Transfer data between iOS and Android via Bluetooth?

Question

I read about how to transfer data between iOS devices via Bluetooth using GameKit. I am not writing a game, in fact, but I need to transfer a small amount of binary data between two devices. Between the two iOS devices it is quite simple. However, I was wondering if it is possible to transfer data between the iOS device and the Android device through the same mechanism.

Has anyone come across documentation / tutorial that would explain how to do this? Is it even technically possible? Or did Apple put some restrictions that would prevent this?

Another option I discovered is Bonjour via Bluetooth. Would this be a better option for this type of operation?

Answer 1

This question has been asked many times on this site, and the final answer is: NO, you cannot connect your Android phone to iPhone via Bluetooth , and YES Apple has limitations that prevent this.

Some possible alternatives are:

• Bonjour over wifi, as you mentioned. However, I could not find a comprehensive tutorial for this.
• Some online synchronization services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3. They usually have libraries for multiple platforms.
• Direct TCP / IP communication over sockets. ( How to write a small (socket) server in iOS )
• Bluetooth Low Energy will be possible after solving problems on the Android side ( Communication between iOS and Android with Bluetooth LE )

The coolest alternative : use the Bump API . It supports iOS and Android and integrates very easily. For small payloads, this may be the most convenient solution.

Learn more about why you cannot connect an arbitrary device to the iPhone . iOS only allows some bluetooth profiles without Made For iPhone certification ( HPF, A2DP, MAP ... ). The Serial Port Profile , which you will need to implement the connection, is tied to membership in the MFi. Membership in this program provides an MFI authentication module that must be added to your hardware and will take care of authenticating your device with your iPhone. Android phones do not have this module, so even if a physical connection can be created, the authentication step will fail. Connecting iPhone to iPhone is possible because both ends can authenticate.

Answer 2

Perhaps it took a little time, but the technology has evolved since then, so, of course, new information has appeared around which this issue is highlighted ...

Since iOS has not yet opened an API for connecting WiFi Direct and Multipeer Connectivity - this is just iOS, I believe that the best way to approach this is to use BLE, which is supported by both platforms (some are better than others).

On iOS, the device can act simultaneously as BLE Central and BLE Peripheral, while on Android, the situation is more complicated, because not all devices support the state of the BLE peripheral device. In addition, the Android BLE stack is very unstable (today).

If your use case is related to functions, I would suggest looking at Frameworks and libraries that can provide cross-platform connectivity for you, without having to create it from scratch.

For example: http://p2pkit.io or next to Google

Disclaimer: I work for Uepaa, developing p2pkit.io for Android and iOS.

Answer 3

You can use p2pkit or the free solution on which it was based: https://github.com/GitGarage . It doesn’t work very well, and its fixator is for sure, but its, well, free. Now works for small amounts of data transfer.