Do you know how to code BLE5 features on mobile?

Question

I am looking how different using BLE5 than using BLE4. BLE5 is backward compatible. However how can I enable the features like 2xSpeed, 4xRange, or LE Advertising Extensions on Android or IOS? Is there any tutorial or code sample you can suggest to start with?

Answer 1

As far as I'm aware, iOS does not support Bluetooth 5 features programmatically yet. However, Bluetooth 5 devices can automatically initiate a switch to 2MPHY if both devices support this features. You can find more details about this here. This is also available by default on Android devices that support Bluetooth 5, but I can't find any reference to this.

As for Android API, Bluetooth 5 features were introduced with Android 8. The API for this is found here:-

• getPhy()
• PH_LE_ALL_SUPPORTED
• enableAdvertising
• setPeriodicAdvertisingData
• setPeriodicAdvertisingDataEnabled
• isLe2MPhySupported
• isLeCodedPhySupported
• isLeExtendedAdvertisingSupported
• isLePeriodicAdvertisingSupported
• readPhy
• setPreferredPhy

There's more API for Bluetooth 5 control, but this should get you started.

You can find more information at:-

1. CoreBluetooth Programming Guide
2. Android Bluetooth API
3. Android API Reference for Bluetooth
4. Android API Reference for Bluetooth LE

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

On Android, starting from API 26, you can use the startAdvertisingSet functions to use extended advertising, see also docs.