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The Ultimate Guide to Android Bluetooth Low Energy

Originally published on May 15, 2020, and updated on April 17, 2024. What's been updated: This ultimate guide and its companion code repository now support compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion 34 (Android 14). The APIs used in this guide are from the android.bluetooth package, and not from the very similarly-named androidx.bluetooth package which is still in alpha as of the time of writing. The approaches detailed in this guide…

BLE

BLE Connectivity Architecture: The Ultimate Guide

By: Alec Letourneau

Introduction Building your first connected product is no easy task. There are many wireless networking protocols, each with its benefits and tradeoffs. However, if you're interested in widespread support, including iOS or Android devices…

BLE

The Ultimate Guide to Managing Your BLE Connection

By: Bret Hassler

Introduction One of the core aspects of designing a BLE application is determining how connections will be managed. There’s more to it than simply starting a connection whenever the devices should communicate. You must consider the…

BLE

Architecting iOS and Android Apps for IoT BLE Systems

By: Gretchen Walker

When you buy a Fitbit, you’re not just paying for the wearable hardware. You’re buying a key that unlocks access to a greater integrated system. Before you can even start using the device, you must first download the app, pair it with your…

Mobile Apps

Mastering all 5 Kotlin Scope Functions

By: Chee Yi Ong

It should come as no surprise that our Android team here at Punch Through loves Kotlin, and that we strive to write idiomatic Kotlin, taking advantage of its unique language features whenever possible. Some common questions we get from newer team…

Engineer working on Human Interface Devices in office

Mobile Apps

How iOS and Android Handle Connections with BLE Human Interface Devices

By: Alec Letourneau

iOS and Android’s Bluetooth APIs allow apps to communicate with BLE devices. The API simplifies the way apps implement BLE and allows multiple apps to use BLE at the same time, but it also introduces many undocumented behaviors. Unfortunately,…

Mobile Apps

Unit Testing Android BLE Code with RxAndroidBle

By: Chee Yi Ong

In this post, we look at what RxAndroidBle offers as far as unit testing is concerned, and we’ll also walk through a case study of unit testing a common BLE business logic. Seasoned Android developers will no doubt have heard of RxJava—a…

LightBlue®

How to Use LightBlue®: The Go-To BLE Development Tool

By: Gretchen Walker

We at Punch Through first began developing LightBlue® for iOS back in 2012 out of internal necessity. We were a young company carving out a determined niche in the exciting new world of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the revolutionary new iteration…

Engineer working with Android Studio in office

Mobile Apps

Boost Productivity with 4 Android Studio Tips

By: Ashish Derhgawen

For those of us writing Android apps for a living, Android Studio is our bread and butter. Optimizing Android Studio will make your development experience both enjoyable and productive. In this blog post, I will share some tips to improve build…

LightBlue®

What’s new in LightBlue® Android v1.6.0 and iOS v3.1.1

By: Chee Yi Ong

LightBlue® Android v1.6.0 Hello BLE fans! We've been hard at work implementing some of your most highly requested features over the past couple of months for LightBlue® Android, and we're excited to share these changes with you. The version…

Engineer learning about Android Debug Bridge

Mobile Apps

How to Set Up Wireless Debugging with Android Debug Bridge

By: Ashish Derhgawen

Writing apps for Android devices can often be challenging enough as it is. Having to deal with different USB cables (or cables that don’t work) just adds to the struggle. It wasn't until recently that I found you could avoid a lot of cable issues…

Punch Through team discussing mobile development

Mobile Apps

3 Reasons Native iOS and Android Apps are Better for Connected Products

By: Punch Through

One decision must be made before developing a mobile app: native or hybrid. For many developers, preconceived notions lead them down the hybrid route, believing it to be cheaper and more efficient with a "one-code-fits-all" approach. However,…

Group of Punch Through team members who recommend Android App Tools and Patterns

Mobile Apps

Our Preferred Android Development Tools and Patterns

By: Chee Yi Ong

At Punch Through, we work on both greenfield and legacy app projects for our clients. For greenfield Android projects, we generally try to conform to a modern, well-documented, and well-supported architectural pattern that’s easy to follow. The…

Computer coding with Android and Bluetooth symbol - Android BLE tips

Mobile Apps

4 Tips to Make Android BLE Actually Work

By: Chee Yi Ong

Android development is hard, and it's no thanks to its relatively fragmented ecosystem and having a million OEM’s out there. Throw BLE—which is extremely hardware and Bluetooth spec. dependent!—into the mix and the platform's behavior becomes…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput Part 3: Data Length Extension (DLE)

By: Zach Michel

Welcome back BLE enthusiasts, to the 3rd installment in Punch Through’s ‘Maximizing BLE Throughput’ blog post series. BLE 5's Data Length Extensions are one of the largest performance improvements ever made to the BLE specification. Here's…

LightBlue®

Introducing LightBlue® Explorer for Android

By: Chee Yi Ong

LightBlue Explorer for iOS has been downloaded by over 600,000 people over the years and is trusted by industrial experts and enthusiasts alike. What began as a project to simplify BLE development internally blossomed into an app that has helped…

BLE

Developing Cross Platform BLE Apps: Our Experience

By: Punch Through

Those who have successfully developed a connected product know it is a unique struggle. The idea of a product being one physical thing, where you build it, ship it, and move on, is over. Now the hardware is only one part of the puzzle, and often…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput on iOS and Android

By: Punch Through

Still confused about how fast you can really send data over Bluetooth Low Energy? It's not just you. A google search will turn up many incomplete answers. Each OS and device has it’s own restrictions, such as connection interval and number of…

BLE

Testing Bluetooth Low Energy Devices

By: Punch Through

Bluetooth Low Energy is a new Bluetooth standard that is exciting for a couple reasons- it enables very low power battery applications, and it further opens the smartphone accessory market. LightBlue allows you to test and simulate Bluetooth Low…