Bluetooth LE app, how to build it cross-plaftorm (iOS-Android)?

Question

I am working on an app that talks to a Bluetooth LE device. I would like some way to avoid developing it twice, for iOS and for Android. Is there a cross-platform app

Answer 1

I am using Qt framework developing cross-platform apps with BLE support: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtbluetooth-lowenergyscanner-example.html

Currently the supported platforms are Andriod, iOS, OSX, Linux. Windows platform is said to support BLE in the forthcoming version Qt 5.6 (really looking forward to it). The BLE related classes are easy to use and Qt provided two sample projects in examples/documentation. The thing I am not sure about is getting Manufacturer Specific Data during a scan. Right now I am making a connection to the devices to get certain information which wouldn't be needed if I can read the Manufacturer Specific Data. Qt's BLE currently only support central role.

Qt is based on C++, if that matters to you.

Answer 2

I have been using Randdusing's Cordova plugin for BluetoothLE and it works well for Android and iOS (Windows phone still under development). Being Cordova it's designed to work with an HTML5/JavaScript app, but the plugins themselves (as all Cordova plugins?) are written in native code . Earlier in my project I tried Evothings which also has BLE plugin but I found some problems, and I don't know if these have been resolved yet. My app sounds pretty similar to yours in terms of the UI requirements, and I can possibly help with integrating the BLE code if you like - but you'll need to rewrite your 'c' into javascript first. BTW you ask for using with older Android but AFAIK BLE is only supported in Android 4.3 or higher.