Design Patterns Featured

Design Pattern: Quick Check

Quick Check apps let users get in fast to check a reading or check device status, then get out These types of apps need to perform their jobs quickly and reliably. They don't necessarily need to be connected all the time. Example: Checking Battery Status A BLE-enabled power

Effective Bluetooth (Android)

Item #3: Maintain Awareness of Bluetooth State Changes

Effective Bluetooth (Android)

Item #2: Understand the Spec

Effective Bluetooth (Android)

Introduction: Effective Bluetooth for Android

An overview of the items covered in the Effective Bluetooth for Android series.

Effective Bluetooth (Android)

Item#1: Discover services on the main thread

By keeping service discovery on the main thread, you ensure a smoother and more predictable experience.

Design Patterns Featured

Design Pattern: Constant Streaming

Constant streaming apps need to collect data for long periods of time while at the same time minimizing packet loss. Example: Sleep monitoring A medical device that generates high amounts of critical signal data (think EEG, EKG) needs to get data consistently - over a long period of time -

Design Patterns Featured

Design Pattern: Always Connected

Always Connected apps need to constantly stay connected to the device. Keep up-to-date readings and diagnostics by remaining connected, whether the app is in use or backgrounded/killed. Example: Sports/Health  Tracking Sports-tech devices typically are used for periods of time where data is sent to the app constantly. In

Design Patterns Featured

Design Pattern: Proximity Aware

Proximity Aware apps need to perform an action automatically when nearby a device Responding to a nearby device is useful when you want to automate certain features of your app. Let's talk about what needs to be done in the app and device to make this happen.

GATT Design Featured

Design Patterns for BLE Apps

Design patterns are repeatable solutions to common problems and scenarios. You are probably familiar with some of these in software development, user interface design, and enterprise integration. I think we can also apply this idea to building Bluetooth apps.

General

Learning Mobile Bluetooth APIs

So your team needs to connect your app to a Bluetooth device. They've started reading docs, watching videos, and working through courses. Great! As they are learning on their own, don't forget: * Mobile Bluetooth APIs are an abstraction of the BLE specification. They hide a lot

Android

When disconnects don't work as expected

You may have experienced a situation where programmatically requesting a disconnect does not work. Here are some reasons why that may happen.

Android

What to watch out for in Android Bluetooth apps

Once you read through the Android Bluetooth APIs and start coding an integration, it's not uncommon to see some interesting issues and behavior with your device. To save time chasing down problems - and also save your sanity - here are some things to know about the Android

Android

iOS vs Android

Both iOS and Android handle BLE differently If you are developing a Bluetooth app that needs to support both iOS and Android - you may want to be aware of how they differ when it comes to BLE.

iOS

iOS Libraries for Bluetooth apps

While the CoreBluetooth APIs are simple, you may be looking to use them in an app that is more Swift-focused or uses an architecture like RxSwift. Below are a few libraries that provide alternative APIs for CoreBluetooth. Even if you understand the Apple APIs very well, you may find the

Android

Bluetooth and the UX

Why you want to think about the user experience before tackling GATT design Bluetooth adds some unique constraints and challenges to an app user experience. It helps to understand these so the right communication protocol can be created. Let's take the example of an app that needs to

Android

Android libraries for BLE apps

It is beneficial to understand the official Android Bluetooth documentation and how to use the APIs. But they are not the most user-friendly APIs. Fortunately, there are many convenience wrappers out there. Below are a few that I see used most often (in no particular order) Blessed RxAndroidBLE FastBLE SweetBlue

Android Bluetooth Snoop Log

If you don't have access to a Bluetooth sniffer, there is another way to analyze the traffic on an Android device. Within your phone's Developer Options, turn on the Enable Bluetooth Host Controller Interface (HCI) snoop log. (Toggle Bluetooth on and off in Settings to activate)

iOS

PacketLogger: Debug iOS BLE traffic

A helpful tool for reviewing BLE traffic between an app and a device is the PacketLogger tool.

Beacons

Calibrating iBeacons

Helping the app make the best possible guess on distance If you are using iBeacon advertisements to trigger actions in your app, you probably want them to trigger at a certain distance. CoreLocation gives the current distance (as it figures it) - but how does it get that? The beacon

Android GATT 133, continued

Some other reasons you may see the GATT 133 status Remember - the "GATT_ERROR" (aka GATT status 133, aka 😖) is really a catch-all status for when something goes wrong. You may be correctly queuing up requests and handling things serially, but see the error when making connection

Testing Bluetooth Integrations

What things should we test and make sure work well?

Process

Before Writing Code

5 ways to set yourself up for a successful app-device integration

iOS

What mobile platform is the 'best' for Bluetooth app development?

Native or Hybrid? Here are some questions to ask yourself as you make the decision:

Android

Android & Gatt Status 133

How to avoid the most common headache when writing and Android Bluetooth app.

Beacons

Beacons in iOS and Android

An overview of how beacons are supported in iOS and Android