Develop Reference

Programmatically bonding to BLE device on Android

I'm writing an Android application in which I'd like to programmatically bond to a custom BLE device. I have the manual bonding working in which the user enters the PIN using the standard Android Bluetooth pairing dialog, but I have not been able to find any information on how to automatically bond a BLE device programatically, without user intervention. Is that possible? If so, what's the process?

I was able to make this work MOST OF THE TIME by registering a BroadcastReceiver to receive the BluetoothDevice.ACTION_BOND_STATE_CHANGED intent and then calling BluetoothDevice.setPin after receiving the BluetoothDevice.BOND_BONDING message. As is the case with most BLE things in Android, this seems to act slightly differently depending on the device and Android version. Unfortunately, I can't seem to stop Android from also receiving the bluetooth intent, so the PIN entry screen still pops up for a second before the bonding is completed.
private final BroadcastReceiver mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver()
{
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent)
{
final String action = intent.getAction();
Logger("Broadcast Receiver:" + action);
if (action.equals(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_BOND_STATE_CHANGED))
{
final int state = intent.getIntExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_BOND_STATE, BluetoothDevice.ERROR);
if(state == BluetoothDevice.BOND_BONDING)
{
Logger("Bonding...");
if (mDevice != null) {
mDevice.setPin(BONDING_CODE.getBytes());
Logger("Setting bonding code = " + BONDING_CODE);
}
}
else if(state == BluetoothDevice.BOND_BONDED)
{
Logger("Bonded!!!");
mOwner.unregisterReceiver(mReceiver);
}
else if(state == BluetoothDevice.BOND_NONE)
{
Logger("Not Bonded");
}
}
}
};

I managed to do this - see my answer here.
The TL;DR is: forget about ACTION_BOND_STATE_CHANGED; you don't need it. Instead listen to ACTION_PAIRING_REQUEST, and set the priority high. In the broadcast receiver when you get ACTION_PAIRING_REQUEST, call setPin() with your PIN and then abortBroadcast() to prevent the system showing the notification.

All you can do to avoid user interaction is to force Just Works pairing. To do that, program the peripheral to accept pairing with NoInputNoOutput IO Capability.

Bluetooth on Android: Debuging startDiscovery()

I'm working on an app that searches for discoverable devices and displays them as buttons.
When calling startDiscovery() I would say it works 30% of the time, based on the way I'm currently debugging it, with the BroadcastReceiver and ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED.
I'm also using isDiscovering() to test if the startDiscovery() function is called but it returns false.
Is there a way to know if startDiscovery() is called successfully? And can you identify something in my code that would make it not fail?
Obs.: I have both BLUETOOTH AND BLUETOOTH_ADMIN permissions.
Here is my code:
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_scan);
mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
String Address;
// When discovery finds a device
if (BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND.equals(action)) {
// Get the BluetoothDevice object from the Intent
BluetoothDevice device = intent.getParcelableExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_DEVICE);
Address = device.getAddress();
System.out.println("Found Address: " + Address ); //DEBUG
//Do something with Address
} else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED.equals(action)) {
System.out.println("Discovery finished");
}
}
};
// Register the BroadcastReceiver
IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND);
filter.addAction(BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED);
registerReceiver(mReceiver, filter);
MainActivity.mBluetoothAdapter.startDiscovery();
if (MainActivity.mBluetoothAdapter.isDiscovering()) {
System.out.println("Discovering..."); //DEBUG
}
}
Although I have a few discoverable devices available, none of them trigger onReceive() with ACTION_FOUND
UPDATE: I went to "Scan" under Bluetooth Settings while the app was running and I could not scan for new devices. I disabled/enabled Bluetooth and returned to the app and the problem was resolved. I don't know if that indicates that the adapter is busy or halted somehow.

I confirm this issue.
On some telephones you just need to disable/active BT. You can doit programatically with
mBluetoothAdapter.disable();
mBluetoothAdapter.enable();
On some telephones its not enough ( Samsung S5 ). To detect it, I use timer, and if on end of timeout the change of BT broadcast state (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_STARTED or BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED ) wasnt received => its sign that BT is not working. Actually I show dialog which propose to user reboot the telephone.

