Is it possible, in principle, for an Android device to interface with an iPhone over Bluetooth/GameKit?

Question

(I am not interested in pure theory, but as a practical near or mid-term possibility, say within 12-24 months.)

As a developer familiar with (but not specializing in

Answer 1

That should be possible as Bluetooth is capable of setting up tcp/ip networks. Though I have no knowledge of the IPhone SDK whatsoever, but Android does have a BluetoothSocket and BluetoothServerSocket for TCP connections.

Answer 2

It is absolutely possible! In fact I am amazed that more people haven't done it!

Theory:

Bluetooth is just a wireless socket that you push data across and it comes across the other side, just like tcp/ip.

Practice:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/11/bump-goes-cross-platform-with-new-android-app-upgrades-iphone-version-too/

Better yet, Bump is cross-platform, which means that you can bump an Android phone with an iPhone and it should work seamlessly.

Answer 3

No, and it wont come soon or even at all... Apple pride themselves with their security features, and bluetooth connections can access private data. There will probably not be any cross platform bluetooth framework until something is agreed upon by both companies.

Bump as said by a previous answerer uses a remote server, and the data transferred is not via BT.

Answer 4

Bounjour on the iPhone gives you full access to all of the Bluetooth protocols, so you don't have to use GameKit. As for when someone will provide an easy to use iPhone to Android GameKit like framework - hard to tell.

An iPhone can already talk to any other Bluetooth device using Bonjour today.

-t

Answer 5

Yes, it is possible. GameKit is a protocol using TCP and/or UDP over a BNEP Bluetooth connection. It also uses a trick to identify other iOS devices using the Extended Inquiry mechanism in Bluetooth 2.1+.

I was able to simulate the EIR responses, now, someone needs to reverse engineer the GameKit protocol. This doesn't need Bluetooth, as it is also used for GameKit connections over WLAN.

If anybody can re-implment GameKit for WLAN connections, I can finish the Bluetooth version.

Answer 6

This article, http://blog.moritzhaarmann.de/blog/2014/04/27/sorry-state-of-p2p/ written in 2014, suggest it is possible via Bluetooth LE. Available in Android 4.3+ and iOS6+

Two issues:

• According to the Android Dashboard only around 30 percent of Android devices support Bluetooth LE https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html?utm_source=ausdroid.net
• Communication between Android-to-Android must be done using some other method (which is not a big problem) because Android devices cannot act as server for B LE connections.