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Learning Mobile Bluetooth APIs

Bill Snyder

• 1 min read

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 of lower-level details. You will want to understand how iOS and Android each handle these details - it could affect how well your app and device work together.
  • Mobile Bluetooth APIs do not match 1:1 with the various embedded firmware SDKs. For example, you will find more options for lower-level control with embedded device SDKs. Sometimes this is a surprise to teams who expect iOS/Android to offer the same fine control over the Bluetooth implementation.
  • Effective Mobile Bluetooth API usage depends on your User Experience (when and how long the app is connected to the device).  It also depends on the GATT profile design and how it's implemented on the device. Take time to understand the user experience first, then design the GATT profile - and mobile API usage around it.