I am going to start GATT server on my mobile phone for sharing some data to nearby devices. From official documentation API for working with LE Bluetooth was introduced in Android 4.3(18 API level).
I found some samples witch show how to run server. All of them use BluetoothLeAdvertiser which was added in Android 5.0(21 API level).
So I built two client/server sample applications and easy found my "SERVER DEVICE" in "CLIENT DEVICE", but how can I achieve that without BluetoothLeAdvertiser? In other words how can I connect to BluetoothGattServer and do not use BluetoothLeAdvertiser? It is critical for me, because my application has minSdk=19(Android 4.4).
Thanks for help!
Even with Bluetooth Low Energy being available in Android API level 18, you will not be able to use an Android phone in peripheral mode with API level lower than 21.
As seen in Android Lolipop release notes:
Android 4.3 introduced platform support for Bluetooth Low Energy
(Bluetooth LE) in the central role. In Android 5.0, an Android device
can now act as a Bluetooth LE peripheral device.
Also, not all Android devices that have Lollipop support the peripheral mode. This list shows what device models are able to transmit as the server.
You are able to use your app as the client side, there is a code example in the Android Bluetooth Low Energy documentation page.
Related
I am working on a android app, which requires me to send bluetooth low emission advertisement with the device on which my app is running.
I read this in a blog post " You need to set the minimum SDK version to 21 in your build.gradle file, as Bluetooth LE advertising was not introduced on Android until the release of Lollipop.". The blog was "https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-advertise-android-as-a-bluetooth-le-peripheral--cms-25426.
However, when I went and checked out the Google Repository for bluetooth advertisement, the Minimum SDK was 25. I am confused now. The basic requirement for BLE is that you need a bluetooth device which supports version 4.X. And almost all devices having SDK 21 have that.
Any reason why my mobile(One plus 1), which has SDK 23(which supports bluetooth advertisement) and has a bluetooth chip -v 4.1 , is not able to advertise bluetooth data.
Here is the link to the google repository that I used.
https://github.com/googlesamples/android-BluetoothAdvertisements
Please go through the reference link
Chipsets/Devices supporting Android 5 BLE peripheral mode
Hope it will help
Till Android 4.3, an Android device with Bluetooth Low Energy support could only act as a central device. As is given in the Android 4.3 Bluetooth LE docs:
Android 4.3 (API Level 18) introduces built-in platform support for Bluetooth Low Energy in the central role and provides APIs that apps can use to discover devices, query for services, and read/write characteristics.
With the introduction of Android 4.4 KitKat, can it also behave as a peripheral device now? I couldn't find any documentation of that. If not, then do we have to wait for Android 4.5 for getting the BTLE peripheral mode on Android device? Or is there any alternative way in which an Android device can be made to act as a peripheral device?
Not in this version but there is evidence that it is coming soon.
If you look in BluetoothGatt.java in the android-19 sources there are new methods listen and setAdvData that weren't there in android-18.
However these are not documented as I don't think native support is complete yet. The last check in on AOSP for peripheral mode was titled "LE: Add peripheral role support (2/4)". Also, setAdvData and listen have this code:
if (mContext == null || !mContext.getResources().getBoolean(com.android.internal.R.bool.config_bluetooth_le_peripheral_mode_supported))
{
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("BluetoothGatt#listen is blocked");
}
Looking in android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/core/res/res/values/config.xml from the Android sources you can see this is currently disabled:
<!-- Boolean indicating if current platform supports BLE peripheral mode -->
<bool name="config_bluetooth_le_peripheral_mode_supported">false</bool>
Thanks everyone for the answers. Just to update, as of June 2014, it is offered in the Android L Developer preview. Hope to see it in the Android L official release. From their blog New in Android: L Developer Preview and Google Play Services 5.0:
The L Developer Preview, lets you explore many of the new features and capabilities of the next version of Android, and offers everything you need to get started developing and testing on the new platform. Here are a few of the highlights for developers:
BLE Peripheral Mode — Android devices can now function in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) peripheral mode. Apps can use this capability to broadcast their presence to nearby devices — for example, you can now build apps that let a device to function as a pedometer or health monitor and transmit data to another BLE device.
Update:
The bad news is that BLE Peripheral mode will only work on the newer Android devices (as per the date), viz Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. It won't work on Nexus 4/ Nexus 5/nexus 7/ nexus 10 even if you update it to Android 5.0. You can read the comment by one of the Android Project manager on BLE advertise mode not working ticket. He says:
We introduced BLE peripheral mode in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 are the first two production Nexus devices that support BLE peripheral mode. Due to hardware chipset dependency, older Nexus devices (4/5/7) will not have access to the feature on Lollipop.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/api_diff/19/changes.html
By looking at the full api difference, the answer in short : NO
==============
To add peripheral role support now you have to get your hands dirty to customize the Bluedroid stack in the OS level, or try your luck on XDA developers to see if anyone has done this before. I am not sure the current Android phone support peripheral role at hardware level,though .
