I want to make demo application, which contains following features.
search and show device list in my device Bluetooth range.
connect(pair) selected devices.
then share string data.
For doing that I am using core Bluetooth framework(Central and peripheral classes). using that I am able to search devices, connect devices and transfer string data also.
but I am not able to authenticate devices before pairing(when I call connect method it is directly shown me connected status). how is it handled in ios?
also please suggest me I am on the right path or I need to use another library to implement this functionality.
For anyone else beating their head against a wall, I have the solution to this issue. It's as simple as setting the AUTHENTICATION required flag for a characteristic on your BLE device. Once that flag is set, you need to attempt a READ from that service / characteristic using the iOS device. Once the read is requested, the BLE device will send back a failure message which then prompts iOS to display the PAIRING / BONDING popup. After that, you're golden.
Here is an example of a Cypress BLE device permission group. The settings are similar for most BLE embedded devices out there.
yes it is possible to ask pairing request from BLE device to ios.
I followed below steps to make ios app to ask for pairing.
edited my ble app to return error code 'RBLE_ATT_ERR_INSUFF_AUTHEN' using gatt write response function.
attempted a write from ios app then i got a prompt to enter pairing key.
used the randomly generated pairing key by BLE device to pair.
Paulw11's comment also helped me to solve that problem,
Regards
Bharath GK
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I am looking to design a way to configure wifi setup for a non-apple device, by pairing it via bluetooth with an app on an iPhone.
The iPhone would be one already connected to the target wifi network. The app would support its own bluetooth connection with the non-apple device
I understand that there are entitlements, like CNCopyCurrentNetworkInfo, but from research it doesn't look like that is enough. Maybe there are others? Or is this only possible by being approved to implement HomeKit on the 'target non-apple device'?
The presume path of data is
credential stored in iOS
some entitlement that permits access to unencrypted data
app with entitlement
app security handles data
valid bluetooth pairing of the app
unencrypted password sent via bluetooth
non-apple device uses the network SSID + credential to make its own connection
Thanks for your help or corrections. These existing Q&A do not answer it: 1, 2
CNCopyCurrentNetworkInfo does not give you the password, even if you jump through all the hoops including users location permission. Theoretically you can only get SSID of the connected network (with location permission from the user)
Best humane way to approach this (as of today) is by asking the user to enter their WiFi SSID/password in a popup and send it to the Bluetooth device. I was not able to find a better way.
If you use something like Blufi, you can :
have BT device scan for available hotspots
display the list of hotspots for the user
have them select the network + enter the password manually
send the credentials to the Bluetooth device
PS. it would be quite spooky if there was a way to read system keychain passwords from an app.
From Android documentation:
Caution: When a user pairs their device with another device using BLE, the data that's communicated between the two devices is accessible to all apps on the user's device.
For this reason, if your app captures sensitive data, you should implement app-layer security to protect the privacy of that data.
Is this also true for iOS? I haven't found anything on it and I assumed because iOS doesn't show the true MAC addresses of devices this wouldn't be an issue, but just wanted to check. Thanks
Yes, iOS also works in a similar way. And if you want private communication, you also need to maintain app layer security. Thus android wear, galaxy watch, and other similar devices use encrypted communication in the app layer.
If you already know the details. BLE communication works via Gatt Characteristics.
Consider there are two health applications running on an iOS device and the user also using an activity tracker device. In that case if the user wants to connect both of the health apps with that tracker, he certainly can do it. Both apps will be able to communicate with the activity tracker and get sensor data using the CBCentral module. Look at the diagram for Details.
On the other hand, In general, vice versa will not possible. Because if both iOS apps use Peripheral Role they will register two different instances of BLE-Service even if using the same UUID. Thus it will force two apps to communicate with completely different characteristics instances. However, it is also possible to work with two peripheral apps with the same UUID but this is not what the BLE developers ever wanted.
you need to provide app level security based on Service UUID, so that devices having the app with only same service UUID can connect.
I am working on an App to attempt to automatically connect to a bluetooth device after tapping an NFC button. My original thought of implementing it was to grab the device UUID from NFC, and then attempt to connect in the background. However, if there are any encrypted characteristics this could cause issues as a pairing request would pop up, and I want to avoid that and make the connection as seamless as possible. Is this even possible on iOS, and is there any documentation on this? I have found almost no resources to help, but it seems as there are speakers/headphones out there that have implemented this.
Any idea on where to begin looking would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
I'm hoping to create a BLE advertisement on iOS where I can control the advertisement on a byte level.
One use case would be to mimic an iBeacon advertisement. What is the iBeacon Bluetooth Profile (I want to advertise while my app is in the background which is why I'm not using CoreLocation)
I do not see a way to do this with the Core Bluetooth API. Is this correct? Are there alternatives using private API's or jailbreaking?
As the others already pointed out, there is no API on iOS that allows you to do this.
You can advertise as an iBeacon, but only when your app is in the foreground. When in background, the advertisement is removed and therefore cannot be discovered anymore (except for other iOS devices which explicitly scan for that service UUID). Also see the documentation here: Core Bluetooth Background Processing
If you would share your use case and what you want to achieve, maybe there are other ways to realise it.
My experience with iOS is that if it is something is not exposed in the API, there is no way around, except jailbreaking. For Bluetooth low energy the API is at GAP/GATT level, and very little at the lower levels (if anything) is exposed. Advertising is a LL (link layer) feature.
To illustrate how restricted the access is: When scanning for BLE devices you will not have access to the advertiser's MAC address iOS. In Android you have it.
I do not see a way to do this with the Core Bluetooth API. Is this
correct?
Since you have to set Manufacture Specific Data in order to achieve this, if nothing has changed you will experience exactly the same issue that I did. Explained here:
The advertisement key 'Manufacturer Data' is not allowed in CoreBluetooth
It is not possible.
I am new to Objective c and I want to send simple strings from an iPhone to an arduino an vice versa with Bluetooth. I have read apples information about Core Bluetooth, but I am having trouble understanding it. As I said, all I need the iPhone to do is: 1) connect to the BLE device of the arduino. 2) Send instructions (in the form of strings) 3)get a response from the arduino when the instructions have been carried out, so that the next set of instructions can be sent. I would be very happy if somebody is able to help me with this project
Thanks
You should follow the wwdc presentation on core bluetooth.
You should probably start here
I suggest operate your device with YMSCoreBluetooth.
The basic step to operation bluetooth device is:
Search all nearby device by blue tooth scan, you will find all nearby device.
Stop your scan. Connect one of the devices found in response.
Discover all services on the device.
Discover all character in service found by service discover action.
Write your content into character found in 4.
You can read character value from device.
YMSCoreBluetooth let you write your logic in one code block instead of separate delegate.