CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidbluetooth-lowenergyandroid-bluetoothandroid-location
douda
douda

Reputation: 369

Companion device pairing: Is location services needed to be enabled?

I have implemented Companion device pairing and it works great for most devices without requiring any location permission or location services enabled. However, we found for example Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro (Android 11) where the BLE scan timeouts when Location services are disabled.

  1. Do I still need to implement requiring Location services enabled before the scan or this is undesirable behavior? I hoped it is not needed anymore with this system-level BLE scan.
  2. If so, is there a way how to distinguish which device needs it? I don't want to force all people when it is not needed (for example my Pixel 5)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 793

Answers (2)

douda
douda

Reputation: 369

I am also facing issues with applying a scan filter. It is completely a nightmare.

I have started with this:

val filter = ScanFilter.Builder().apply {
            setManufacturerData(SOME_INDEX, byteArrayOf(1))
            setDeviceName(SOME_NAME)
            setServiceUuid(ParcelUuid.fromString(SOME_UUID))
        }.build()

Finally, I have only this:

ScanFilter.Builder().apply {
            setManufacturerData(SOME_INDEX, byteArrayOf(1))
        }.build()

Because setServiceUuid() is not working for example on all tested Huawei phones and Sony Xperia X.

And setDeviceName() is not working for example on Samsung S10e. Finally I have found solution for name filtering by applying directly:

BluetoothLeDeviceFilter.Builder()
        .setNamePattern(Pattern.compile(SOME_NAME))
        .setScanFilter(filter)

Upvotes: 1

Emil
Emil

Reputation: 18472

In my opinion the Companion Device feature was implemented and designed in a rush. You could expect bugs like the "Location services" must be turned on and the Companion Device pairing dialog doesn't warn when it is not enabled. Until Xiaomi or Google fixes this bug, you will need to have workarounds in your app, for example telling the user to first enable Location services if you think that will be needed.

Upvotes: 3

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