In order to establish a connection between electronic devices, after receiving an advertising packet from another electronic device, an electronic device compares a performance metric associated with the communication with the other electronic device with a threshold value. Based on the comparison, the electronic device provides pairing-intent information specifying a pairing intent for the electronic device and the other electronic device for presentation by the other electronic device. Moreover, after receiving additional pairing-intent information specifying the pairing intent from the other electronic device, the electronic device establishes the connection with the other electronic device when the additional pairing-intent information matches the pairing-intent information. For example, the pairing intent may include a gesture and/or a sequence of one or more characters, and the additional pairing-intent information may include: the sequence of one or more characters; accelerometer data corresponding to the gesture; and/or user-interface data corresponding to the gesture.