flutter_nearby_connections

flutter nearby connections

Plugin: https://pub.dev/packages/flutter_nearby_connections

Flutter plugin supports peer-to-peer connectivity and discovers nearby devices for Android and IOS

The flutter_nearby_connections plugin supports the discovery of services provided by nearby devices. Moreover, the flutter_nearby_connections plugin also supports communicating with those services through message-based data, streaming data, and resources (such as files). The framework uses infrastructure Wi-Fi networks, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Personal Area Networks (PAN) for the underlying transport over UDP. The project is based on

Android

Nearby Connections API (Bluetooth & hotspot) Support Strategy: Strategy.P2P_CLUSTER, Strategy.P2P_STAR, Strategy.P2P_POINT_TO_POINT

Wi-Fi P2P (only wifi hotspot no internet) Support Strategy: Strategy.Wi_Fi_P2P

IOS

Multipeer Connectivity

We use the NearbyConnections API, but Flutter methods are based on the concept of Multipeer Connectivity IOS.

Methods provided:

startAdvertisingPeer, startBrowsingForPeers, stopAdvertisingPeer

We separate the dependencies of the MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser, MCNearbyServiceBrowser and MCSession classes. All of the methods will be implemented in the NearbyService class.

Noted

  • Android doesn't support emulator only support real devices
  • On iOS 14, need to define in Info.plist
    <key>NSBonjourServices</key>
    <array>
        <string>_{YOUR_SERVICE_TYPE}._tcp</string>
    </array>
    <key>UIRequiresPersistentWiFi</key>
    <true/>
    <key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
    <string>{YOUR_DESCRIPTION}</string>

in this case, YOUR_SERVICE_TYPE is 'mp-connection' (you can define it)

nearbyService.init(
        serviceType: 'mp-connection',
        strategy: Strategy.P2P_CLUSTER,

Test on IOS device

The example app running in IOS

Test on Android device

The example app running in Android

Libraries

flutter_nearby_connections