Wi-Fi is a catch-all term. In a sense, it is very precise. It explains a specific method you can use to connect to the internet.
There are many different types of Wi-Fi standards. Your router, laptop, tablet, smartphone, and smart home devices use different wireless standards to connect to the internet. Wireless standards change every few years, too. Updates bring faster internet, better connections, more simultaneous connections, and so on.
Wireless standards are a set of services and protocols that dictate how your Wi-Fi network (and other data transmission networks) acts.
The most common wireless standards you will encounter are the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN) & Mesh. The IEEE updates the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard every few years. At the time of writing, the most commonly used Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ac, while the next generation Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax (also known as Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi6E—but more on this in a moment!), is rolling out, albeit slower than most experts thought.
Now, the generation after 802.11ax is on the horizon, with IEEE 802.11be mooted for launch around 2024/2025 (using the name Wi-Fi 7).
