I am using the android (org.altbeacon:android-beacon-library:2.19.3) library providing APIs to interact with Beacons
It has required Location & Bluetooth permission.
Permission Requirements:
https://altbeacon.github.io/android-beacon-library/requesting_permission.html
IOS's ibeacon does not require Bluetooth permission, why does android ibeacon need Bluetooth permission?
is there any alternate library for android Ibeacon
Yes, Android requires Bluetooth permission to scan for bluetooth beacons but iOS does not require the same permission to detect iBeacon. The requirement for Android to have Bluetooth permission to scan for beacons is true regardless of the library you use. It is an OS platform restriction.
The reason why Android requires this permission and iOS does not is based on history of how the two platforms evolved. A few points:
Starting with iOS 7, Bluetooth beacons support was added to the CoreLocation API, which used the Location permission, not individual permissions for various sensors like GPS, WiFi, cellular radio, and Bluetooth, all of which can be used for location purposes. Apple clearly made a design decision to put all of the sensors behind a single permission.
Open Source Android has no built-in APIs for detecting beacons at all -- it only has Bluetooth APIs. (Beacon APIs are offered by the Google Play Services add on or the open source Android Beacon Library). So it makes sense that when Bluetooth LE scanning was added in Android 4.3, it was treated as something that must be behind the Bluetooth permission.. These APIs happened to work with Apple's iBeacon invention, but the APIs were not designed for location.
When Android added runtime permissions in Android 6, it tried to protect the privacy of users by making the Location permission a runtime permission, and further, it put Bluetooth scanning behind this same location permission in addition to the Bluetooth permission in an attempt to protect privacy.
On iOS, the Bluetooth LE APIs do require Bluetooth permission, and Apple sandboxed the Bluetooth functionality from iBeacon. In this way, detecting iBeacon must obtain Location permission and does not require Bluetooth permission. On the other side of the coin, non-iBeacon detection is possible with regular Bluetooth permission but Apple filters out any packets that match iBeacon. Android has no equivalent sandboxing, which is one reason both permissions are required.
One important thing to note: Apple not needing Bluetooth permission to detect beacons only applies to the iBeacon format. If you try to detect AltBeacon or Eddystone you actually do need the Bluetooth permission (and not the Location permission for those formats.) This is a "loophole" that is useful for avoiding extra permissions in some cases on iOS devices.
One final note: Starting with Android 12, there is a new BLUETOOTH_SCAN permission that you can use instead of location permission. The idea is to make it so Android no longer requires location permission to scan for regular Bluetooth devices. But there is a big catch: to use this new permission, you must declare in your AndroidManifest.xml that your app does not use Bluetooth for location purposes (e.g. beacons) and Android says it will filter out some scan results in these cases. They don't say explicitly, but that probably means they will filter out any Bluetooth packet matching a known beacon format like iBeacon, AltBeacon or Eddystone.
The working logic of the Android side and the working logic of the ios side are different. On the Android side, we need to get a permission for every action related to the user. This is among google policies. There are different libraries developed for the location, but you need to add permissions in the same way. For example, another package you can use for location: https://github.com/mrmans0n/smart-location-lib
or all : https://android-arsenal.com/tag/55
Related
Some surveys and analytics showed that users very often turn down Location Permission request appearing in the mobile app even if this permission is crucial for the app, e.g. the app performs automatic scan for devices in a venue that handle business logic and exchange data with the mobile app. The permission request turn down rate is so high that it becomes problematic for business. Is there any way in Android to avoid this, e.g. to declare some verified devices that can be scanned without permission request? I thought of https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/companion-device-pairing but it also means popping up requests for manual work for the user. Is there any way today to do it behind the scenes?
Unfortunately this is not possible for privacy and security reasons. Enabling BLE on Android devices goes hand in hand with the location permission. The only possible workaround for this is potentially if you use classic Bluetooth instead of BLE. I am not 100% sure about this one, but it is mentioned in this article:-
No one can use BLE scan API without having Location Permissions, and,
on most devices, it is useless without active Location Services.
However, Bluetooth Low Energy is an extension to so-called Bluetooth
Classic and interestingly enough Google decided this API does not need
location permissions to be called.
This is an OS requirement which cannot be overcome. You might've already seen this on the Android developer page for BLE:-
In order to use Bluetooth features in your application, you must
declare two permissions. The first of these is BLUETOOTH. You need
this permission to perform any Bluetooth communication, such as
requesting a connection, accepting a connection, and transferring
data.
The other permission that you must declare is ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION.
Your app needs this permission because a Bluetooth scan can be used to
gather information about the location of the user. This information
may come from the user's own devices, as well as Bluetooth beacons in
use at locations such as shops and transit facilities.
You can find more info about this here:-
The Ultimate Guide to Android BLE Development
Location needs to be enabled for BLE on Android
Bluetooth versus Location Permission
I am building an Android app that scans two types of beacon each second using the android-beacon-library:
iBeacon type
custom beacon type
I am using the library since the 2.10 release and everything works fine.
But, when I try to implement the 2.16.2, 2.16.3 and 2.16.4 releases on my Samsung S8 (which is running on Android 9), I can't scan my Beacons when I turn off the location. I did not have this issue with the 2.16.1 release.
I also tried the reference app to check if I did something wrong, but I have the same bug with the reference app.
I may specify that I only have this issue with Samsung.
