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androidbluetoothbluetooth-lowenergyandroid-bluetoothbluetooth-peripheral

Market share of Android devices with Bluetooth LE Peripheral feature?

I'm working on an app using bluetooth LE technology. I am trying to build a bi-directional communication between two devices, and first thought Bluetooth LE was the perfect choice at first.

But then the more I learn about it the more disappointed I became, because it looks like not enough devices support the peripheral feature, even though this has been introduced a long time ago.

I know the central role is possible in most cases, but for my app to work, I need to make sure there are enough devices out there that support (and will support) the peripheral role as well.

But I'm really not sure what the situation is because I couldn't find any reputable source which has a list of devices that support the peripheral feature. And due to the fragmented nature of the ecosystem I have no idea if this is something hardware vendors are planning on dropping or if the coverage will increase.

Can anyone share some insights?

  • Edit: I have already read another answer suggested as a duplicate (Chipsets/Devices supporting Android 5 BLE peripheral mode) as well as almost everything I could find on Stackoverflow about this topic. But I have yet to come across a definitive list of what devices support this feature, and what the future of this feature is. It's extremely frustrating not knowing whether I should even rely on this API or not because while they say it depends on the hardware vendor, NO hardware vendors include this information in their device spec, which is why I asked this question.
Solution

  • A good rule of thumb seems to be that devices which have Bluetooth chips with version 4.1 or above have proper support for the peripheral role.

    Otherwise all Bluetooth devices and their features are listed on https://www.bluetooth.org/tpg/listings.cfm. Note that you might have to search for the model number and not brand name, like LG-H790 instead of Nexus 5X. Then press >> DISPLAY ICS DETAILS >>.

    But maybe you can use Bluetooth classic? Android - communicating between two devices