What Is Wi-Fi Direct, and How Does It Work?
The Miracast wireless display standard also uses Wi-Fi Direct, although this doesn’t engender much confidence, as Miracast seems so incompatible between different devices. Peripherals, such as mice and keyboards, could also communicate via Wi-Fi Direct. Wi-Fi Direct could be used to remotely connect to a wireless printer without requiring the printer to join an existing wireless network.
Android also includes built-in support for Wi-Fi Direct, although few applications are using it just yet.
Many devices are already using Wi-Fi with built-in Wi-Fi radios. Rather than build in different hardware, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct allows them to communicate wirelessly without requiring any additional specialized hardware. It adds additional functionality without requiring different hardware.
WPA2: Wi-Fi Direct devices use WPA2 encryption, which is the most secure way of encrypting Wi-Fi.
What Can You Actually Use It For?
But what can you actually use Wi-Fi Direct for at the moment? Well, if a device and its peripherals are designed to use Wi-Fi Direct, they’ll use Wi-Fi Direct without you having to think about it. The Roku 3 does this, as we mentioned above.
While Wi-Fi Direct is theoretically supposed to be a standard that allows multiple types of devices supporting the Wi-Fi Direct standard to communicate with each other, this hasn’t really happened just yet.
Wi-Fi Direct is a promising feature that’s already working in the real world. However, it has a long way to go before it’s actually an interoperable standard normal people can rely on. At the moment, it’s just a way for specifically designed products to communicate with each other. For devices that require less power, Bluetooth Low Energy will be superior — but Wi-Fi Direct has a fighting chance against higher-powered Bluetooth devices.