Bluetooth status on statusbar

I have my own application home screen as default home screen for my android device. I have a status bar in my application and I am managing the Bluetooth connection status with an Imageview(onclick) in that status bar.
If I click on the Imageview in my statusbar I am turning the bluetooth on/off. I am changing the background of imageview according to the status of bluetooth.
If bluetooth is ON - Blueimage
If bluetooth is OFF - greyImage
So my question is - If I enable/disable the bluetooth in bluetoth settings page and press the back button and navigate to my home screen then Imageview(background image) in my status bar should get changed automatically.
I tried a lot updating the image of imageview on back button press(by overriding onbackpressed method) but no result.
Is there any similar API with which we can read/store the status of bluetooth in a variable as soon as we enable/disable the bluetooth in bluetooth settings page and according to that the status bar imageview backround will get changed automatically?
Any help is greatly appreciated, Thanks

you can put the code that checked for the Bluetooth status in the onRestart() method
like this:
public class yourClass {
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// your code
}
public void onRestart() {
// put the checked code for the Bluetooth status here
}

You need to add broadcast receivers in your code to receive once bluetooth is switched on or off in your activity class. for your reference :
public void onCreate() {
IntentFilter filter1 = new IntentFilter(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_ACL_CONNECTED);
IntentFilter filter2 = new IntentFilter(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_ACL_DISCONNECT_REQUESTED);
IntentFilter filter3 = new IntentFilter(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_ACL_DISCONNECTED);
this.registerReceiver(mReceiver, filter1);
this.registerReceiver(mReceiver, filter2);
this.registerReceiver(mReceiver, filter3);
}
//The BroadcastReceiver that listens for bluetooth broadcasts
private final BroadcastReceiver mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
BluetoothDevice device = intent.getParcelableExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_DEVICE);
if (BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND.equals(action)) {
... //Device found
}
else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_ACL_CONNECTED.equals(action)) {
... //Device is now connected
}
else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED.equals(action)) {
... //Done searching
}
else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_ACL_DISCONNECT_REQUESTED.equals(action)) {
... //Device is about to disconnect
}
else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_ACL_DISCONNECTED.equals(action)) {
... //Device has disconnected
}
once you receives the status do your functionality .. done !!

Detect when bluetooth device disappears on Android

I'm creating a simple application that will communicate via Bluetooth. I have already created a simple Activity that lists the nearby devices with bluetooth turned on but unfortunately I can't figure out how could I detect when some devices disappear from the bluetooth network (bt gets turned off) so that I could remove that item from the list.
This is my code I wrote to add nearby BT devices to a ListView:
mNewDevicesArrayAdapter = new BluetoothDeviceArrayAdapter(this, 0, new ArrayList<BluetoothDevice>());
lvDiscovered = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.bt_dev_discovered_list);
lvDiscovered.setAdapter(mNewDevicesArrayAdapter);
...
// The BroadcastReceiver that listens for discovered devices and
// changes the title when discovery is finished
private final BroadcastReceiver mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
if (BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND.equals(action)) {
// Get the BluetoothDevice object from the Intent
BluetoothDevice device = intent.getParcelableExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_DEVICE);
// If it's already paired, skip it, because it's been listed already
if (device.getBondState() != BluetoothDevice.BOND_BONDED) {
mNewDevicesArrayAdapter.add(device);
}
// When discovery is finished, change the Activity title
} else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED.equals(action)) {
// TODO show no devices found!
}
}
};
I found no applicable ACTION intent of the case when a device gets disappeared. Maybe ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED could be used, but how?
Thanks in advance!

