bluetooth_manager

A lightweight Flutter plugin to read the Bluetooth adapter state on Android, iOS and macOS, listen to state changes and — when the platform allows it — turn Bluetooth on or off.

Feature	Android	iOS / macOS
Read current Bluetooth state	Yes	Yes (via `CoreBluetooth`)
Stream state changes (events)	`BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_STATE_CHANGED`	`CBCentralManagerDelegate`
Enable Bluetooth	Yes (API < 33)*	Opens the system Bluetooth settings
Disable Bluetooth	Yes (API < 33)*	Opens the system Bluetooth settings

* Starting with Android 13 (API 33), BluetoothAdapter.enable() and disable() are deprecated and are no-ops for regular apps. In that case the plugin returns ActionResponse.responseError. On iOS, programmatic toggling is not allowed by the OS, so the plugin falls back to opening the system Bluetooth settings.

Installation

Add the plugin to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  bluetooth_manager: ^2.0.0

Or, to depend on the latest commit from GitHub:

dependencies:
  bluetooth_manager:
    git:
      url: https://github.com/FabioClem/bluetooth_manager.git

Then fetch the dependency:

flutter pub get

Minimum requirements:

Dart SDK >=2.15.1 <4.0.0
Flutter >=2.5.0
Android minSdkVersion 19 (KitKat) or higher
iOS 13.0+
macOS 10.13+

Permissions

Android

Add the following to android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" />

<!-- Android 12 (API 31) and above -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_SCAN" />

On Android 12+ you must also request BLUETOOTH_CONNECT at runtime. The example app uses permission_handler for that:

import 'package:permission_handler/permission_handler.dart';

await Permission.bluetooth.request();
await Permission.bluetoothConnect.request(); // Android 12+

iOS

Add the usage description to ios/Runner/Info.plist:

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses Bluetooth to connect to devices.</string>

The Bluetooth permission prompt is shown only when your app first calls getBluetoothState() or subscribes to getBluetoothStateStream() — the native plugin lazy-initialises CBCentralManager and does not trigger the prompt at launch.

If you want enableBluetooth / disableBluetooth to try opening the Bluetooth settings screen, add App-Prefs to the allowed URL schemes. When iOS blocks those deep links (common on recent versions), the plugin falls back to your app’s page in the Settings app:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
  <string>App-Prefs</string>
</array>

macOS

Add the usage description to macos/Runner/Info.plist:

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses Bluetooth to connect to devices.</string>

Enable the Bluetooth sandbox entitlement in macos/Runner/DebugProfile.entitlements and Release.entitlements:

<key>com.apple.security.device.bluetooth</key>
<true/>

enableBluetooth / disableBluetooth open the Bluetooth pane in System Settings (x-apple.systempreferences:…).

Usage

Import the library and create a BluetoothManager instance:

import 'package:bluetooth_manager/bluetooth_manager.dart';
import 'package:bluetooth_manager/models/bluetooth_models.dart';

final bluetoothManager = BluetoothManager();

1. Read the current state

final BluetoothState state = await bluetoothManager.getBluetoothState();

switch (state) {
  case BluetoothState.on:
    // Bluetooth is on
    break;
  case BluetoothState.off:
    // Bluetooth is off
    break;
  case BluetoothState.uknow:
    // State could not be determined
    break;
}

2. Listen to state changes

getBluetoothStateStream is event-driven: it emits only when the adapter state actually changes (plus one initial emission with the current state on subscription). On Android it is backed by a BroadcastReceiver on BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_STATE_CHANGED; on iOS and macOS by CBCentralManagerDelegate.centralManagerDidUpdateState. Remember to cancel the subscription when you no longer need it:

final subscription = bluetoothManager
    .getBluetoothStateStream()
    .listen((BluetoothState state) {
  // React to the new state...
});

// Later, when you're done:
await subscription.cancel();

The timer parameter (getBluetoothStateStream({int timer = 1000})) is kept for backwards compatibility with the old polling implementation and is now ignored.

3. Enable / disable Bluetooth

final ActionResponse onResp = await bluetoothManager.enableBluetooth();
final ActionResponse offResp = await bluetoothManager.disableBluetooth();

Possible values of ActionResponse:

Value	Meaning
`bluetoothIsOn`	Android: the adapter was turned on by this call.
`bluetoothIsOff`	Android: the adapter was turned off by this call.
`bluetoothAlreadyOn`	Android: the adapter was already on.
`bluetoothAlreadyOff`	Android: the adapter was already off.
`responseError`	Native side failed (unsupported SDK, missing permission, Android 13+).
`openedIOSSettings`	iOS / macOS: the system Bluetooth settings screen was opened.

API reference

`class BluetoothManager`

Method	Returns	Description
`getBluetoothState()`	`Future<BluetoothState>`	One-shot read of the adapter state.
`getBluetoothStateStream({int timer = 1000})`	`Stream<BluetoothState>`	Event-driven stream of state changes (timer is legacy, ignored).
`enableBluetooth()`	`Future<ActionResponse>`	Turns Bluetooth on (Android) or opens settings (iOS / macOS).
`disableBluetooth()`	`Future<ActionResponse>`	Turns Bluetooth off (Android) or opens settings (iOS / macOS).

`enum BluetoothState`

on, off, uknow.

Note: the value is spelled uknow (without the "n") for backwards compatibility with older releases of the plugin.

`enum ActionResponse`

bluetoothIsOn, bluetoothIsOff, bluetoothAlreadyOn, bluetoothAlreadyOff, responseError, openedIOSSettings.

Platform notes

On Android 13+ (API 33) the programmatic enable/disable of the adapter is blocked by the system for regular apps. enableBluetooth / disableBluetooth will typically return responseError. Prefer guiding the user to the system settings in that case.
On iOS there is no public API to toggle Bluetooth. The plugin tries Bluetooth-specific settings URLs and, if the system rejects them, opens your app’s Settings page instead. Both paths return openedIOSSettings. Intermediate CBManagerState values (resetting, unauthorized, unsupported, etc.) are reported as BluetoothState.uknow.
On macOS toggling is also not exposed to apps. The plugin opens the Bluetooth pane in System Settings and returns openedIOSSettings. State reading and streaming use the same CoreBluetooth + EventChannel stack as iOS, with a dedicated native target under macos/.
The state stream is implemented through a native EventChannel (bluetooth_manager/events). It emits once at subscription time with the current state and then again each time the adapter changes state, so there is no polling and no battery impact.

Full example

A runnable example lives in the example/ directory. To run it:

cd example
flutter pub get
flutter run              # device / simulator
flutter run -d macos     # macOS desktop

Development

Android development works on macOS, Linux and Windows.
iOS and macOS development require macOS with Xcode installed.
Run the tests with flutter test from the repository root.

Contributions are welcome — feel free to open an issue or a PR on GitHub.