Can I share a file to other plateform (iOS or Android) via Bluetooth on WP8?

Question

My WP8 app has some audio or videos, I'd like to share them with other plateform devices, such as iPhone or android devices. The first thing that comes to mind is Bluetooth. Can I realize this feature in my app? And how to do it? Thank you!

Answer 1

I've worked with iOS Bluetooth extensively and the different ways you can share data over Bluetooth is by:

1. Using one of the Bluetooth profiles already supported by iOS: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3647
2. Bluetooth LE (Core Bluetooth). I haven't used this, but the bandwidth and data structure of data being transmitted is limited, so it may not suit your purpose of sending audio and video.
3. Game Kit. This is for iPhone-to-iPhone data transmission though.
4. External Accessory Framework. This framework allows you to transmit raw data, but is only available to BT-enabled devices with special Apple authentication hardware (you have to join the MFi program and go all these hoops to get your device qualified). This doesn't work for you too, since you'd want to send data from WP8 or Android, which are definitely not MFi qualified.

So, bottom line, you CAN NOT send raw audio or video data from WP8 and Android to your iPhone unless you jailbreak the iPhone and put a new stack. iOS's BT stack is really limiting in that way, as I've learned the hard way.

On the bright side, you can definitely send raw data between Android and WP8 over Bluetooth. You have to create an RFCOMM socket on both ends (one sending; one listening). The Bluetooth profile used for this sort of data transfer is called a Serial Port Profile.