I found an easy way to remove those devices from the list that was previously discovered.
Extending my code above I introduced an update list where I'm storing the newly discovered devices. When ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED appears I'll update the ListView with this update list.
...
private ArrayList<BluetoothDevice> btDevicesUpdateList;
...
// The BroadcastReceiver that listens for discovered devices and
// changes the title when discovery is finished
private final BroadcastReceiver mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
if (BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND.equals(action)) {
// Get the BluetoothDevice object from the Intent
BluetoothDevice device = intent.getParcelableExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_DEVICE);
// If it's already paired, skip it, because it's been listed already
// in the paired devices list
if (device.getBondState() != BluetoothDevice.BOND_BONDED) {
if(mNewDevicesArrayAdapter.getCount() == 0){
// if the list is empty we add the device immediately to it
mNewDevicesArrayAdapter.add(device);
}
btDevicesUpdateList.add(device);
}
}
else if (BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED.equals(action)) {
mNewDevicesArrayAdapter.setItems(btDevicesUpdateList);
btDevicesUpdateList.clear();
mBtAdapter.startDiscovery();
}
}
}
// BluetoothDeviceArrayAdapter.java
public void setItems(ArrayList<BluetoothDevice> items){
this.items.clear();
this.items.addAll(items);
}
Devices that are unavailable will not be in the list.

How to detect if bluetooth device is connected

In android how can my Activity will get to know if a Bluetooth A2DP device is connected to my device.
Is there any broadcast receiver for that?
How to write this broadcast receiver?

Starting from API 11 (Android 3.0) you can use BluetoothAdapter to discover devices connected to a specific bluetooth profile. I used the code below to discover a device by its name:
BluetoothAdapter mBluetoothAdapter = BluetoothAdapter.getDefaultAdapter();
BluetoothProfile.ServiceListener mProfileListener = new BluetoothProfile.ServiceListener() {
public void onServiceConnected(int profile, BluetoothProfile proxy) {
if (profile == BluetoothProfile.A2DP) {
boolean deviceConnected = false;
BluetoothA2dp btA2dp = (BluetoothA2dp) proxy;
List<BluetoothDevice> a2dpConnectedDevices = btA2dp.getConnectedDevices();
if (a2dpConnectedDevices.size() != 0) {
for (BluetoothDevice device : a2dpConnectedDevices) {
if (device.getName().contains("DEVICE_NAME")) {
deviceConnected = true;
}
}
}
if (!deviceConnected) {
Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "DEVICE NOT CONNECTED", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
mBluetoothAdapter.closeProfileProxy(BluetoothProfile.A2DP, btA2dp);
}
}
public void onServiceDisconnected(int profile) {
// TODO
}
};
mBluetoothAdapter.getProfileProxy(context, mProfileListener, BluetoothProfile.A2DP);
You can do that for every bluetooth profile. Take a look at Working with profiles in Android's guide.
However, as written in other answers, you can register a BroadcastReceiver to listen to connection events (like when you're working on android < 3.0).

You cannot get the list of connected devices by calling any API.
You need instead to listen to the intents ACTION_ACL_CONNECTED, ACTION_ACL_DISCONNECTED that notifies about devices being connected or disconnected.
No way to get the initial list of connected devices.
I had this problem in my app and the way I handle it (didn't find better...) is to bounce off/on the Bluetooth at application start to be sure to start with an empty list of connected devices, and then listen to the above intents.

muslidrikk's answer is broadly correct; however you can alternatively use fetchUUIDsWithSDP() and see what you get back... it's a bit of a hack though -- you'd have to know what UUIDs (capabilities) you could expect from the device, if it were turned on. And that might be difficult to guarantee.

For BluetoothHeadset specifically, you can call getConnectedDevices() to get connected devices for this specific profile.
Reference: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/bluetooth/BluetoothHeadset.html
Other cases you need to register a receiver for that.

In your activity, define broadcast receiver...
// Create a BroadcastReceiver for ACTION_FOUND
private final BroadcastReceiver mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
// When discovery finds a device
if (BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND.equals(action)) {
// Get the BluetoothDevice object from the Intent
BluetoothDevice device = intent.getParcelableExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_DEVICE);
// Add the name and address to an array adapter to show in a ListView
mArrayAdapter.add(device.getName() + "\n" + device.getAddress());
}
}
};
// Register the BroadcastReceiver
IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND);
registerReceiver(mReceiver, filter); // Don't forget to unregister during onDestroy