Android Bluetooth Tutorial
Bluetooth is a way to exchange data with other devices wirelessly. Android provides Bluetooth API to perform several tasks such as:
- scan bluetooth devices
- connect and transfer data from and to other devices
- manage multiple connections etc.
Android Bluetooth API
The android.bluetooth package provides a lot of interfaces classes to work with bluetooth such as:
- BluetoothAdapter
- BluetoothDevice
- BluetoothSocket
- BluetoothServerSocket
- BluetoothClass
- BluetoothProfile
- BluetoothProfile.ServiceListener
- BluetoothHeadset
- BluetoothA2dp
- BluetoothHealth
- BluetoothHealthCallback
- BluetoothHealthAppConfiguration
android-preferences-example
BluetoothAdapter class
By the help of BluetoothAdapter class, we can perform fundamental tasks such as initiate device discovery, query a list of paired (bonded) devices, create a BluetoothServerSocket instance to listen for connection requests etc.
Constants of BluetoothAdapter class
BluetoothAdapter class provides many constants. Some of them are as follows:
- String ACTION_REQUEST_ENABLE
- String ACTION_REQUEST_DISCOVERABLE
- String ACTION_DISCOVERY_STARTED
- String ACTION_DISCOVERY_FINISHED
Methods of BluetoothAdapter class
Commonly used methods of BluetoothAdapter class are as follows:
- static synchronized BluetoothAdapter getDefaultAdapter() returns the instance of BluetoothAdapter.
- boolean enable() enables the bluetooth adapter if it is disabled.
- boolean isEnabled() returns true if the bluetooth adapter is enabled.
- boolean disable() disables the bluetooth adapter if it is enabled.
- String getName() returns the name of the bluetooth adapter.
- boolean setName(String name) changes the bluetooth name.
- int getState() returns the current state of the local bluetooth adapter.
- Set<BluetoothDevice> getBondedDevices() returns a set of paired (bonded) BluetoothDevice objects.
- boolean startDiscovery() starts the discovery process.
Android Bluetooth Example: enable, disable and make discovrable bluetooth programmatically
You need to write few lines of code only, to enable or disable the bluetooth.
activity_main.xml
Drag one textview and three buttons from the pallete, now the activity_main.xml file will like this:
Provide Permission
You need to provide following permissions in AndroidManifest.xml file.
The full code of AndroidManifest.xml file is given below.
Activity class
Let’s write the code to enable, disable and make bluetooth discoverable.
You need to run it on the real device (e.g. mobile) to test the application.
Next topics of android bluetooth tutorial:
android bluetooth list paired devices example