A simple iOS library for discovering nearby devices via Bluetooth Low Energy and exchanging data even when apps run in the background.
Discovery is an iOS library that enables Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication between nearby devices, allowing apps to discover peers and exchange identification data like usernames or IDs. It solves the iOS limitation where BLE advertising data becomes unreadable when apps enter the background state, ensuring seamless data retrieval regardless of app state.
iOS developers building apps that require device proximity detection, peer identification, or background data exchange, such as social networking, gaming, or location-aware applications.
Developers choose Discovery because it abstracts complex BLE implementation details, handles iOS background state constraints automatically, and provides a simple API for reliable device discovery and data exchange without requiring deep Bluetooth expertise.
A very simple library to discover and retrieve data from nearby devices (even if the peer app works at background).
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.
Solves the iOS limitation where BLE advertising data is trimmed in the background by using service characteristics to retrieve IDs, ensuring seamless data exchange regardless of app state.
Hides complex Core Bluetooth delegate implementations and boilerplate code, allowing developers to focus on proximity-aware features without deep BLE expertise.
Determines the relative distance of nearby devices using BLE signal characteristics, enabling apps to gauge proximity for user interactions.
Supports initialization in detection-only, broadcasting-only, or combined modes, as highlighted in Version 1.1, offering tailored use cases for different scenarios.
The README admits that reliable error handling is planned for a future release, making debugging difficult in current versions and potentially leading to unstable connections.
Only targets iOS, so it cannot be used for cross-platform projects or apps on other operating systems like Android, limiting its scope.
References problematic cases on iOS7 in the README, indicating possible instability or compatibility issues with older iOS versions that may affect reliability.