CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidbluetoothwifi-directgoogle-nearby
Taylor Petrychyn
Taylor Petrychyn

Reputation: 43

How can I speed up Nearby Connections API discovery?

I am attempting to connect two Android devices close-range without a 3rd party service to transfer two small json payloads back and forth before closing the connection. Think adding nearby contacts.

I am using the P2P_POINT_TO_POINT Strategy and have both devices advertising and discovering using the code found here: https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/android/get-started. It consistently works, however it repeatedly takes 10-15 seconds to find the connection and prompt to accept the connection. Ideally I could get this below 10 seconds.

I read that having one dedicated to advertising another dedicated to discovering helps but it does not work for my use case.

Is there a way to improve the connection rate?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 949

Answers (1)

Xlythe
Xlythe

Reputation: 2033

Unfortunately, the best you can do is to try to connect in one direction. That should lower the connection latency to 2~7 seconds. When both devices connect to each other at the same time, that causes thrashing and while we do our best to handle it gracefully, it will cause increased latency.

Stopping discovery before calling request connection would help too, but not by much. We already do it internally during the most sensitive operations.

Our advertising and discovery stack is based off of Bluetooth, and we've experimented with other technologies to compliment it. But they typically have harsher limitations than Bluetooth does (needs a router, needs a very recent Android phone, can't handle simultaneous connections, can't advertise and discover at the same time). Of all the technologies I know of, only mDNS would be faster while still allowing bi-directional connection attempts, and that requires both phones to be connected to the same router (and that the router hasn't disabled mDNS). Typically this means it only works at home. If that's a reasonable limitation for you, then I can pass that on to the team.

Upvotes: 2

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