Is iOS 7 Multipeer Connectivity compatible with Android Wi-Fi Direct?

android ios bluetooth wifi-direct multipeer-connectivity
Linuxios picture Linuxios · Sep 28, 2013 · Viewed 25.4k times · Source

I've been looking at iOS 7's new P2P networking framework, MultipeerConnectivity, and from the description, it seems to me that it uses a combination of some kind of Wi-Fi Direct technology and Bluetooth PANs.

Is the Wi-Fi Direct technology in this framework compatible with Android's Wi-Fi Direct? Can this framework actually be used for cross-platform P2P networking?

Answer

barbazoo picture barbazoo · Oct 6, 2013

This is what we know:

  1. There's no BTLE/Bluetooth 4.0 advertisement visible on my Texas Instruments Bluetooth Low energy scanner.
  2. No WiFi Direct activity seen by JuJoDi.
  3. Talkkr app can connect while WiFi is off and the connection takes about 10 seconds.

My working theory: the MultiPeer uses Bluetooth Classic, based on the above.

iOS Bluetooth Classic is known to be under the Apple MFA Accessory API's tight control and lockdown, including the MFA authentication challenge-response. Apple controls the MFA encryption keys (either in software or by the accessory authentication chips). It makes it inaccessible to other platforms.

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