time.

4. The server piece
The app pulls the information of beacon when it gets closer to the beacons. For example, it fetches UUID, major and minor from the server. Moreover, it also gets a list of all users near the beacons. The app should filter this data for privacy and interprets if users are near the beacons.

Written by ——
Nick He
Nick He
Nick, a seasoned project manager in our R&D department, brings a wealth of experience to MOKOSMART, having previously served as a project engineer at BYD. His expertise in R&D brings a well-rounded skill to his IoT project management. With a solid background spanning 6 years in project management and get certifications like PMP and CSPM-2, Nick excels in coordinating efforts across sales, engineering, testing, and marketing teams. The IoT device projects he has participated in include Beacons, LoRa devices, gateways, and smart plugs.
Nick He
Nick He
Nick, a seasoned project manager in our R&D department, brings a wealth of experience to MOKOSMART, having previously served as a project engineer at BYD. His expertise in R&D brings a well-rounded skill to his IoT project management. With a solid background spanning 6 years in project management and get certifications like PMP and CSPM-2, Nick excels in coordinating efforts across sales, engineering, testing, and marketing teams. The IoT device projects he has participated in include Beacons, LoRa devices, gateways, and smart plugs.
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