Thanks.
Recent versions of Android require multiple levels of location authorization for an app to detect beacons (bolded items show added requirements):
SDK 29+ (Android 10.0+)
Bluetooth must be turned on in settings
Location must be turned on in settings
Apps must have FINE_LOCATION permission in the manifest (COARSE_LOCATION is no longer sufficient)
Apps must ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION in the manifest to detect beacons when the app is not in the foreground with the screen on.
Apps must have dynamically obtained FINE_LOCATION permission from the user
Apps must have BLUETOOTH and BLUETOOTH_ADMIN permission in the manifest
SDK 23-28 (Android 6.0-9.x)
Bluetooth must be turned on in settings
Location must be turned on in settings
Apps must have COARSE_LOCATION permission or FINE_LOCATION permission in the manifest
Apps must have BLUETOOTH and BLUETOOTH_ADMIN permission in the manifest
Apps must have dynamically obtained COARSE_LOCATION permission or FINE_LOCATION permission from the user
SDK 18-22 (Android 4.3-Android 5.x)
Bluetooth must be turned on in settings
Apps must have COARSE_LOCATION permission or FINE_LOCATION permission in the manifest
Apps must have BLUETOOTH and BLUETOOTH_ADMIN permission in the manifest
The above restrictions have nothing specific to do with the Android Beacon Library -- they are an operating system requirement for any Bluetooth LE detection. If you see that some devices to not enforce these requirements under some conditions, then that is most likely an implementation hole on that specific platform. The more general rules still apply.
I have an estimote beacon, i want to display a notification, when user comes in beacon range.
I was checking estimote beacon's android integration document, and found out that it requires location permission.
Estomote official app also does not work, if location permission is not granted.
My question is how to make beacon work without asking location permission, or if beacon does not work without location permission then what's the reason of using beacon, or am i missing something very important.
Android 6+ requires an app to obtain either COARSE_LOCATION or FINE_LOCATION permission at runtime in order to detect Bluetooth LE beacons or do Bluetooth LE scans at all. Without the permission, the OS blocks beacon detections. This is not an Estimote-specific issue -- it applies to scanning for any Bluetooth LE device.
This requirement was added to protect the privacy of users. The theory is that a runtime permission dialog makes it clear to a user that the app is accessing the user's location and ensures the user is aware of this and consents to the practice.
BLE scanning faced a remarkable difference Marshmallow onwards with the requirement of location of device to be ON. Technically, I don't see a valid reason why location would be required to scan for BLE devices. Why has this been done by Google?
Q: Why has this been done by Google?
A: Because BLE scanning is commonly used to determine a user's location with Bluetooth LE beacons.
I discussed this with Google engineers at a Q&A session at Google I/O 2015 when the change was still not released. At the time, my concern was having to ask for Bluetooth LE Admin permissions to scan for location beacons. For me, this was a problem because users understood that my app needed to find a user's location, but did not understand why it needed to administer Bluetooth.
The engineers' response was that location permission (and location on) would be needed to do this in Android M to make this clearer to users. Unfortunately, from my perspective Bluetooth Admin permission is still required for historical reasons.
You can certainly disagree with Google's decision. But the reasoning is clear. If an app can scan for Bluetooth devices and can read their MAC addresses or other identifiers, it can also determine a user's location if the app developer knows where some of these scanned devices are located.
Why the same location permission logic does not apply to scanning WiFi or Bluetooth Classic (both of which would allow the same thing) is less clear. Perhaps it is just that Google was preparing to join the Bluetooth LE beacon game with their Eddystone standard.
Correction: Location permission is required for WiFi scans.
I developed an app that work with iBeacons and this week i update it to work on Marshmallow. Until the update it didn't require GPS, but after the update it says that to find beacons in background it need gps. i don't find any reference on it. does someone know why Android Marshmallow requires GPS to find iBeacons?
I use altBeacon library to locate the beacons.
edit:
I'll clarify the question. Is the GPS involved in finding Beacons. Except for the permissions.
No, it is not necessary to have GPS turned on or even have a device with a GPS radio to detect beacons in Android 6. The GPS radio, if present is not activated when scanning for Bluetooth beacons.
The confusion comes from the fact that Android 6 newly requires apps to obtain either ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permissions to be allowed to perform bluetooth scans. This change is simply motivated by informing users that bluetooth scanning can be used to infer their location (like with beacons). But the need to get this permission does not mean there is any technical dependency on the GPS radio. Consider that Android also can use WiFi access points and cell towers to infer location.
On some devices, notably the Nexus 5, there have been reports that disabling Location Services (Settings -> Location -> Off) disables the ability to scan for bluetooth devices. It is unclear whether this is a bug in that Nexus 5 build image or a new security restriction by Android that will be followed on other models in the future. See here for more info. Regardless, having the GPS radio on is not a requirement for Location Services being enabled.
Full disclosure: I am the lead developer on the Android Beacon Library open source project.
from http://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html
To access the hardware identifiers of nearby external devices via
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scans, your app must now have the
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permissions:
It's not GPS as such that it needs, but because beacons are a technology that can also pin point your location, the location permission is required.
This is probably a permissions issue. iBeacon uses BT Low Energy, and in Android 6, you need location permission to initiate a scan:
To access the hardware identifiers of nearby external devices via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scans, your app must now have the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permissions
Source: Android 6.0 changes