Clarification on iOS/Android compatibility and future about nearby HOT 14 CLOSED

Yes, we are actually experimenting with using the multipeer connectivity framework as a medium that would only be available between Apple devices, but it’s much lower priority than BLE at the moment

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We are working on BLE support for iOS (#1619), which should allow for quickly sharing small strings while offline.

from nearby.

Hi there.

I have been exploring the Nearby Connections api and I am confused to whether discovering, connecting to and sharing data between android and iOS is possible or not.

The Multidevice Development page:
https://developer.android.com/multi-device-development:
under the Explore Toolkit > Nearby states:

If you're looking for granular control and your experience only involves Android devices, try these APIs.

While if we click on the same section, we are redirected to
https://developers.google.com/nearby
where under Nearby Connections API, it states:

The Nearby Connections API is available for Android and iOS, and enables communication between the two platforms.

Now it leaves me thinking if its really possible to achieve connection between android and ios devices. We did try building sample apps providing the same Strategy and Service ID but had no luck discovering android device from iOS or vice versa.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

from nearby.

Discovering / connecting / sharing data between iOS and Android is very possible and should work out of box as long as service IDs and strategy match and both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. iOS doesn't support the full range of mediums that Android supports, so you may not be able to discover in certain scenarios.

from nearby.

Hey @lschmierer

Sorry for the confusion! Part of the reason we are deprecating Nearby Messages is to reduce some of the confusion between all of our offerings. This project should be able to cover most of the use cases of Nearby Messages.

Nearby Connections operates on top of “mediums”. These mediums are used to discover other devices and transfer data. Each medium has its own advantages and limitations. Android has the largest list of supported mediums while iOS currently only has 1 supported medium (Wi-Fi LAN). Wi-Fi LAN’s limitation is that both devices need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network to function.

We are working on adding support for the BLE medium which would provide similar functionality as Nearby Messages for discovery and plan to have this ready before Nearby Messages is shut down (December 31st).


Do you mind sharing documentation links that mention iOS not being supported so we can get those updated with more up-to-date information?

As for the cross-device-sdk, it is intended to be easier to use than Nearby Connections, but has more restrictions (also, the cross-device-sdk does not have any iOS support yet)

Hope this helps :)

from nearby.

Thanks for the quick response!

Right on the landing page https://developers.google.com/nearby it says "The Nearby Connections API is available for Android" while "The Nearby Messages API is available for Android and iOS". This gives me the impression that Connections API is not available for iOS.

On this site https://developers.google.com/nearby/overview it says explicitly at the bottom to use the Messages API if "you want to communicate between Android and iOS devices".
Also on the left there is only "Android" in the menu (iOS only for Messages API).

I have only just realized that there is in fact Swift documentation once one is on the Connections documentation itself (https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/overview)

from nearby.

Thanks! I’ll get those links updated :)

from nearby.

Just out or curiosity… I understand that there are fundamental limitations that make it impossible to establish P2P connections between Android and iOS without being connected to the same Wi-Fi AP. But would it in theory be possible to implement that direct communication for between two iOS devices?
(Or alternatively is it be possible to use iOS Multipeer Connectivity together with the Google Nearby Connections API or would they somehow interfere?)

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In the Apple world there is the feature of "sharing a WiFi password".

If a user uses two Apple devices with the same iCloud account, e.g. iPhone and MacBook, the user can connect to a WiFi network for the first time and if the other device is nearby and already has the password stored it can share that password to the device connecting for the first time.

Is this a feature which will also be provided by the Nearby API? I read a lot in the docs but couldn't find a clear indication of such a feature. I'm using Linux & Android and would love to see that feature!

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https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77612062/google-nearby-connections-api-ios-android
waiting for answers here as well

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Yes, we are actually experimenting with using the multipeer connectivity framework as a medium that would only be available between Apple devices, but it’s much lower priority than BLE at the moment

Does this mean that we'll be able to transfer files between Android and iOS at WiFi speed(or close to it) using the multipeer connectivity framework, even when they are not in the same WiFi LAN?

from nearby.

Discovering / connecting / sharing data between iOS and Android is very possible and should work out of box as long as service IDs and strategy match and both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. iOS doesn't support the full range of mediums that Android supports, so you may not be able to discover in certain scenarios.

Want to make sure I've understood this clearly, @bourdakos1 comments that Nearby Connections between iOS and Android are impossible offline, but the documentation for Nearby Connections open with:

Nearby Connections enables advertising, discovery, and connections between nearby devices in a fully-offline peer-to-peer manner.

My company is looking at building a solution that would allow a string to be sent from one react-native application to another at a point of sale and Nearby Connections appears to be the only way forward for something cross platform, but we cannot rely on devices being on the same network. Any comments or thoughts appreciated.

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Hi,

During implement Nearby Connection for Android and iOS. We have a situation in 2 different Wifi LAN:
Wifi LAN 1:

• iOS to iOS: working well
• Android to Android: working well
• iOS to Android: doesn't work. It can not discover each others.

Wifi LAN 2: Both Android and iOS are working well.

Do you guys know any limitation of the network or restrict by it?

Thanks!

from nearby.

Hi,

During implement Nearby Connection for Android and iOS. We have a situation in 2 different Wifi LAN: Wifi LAN 1:

• iOS to iOS: working well
• Android to Android: working well
• iOS to Android: doesn't work. It can not discover each others.

Wifi LAN 2: Both Android and iOS are working well.

Do you guys know any limitation of the network or restrict by it?

Thanks!

Hi. Based on our experience: iOS <> Android can only communicate with each other if they are on the same WiFi and if mDNS is enabled on the network. For now, it seems to us that this library works fine between the same platform, but in all other cases there are hard constraints that are hard to meet in a real scenario.

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