I'm connected to my new hotspot. What does this number 6 mean? This is the first time I've ever seen a number associated with any Wi-Fi notification.

Most consumers are familiar with the 802.11 standards; however, this new sequential number rebranding is intended to simplify things. Previously, the naming design used the alphabet, starting with a to bto g and n, with each one representing the next generation. We'd expect z to be the last or fastest one, or until they have new names, but suddenly we're on 802.11ac, which is faster than all previous versions, so it's understandable that users would be a bit confused. Thus, starting from 802.11n, Wi-Fi will be referred to as Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ac as Wi-Fi 5, and 802.11ax as Wi-Fi 6.

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WiFi 6: higher data rates, increased capacity, enhanced performance in dense environments, and improved power efficiency. Operating on the same 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band as Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 is rated to support transfer speeds of up to 10 Gb/s, which ranges from four to ten times faster than the current standard.

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802.11ax utilizes OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), one of the big advancements with LTE technology.

TL;DR: less congestion in crowded networks and better speeds.

Most consumers are familiar with the 802.11 standards
Lol, no. Not in any way.
- https://xkcd.com/2501/
- Might be true for people buying their own WiFi routers.
  Which already isn't most consumers, because most people use what their ISP gives them.
- You’re kidding, right? Wireless G, N, AC, AX etc are commonly printed all over the boxes of routers and is the main way to talk about their speed and how new they are. Do you not buy your own router? It seems as common to me as 3G/4G/5G but for a different kind of wireless.
  I wouldn’t expect my mom to know it, I would expect most people on Lemmy to know and most somewhat tech familiar people to know. Not deep into the specs, but knowing AC is faster than N.
Thanks homie for the whole official scoop on this.
And it saves battery for mobile devices.

WiFi 6

This. WiFi version 6 - this is the latest version of WiFi.
- Except for WiFi 7
It's right there... can't he read?
- Who tf follows news about Wifi standards? I'm sure most people don't even know what their router is capable of.

You're connected over WiFi 6.

You are connected through wifi 6 , which means big brother can spy on you even faster (/s)

Hey yo hey yo!!

It means you are connected to a WiFi 6 connection. It means your WiFi will be much faster now.

It will only be faster if WiFi was a bottleneck before.
Edit: I misread the comment, thought it was talking about internet speeds.
- It means you are connected to a WiFi 6 connection. It means your WiFi will be much faster now.

because I was worried it was privacy-related, I was worried that it meant 6 devices are connected to my Wi-Fi which I should be the only person connected to right now. But based on everyone's responses, it looks like that number 6 is a pretty damn good thing and not a bad scary privacy concern thing at all.
- Just use a search engine and type "wifi icon number 6"
S/he thought it might mean Mi6

Your phone is bragging about supporting wifi6

It means you can "dock" your phone with a consenting bro's phone also displaying this symbol by facing each other, grasp your device firmly, and touch the tips together.

If you're trying to make a gay joke, it landed wrong because I'm a girl.
- Girls can also 69
- Girls can be bros bruh

The TLDR is that it's a new wifi standard/generation. It means WiFi 6. It's not entirely important, but some phones display that to show you that you're using fairly recent technology.

6 eyes

Wi-Fi AX aka Wi-Fi 6

damn you, I’m so jelly rn 🥲

okay based on everyone's responses, it looks like the number six is a good thing, and not a bad scary thing that would be a cause for privacy concern. Thank you all.
- Most wholesome outcome.

WiFi6?