Transfer data between iOS and Android via Bluetooth

Question

I ve been reading up on how to transfer data between iOS devices over Bluetooth using GameKit   I m not writing a game  per se  but do have a need to transfer a small amount of binary data between two devices   Between two iOS devices  this is easy enough   However  I was wondering if it is possible to transfer data between an iOS device and an Android device via the same mechanism     Has anyone come across documentation tutorial that would explain how to do this   Is it even technically possible   Or has Apple put in some sort of restriction that would prevent this   The other option I discovered was Bonjour over Bluetooth   Would this be a more suitable option for this type of operation

User · Answer

Maybe a bit delayed  but technologies have evolved since so there is certainly new info around which draws fresh light on the matter     As iOS has yet to open up an API for WiFi Direct and Multipeer Connectivity is iOS only  I believe the best way to approach this is to use BLE  which is supported by both platforms  some better than others    On iOS a device can act both as a BLE Central and BLE Peripheral at the same time  on Android the situation is more complex as not all devices support the BLE Peripheral state  Also the Android BLE stack is very unstable  to date    If your use case is feature driven  I would suggest to look at Frameworks and Libraries that can achieve cross platform communication for you  without you needing to build it up from scratch   For example  http   p2pkit io or google nearby  Disclaimer  I work for Uepaa  developing p2pkit io for Android and iOS

User · Answer

You could use p2pkit  or the free solution it was based on  https   github com GitGarage  Doesn t work very well  and its a fixer-upper for sure  but its  well  free  Works for small amounts of data transfer right now

User · Answer

This question has been asked many times on this site and the definitive answer is  NO  you can t connect an Android phone to an iPhone over Bluetooth  and YES Apple has restrictions that prevent this    Some possible alternatives    Bonjour over WiFi  as you mentioned  However  I couldn t find a comprehensive tutorial for it  Some internet based sync service  like Dropbox  Google Drive  Amazon S3  These usually have libraries for several platforms  Direct TCP IP communication over sockets   How to write a small  socket  server in iOS  Bluetooth Low Energy will be possible once the issues on the Android side are solved  Communicating between iOS and Android with Bluetooth LE    Coolest alternative  use the Bump API  It has iOS and Android support and really easy to integrate  For small payloads this can be the most convenient solution   Details on why you can t connect an arbitrary device to the iPhone  iOS allows only some bluetooth profiles to be used without the Made For iPhone  MFi  certification  HPF  A2DP  MAP      The Serial Port Profile that you would require to implement the communication is bound to MFi membership  Membership to this program provides you to the MFi authentication module that has to be added to your hardware and takes care of authenticating the device towards the iPhone  Android phones don t have this module  so even though the physical connection may be possible to build up  the authentication step will fail  iPhone to iPhone communication is possible as both ends are able to authenticate themselves

[android] Transfer data between iOS and Android via Bluetooth?

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