Problem definition:
I've been trying to use BLE proximity profile for Bluetooth LE on Android. Some of the devices like new generation Google Nexus tablet with 4.3 Android support BLE and can act as a central device.
I read the Android official documentation of the Bluetooth LE but their doesn't seems any support for that. Is their any workaround to implement our own proximity profile?
Questions which talk about proximity profile on Android but are of no help
Reading Bluetooth RSSI for BLE proximity profile in Android.
How to use the profile of PROXIMITY PROFILE,IMMEDIATE ALERT SERVICE and Find Me Profile in android 4.3 BLE?
BTLE (Bluetooth Low energy) development kit - must have proximity profile
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
June 2014:
Thanks everyone for the answers. Just to update, as of June 2014, BLE Peripheral mode is offered in the Android L Developer preview. So now Android devices can act both in peripheral and central role. Hope to see it in the Android L official release. Quoting from their blog New in Android: L Developer Preview and Google Play Services 5.0:
The L Developer Preview, lets you explore many of the new features and capabilities of the next version of Android, and offers everything you need to get started developing and testing on the new platform. Here are a few of the highlights for developers:
BLE Peripheral Mode — Android devices can now function in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) peripheral mode. Apps can use this capability to broadcast their presence to nearby devices — for example, you can now build apps that let a device to function as a pedometer or health monitor and transmit data to another BLE device.
Update 16th October 2014:
Its out now! Checkout Android 5.0 wireless changes page.
Update 8th December 2014:
The bad new is that BLE Peripheral mode will only work on the newer Android devices (as per the date), viz Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. It won't work on Nexus 4/ Nexus 5/nexus 7/ nexus 10 even if you update it to Android 5.0. You can read the comment by one of the Android Project manager on BLE advertise mode not working ticket. He says:
We introduced BLE peripheral mode in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 are the first two production Nexus devices that support BLE peripheral mode. Due to hardware chipset dependency, older Nexus devices (4/5/7) will not have access to the feature on Lollipop.
Thanks to Rob Anderson for informing.
To elaborate on shubhams's answer:
Unfortunately there is no way for Android devices to act as a peripheral. He can creates GATT servers, services and charachteristics but there is no way to make the advertising.
(https://stackoverflow.com/a/18020153/3061383)
Since Android does not (yet) support advertising no other BLE device is able to initiate a connection to an Android device. As of now the Android device must initiate the connection.
Unfortunately, the android can only act as central not peripheral. So custom profiling is not possible at this point of time. Rather you can use the profile which are being provided by gatt.
For example: Temperature Monitor profile. Instead you can make the custom service and characteristics on iPhone and make it work as beacon.
Also if you are using hardware device of Estimote and other companies, you can reply back the data from android device i.e Services and characteristics have the properties such as Read, Write and Notify. But when you are making iPhone as Beacon, then you won't be able to receive the value from android device.
Im doing an android app to pair a non-android device with bluetooth 4.0 LE, but my 4.0Bluetooth-android-phone doesnt discover the device anyway. I discover other devices like phones, or tablets.
The question is: Do i have to add some extra code if i want to work with bluetooth 4.0 devices?
Thanks.
Bluetooth 4.0 (or BLE) is not supported in Android at the moment. It will be supported in Android 4.3 (API level 18). Among other places, you can read more about it here and here. Several Android devices has already been certified with Bluetooth 4.0 support, but it won't work before the update is released.
That said, according to this post some devices does support it, but they need custom BLE libraries that the companies have developed.
I am currently working on an Android project that requires Bluetooth Low Energy Peripheral mode. As of now, just targeting the Galaxy S4 with 4.2.2 on it Samsung BLE SDK at http://developer.samsung.com/ble
I followed their API docs and programming guide very closely, however broadcasting characteristics or services over Bluetooth Low Energy just doesn't seem to work. Has anyone else had any luck with getting this to work yet? If so, any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks a lot.
Because Samsung BLE SDK only supports the central role, “advertising” a service as a central server means sitting their quietly, only revealing (or “advertising”) its service characteristics to another device in peripheral mode after a connection is already established. This connection establishment requires another device to do the actual radio advertising first. Samsung’s SDK isn’t going to do it.
What we need is an Android BLE API that allows creation of a peripheral server. Lots of folks were hoping that peripheral role support would be added in 4.4, but it wasn’t. Maybe we can hope for its addition in Android 4.5 or 5.0. There is a feature request asking for this. Add your name to the list!
Source
I am having the exact same issue. I can discover BLE devices and get their rssi values, but when I try to discover services or connect, I never receive a callback. I am using a Verizon Galaxy S4 running 4.2.2. I am using the Samsung BLE SDK 2.0. Apparently some heart rate monitors are working, but I get nothing using my ez430-rf256x TI development kit. I've tried the Keyfob demo and Heart Rate Profile demo in the Bluetopia v1.3 sdk.
Phones/tablets/pc's support(usually) Bluetooth dual mode chip. According to Bluetooth specification dual mode devices can't be a peripheral, but single mode devices do.