Transfer data between iOS and Android via Bluetooth?

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This question has been asked many times on this site and the definitive answer is: NO, you can’t connect an Android phone to an iPhone over Bluetooth, and YES Apple has restrictions that prevent this.

Some possible alternatives:

  1. Bonjour over WiFi, as you mentioned. However, I couldn’t find a comprehensive tutorial for it.
  2. Some internet based sync service, like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3. These usually have libraries for several platforms.
  3. Direct TCP/IP communication over sockets. (How to write a small (socket) server in iOS)
  4. Bluetooth Low Energy will be possible once the issues on the Android side are solved (Communicating between iOS and Android with Bluetooth LE)

Coolest alternative: use the Bump API. It has iOS and Android support and really easy to integrate. For small payloads this can be the most convenient solution.

Details on why you can’t connect an arbitrary device to the iPhone. iOS allows only some bluetooth profiles to be used without the Made For iPhone (MFi) certification (HPF, A2DP, MAP…). The Serial Port Profile that you would require to implement the communication is bound to MFi membership. Membership to this program provides you to the MFi authentication module that has to be added to your hardware and takes care of authenticating the device towards the iPhone. Android phones don’t have this module, so even though the physical connection may be possible to build up, the authentication step will fail. iPhone to iPhone communication is possible as both ends are able to authenticate themselves.

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