I am working on a device that sends a message/signal to an iOS app via BLE. It currently works fine if the app is running in the foreground or background; however, I need the device to deliver this signal to the app when it isn’t running so it can process it, in essence, “waking it up.”
A device that seems to be doing this well is Tile (used to keep track of keys, etc.). The Tile can signal the phone even when the Tile app isn’t running, making the Tile app come up and sound an alarm. My use case isn’t the same, but I need to achieve the same behavior.
Does anyone have any pointers as to how to achieve this? The OS needs to launch/wake the app upon receiving this BLE message/signal from my device.
Related
Happens both on iOS 12 & iOS 13.
I have Bluetooth-central correctly added on my Info.plist
I'm specifying a list of service UUIDs
What I am seeing:
If I interact with our BLE device on the foreground, I can still scan for it on background, even hours and days later, as long as I don't turn off Bluetooth or restart the iOS device.
If I have never interacted with it while the app is open, or If I restart the device, or turn off Bluetooth on the device, then when scanning in the background, didDiscoverPeripheral: never gets called, until I open the app, which triggers didDiscoverPeripheral: instantly.
If I use retrievePeripheralsWithIdentifiers: and iOs can return the object "cached" then I can skip the scan and connect directly, which works perfectly. But sometimes retrievePeripheralsWithIdentifiers: doesn't return the object so I can't always relay on that (And forces the user to interact with our device on the foreground first)
So, after quite a bit of back and forth between me and our firmware team, we found the reason behind our problems.
Turns out, apps on background when scanning won't read the advertisement extended packet. The problem was, the service UUID we were using to filter the scan for our devices was only being sent on that advertisement extended packet.
For this reason, when the app was scanning a new device, it would not find anything with that service UUID, but once it had found it with the app open, it would cache it internally with its services, and from that point it would work even while on background (because it already knows what services that device has).
The fix was to include that service UUID on the first advertisement packet.
I am developing iOS App (iPhone/iPad) that needs be started when the device is turned on.
The app should be started on device boot.
Is this possible on iOS using Swift?
It's not possible to start your app whenever the device boots. Depending on what you need, there may be other alternatives such as running some code in the background when the app receives a Push Notification or turning on Background Fetch, though in the latter case, the system still has control on when to launch your app.
I'm new to mobile development, before eventually deciding where to develop (android/ iOS) a specific application I have a question (I'd prefer using an iPhone):
So the background is that I have a BLE device frequently sending data to the phone and let the phone app sync the data to the cloud. Now, it is really important that if for some reason the phone has to restart, it will automatically proceed receiving the BLE data.
Is it possible at all in iOS to start a background process (handling BLE packets) after reboot automatically. Thus e.g. when the respective BLE device pairs to the phone after a reboot, that the background process starts automatically, without the user having to start the app manually?
Doing some research I came up with mixed results regarding this scenario and would be grateful if someone with iOS experience could clarify.
(BTW: It does not have to be an Apple App Store Application)
A Few days ago I was working on BLE devices Beacons we supposed to make mobile application and start monitoring these beacons and send date monitoring to API.
This works fine in background, even the user was not running the application in foreground or reboot his iPhone.
All we should do is put the monitoring code at the appDelegate of the application to work in the background.
I worked on an Application which is Worked on BLE. i want push a notification ( App Running in Background When BLE is Connected) if any changes in Hardware. I Read Document
Even if your app supports one or both of the Core Bluetooth background execution modes, it can’t run forever. At some point, the system may need to terminate your app to free up memory for the current foreground app—causing any active or pending connections to be lost, for instance.
can i achieve my goal even my app in Background . If It is Possible Suggest me how to Achieve this . Thanks In Advance.
You may keep app in background by means of:
1.Audiosession(use this to play silent sound)
2.Location
3.VoIP
Any method can keep App in background and avoid App from being killed by system.
BLE Runs in the background, you need to specify that your app uses BLE Accessories or your app acts as a LE Accessory in the Background modes in app capabilities.
I've tried firing local notifications, while the application is in the background. BLE even works if the app is killed by the system, when the OS receives some communication from your peripheral or central, iOS wakes your app up and executes the desired function, before putting your app back to sleep.
I'm working on iOS development for a bluetooth peripheral. We want the (already paired) device to connect when a button is pressed on it, and this will cause the app to execute some code. Is it possible for the app to detect that the device is connected, even while in the background?
Also, is it possible for the app to bring itself into the foreground when this is detected? Would I need to be a member of the MFi program to do either of these things?
You will be able to detect that the device is connected in the background using Bluetooth 2.0, however you must include the App communicates with an accessory string under Required Background Modes in the app's plist.
So yes, the first part of your question is doable. However when you say: "We want the (already paired) device to connect when a button is pressed on it", it is important to note that this functionality must be built into the device's firmware. The app can always be searching for it, but the device will not be able to communicate with the phone until it connects. Therefore, the button must wake up the device and signal that it now wants to connect.
For the third part of your question, you will not be able to bring the app into the foreground without the user opening the app.
Btw, CoreBluetooth is the Bluetooth Low Energy framework for iOS. It is completely different from Bluetooth 2.0.
as ttarules told you iphone can't connect automaticly to a paired device.
I don't know what kind of bluetooth receiver have you in your device but generally you can set up a method of "AUTOCALL" that automatically call a paired device (in this case an iPhone).
When you (your iPhone) come around the device it automatically establish a connection!
If you set all the parameters correctly in the bluetooth module you can make sure that the iPhone shows a message like this: "YourDevice would like access to YourApplication" when the connection is established.
this way helps the user to use your application and you can run the code you mentioned above when the app start.