A qualified design listing for Windows Phone 8 has been posted to the website of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the industry trade body that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards and ensures interoperability through a qualification process (effectively a certification program). The design listing suggests that Windows Phone 8 will add support for Object Push Profile to Windows Phone's Bluetooth feature set.

The protocols / profiles supported by Windows Phone 8 mentioned in the qualified design listing are:

• HCI - Host Controller Interface - standard protocol for communicating between the host (phone) and the controller (accessory)
  
• SDP - Service Discovery Protocol - used to discover what services a Bluetooth device supports and what parameters to use when connecting
• L2CAP - Logical Link Control Adaptation Protocol - used to send data to the HCI system
• AVCTP - Audio/Video Control Transport Protocol - used by the AVRCP to send commands (e.g. from music control buttons on a headset) 
  
• AVDTP - Audio/Video Distribution Transport Protocol - used by the A2DP profile to stream music / video
  
• RFCOMM with TS 0.7.10 - set of protocols that are used to emulate a serial port
    
• GAP - Generic Access Profile - basis for all other profiles, used to describe how Bluetooth devices find and connect to each other
• SPP - Serial Port Profile - emulates a serial cable connection, can be used to directly communicate between two devices
• SDAP - Service Discovery Application Profile - the profile for SDP
• AVRCP (v1.4 as target) - Audio/Video Remote Control Profile - allows remote control of audio and video and provides metadata about available music / video
• OPP - Object Push Profile - sending "objects" such as images, business cards (vCard) and calendar appointments (vCal)
• GAVDP - Generic Audio/Video Distribution Profile - basis for A2DP
• A2DP (v1.2 as source) - Advanced Audio Distribution Profile - streaming of high quality audio (e.g. stereo headsets)
• HFP - Hands-Free Profile - used to communicate with in-car Bluetooth systems, includes support for voice dialing and redial commands

Of these the most interesting inclusion, compared to Windows Phone 7, is support for Object Push Profile (OPP). This allows the sending of objects between two Bluetooth devices. In the case of Windows Phone this is likely to be used in the "sharing" screens to allow images, contact, calendar appointments and files to be sent over Bluetooth.

It is worth noting that the qualified design listing may not be giving a full list of Bluetooth profiles supported by Windows Phone 8. For example, both Phone Book Access profile (PBAP) and Headset Profile (HP) are missing from the list. These are already supported by Windows Phone 7 and we would expect them to also be supported by Windows Phone 8.

There are a number of other profiles that it would make sense to add to Windows Phone 8's Bluetooth stack. For example, Human Interface Device Profile (HID) provides support for wireless keyboards and mice, Health Device Profile (HDP) provides support for reception of medical device data, and SIM Access Profile (SAP) allows cars with GSM transceivers to remotely connect to and used a SIM card. Given the Bluetooth SIG qualified design listing described above, these profiles may not be available in Windows Phone 8, but any final confirmation will have to wait for word from Microsoft.

The qualified design listing for Windows Phone 7 can be viewed here and listing for Windows Phone 8 here.