flutter_blue_plus 1.11.2

Flutter plugin for connecting and communicationg with Bluetooth Low Energy devices, on Android, iOS, and MacOS.

Note: this plugin is continuous work from FlutterBlue since maintenance stopped.

Contents

• Introduction
• Usage
• Getting Started
• Reference
• Debugging
• Troubleshooting

Introduction

FlutterBluePlus is a bluetooth plugin for Flutter, a new app SDK to help developers build modern multi-platform apps.

Cross-Platform Bluetooth LE

FlutterBluePlus aims to offer the most from all supported platforms: iOS, macOS, Android.

The code is written to be simple, robust, and incredibly easy to understand.

No Dependencies

FlutterBluePlus has zero dependencies besides Flutter, Android, and iOS themselves.

This makes FlutterBluePlus very stable.

Usage

Error Handling 🔥

Flutter Blue Plus takes error handling very seriously.

Every error returned by the native platform is checked and thrown as an exception where appropriate.

Streams: At the time of writing, streams returned by Flutter Blue Plus never emit any errors and never close. There's no need to handle onError or onDone for stream.listen(...).

See the Reference section below for a complete list of throwing function.

---

Enable Bluetooth

// check availability
if (await FlutterBluePlus.isAvailable() == false) {
    print("Bluetooth not supported by this device");
    return;
}

// turn on bluetooth ourself if we can
if (Platform.isAndroid) {
    await FlutterBluePlus.turnOn();
}

// wait bluetooth to be on
await FlutterBluePlus.adapterState.where((s) => s == BluetoothAdapterState.on).first;

Scan for devices

// Setup Listener for scan results
var subscription = FlutterBluePlus.scanResults.listen((results) {
    // do something with scan results
    for (ScanResult r in results) {
        print('${r.device.localName} found! rssi: ${r.rssi}');
    }
});

// Start scanning
FlutterBluePlus.startScan(timeout: Duration(seconds: 4));

// Stop scanning
FlutterBluePlus.stopScan();

Connect to a device

// Connect to the device
await device.connect();

// Disconnect from device
device.disconnect();

Discover services

List<BluetoothService> services = await device.discoverServices();
services.forEach((service) {
    // do something with service
});

Read and write characteristics

// Reads all characteristics
var characteristics = service.characteristics;
for(BluetoothCharacteristic c in characteristics) {
    List<int> value = await c.read();
    print(value);
}

// Writes to a characteristic
await c.write([0x12, 0x34])

Read and write descriptors

// Reads all descriptors
var descriptors = characteristic.descriptors;
for(BluetoothDescriptor d in descriptors) {
    List<int> value = await d.read();
    print(value);
}

// Writes to a descriptor
await d.write([0x12, 0x34])

Set notifications and listen to changes

// Setup Listener for characteristic reads
characteristic.onValueReceived.listen((value) {
    // do something with new value
});

// enable notifications
await characteristic.setNotifyValue(true);

Read the MTU and request larger size

final mtu = await device.mtu.first;
await device.requestMtu(512);

Note that iOS will not allow requests of MTU size, and will always try to negotiate the highest possible MTU (iOS supports up to MTU size 185)

Getting Started

Change the minSdkVersion for Android

flutter_blue_plus is compatible only from version 19 of Android SDK so you should change this in android/app/build.gradle:

Android {
  defaultConfig {
     minSdkVersion: 19

Add permissions for Bluetooth

We need to add the permission to use Bluetooth and access location:

Android

In the android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml let’s add:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_SCAN" android:usesPermissionFlags="neverForLocation" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT" />

As of Android 12, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION is no longer required. However, if you need to determine the physical location of the device via Bluetooth, you must add this permission to your android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:

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

and set the androidUsesFineLocation flag to true when scanning:

// Start scanning
flutterBlue.startScan(timeout: Duration(seconds: 4), androidUsesFineLocation: true);

// Stop scanning
flutterBlue.stopScan();

IOS

In the ios/Runner/Info.plist let’s add:

	<dict>
	    <key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
	    <string>Need BLE permission</string>
	    <key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
	    <string>Need BLE permission</string>
	    <key>NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
	    <string>Need Location permission</string>
	    <key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
	    <string>Need Location permission</string>
	    <key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
	    <string>Need Location permission</string>

For location permissions on iOS see more at: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/requesting_authorization_for_location_services

Reference

FlutterBlue API

	Android	iOS	Throws	Description
adapterState	✅	✅		Stream of state changes for the bluetooth adapter
isAvailable	✅	✅		Checks whether the device supports Bluetooth
isOn	✅	✅		Checks if Bluetooth adapter is turned on
turnOn	✅		🔥	Turns on the bluetooth adapter
turnOff	✅		🔥	Turns off the bluetooth adapter
scan	✅	✅	🔥	Starts a scan for Ble devices and returns a stream
startScan	✅	✅	🔥	Starts a scan for Ble devices with no return value
stopScan	✅	✅	🔥	Stop an existing scan for Ble devices
scanResults	✅	✅		Stream of live scan results
isScanning	✅	✅		Stream of current scanning state
isScanningNow	✅	✅		Is a scan currently running?
connectedSystemDevices	✅	✅		List of already connected devices, even by other apps
setLogLevel	✅	✅		Configure plugin log level

BluetoothDevice API

	Android	iOS	Throws	Description
localName	✅	✅		The cached localName of the device
connect	✅	✅	🔥	Establishes a connection to the device
disconnect	✅	✅	🔥	Cancels an active or pending connection to the device
discoverServices	✅	✅	🔥	Discover services
isDiscoveryingServices	✅	✅		Stream of whether service discovery is in progress
servicesList	✅	✅		The list of services that were discovered
servicesStream	✅	✅		Stream of services changes
connectionState	✅	✅		Stream of connection changes for the Bluetooth Device
mtu	✅	✅	🔥	Stream of mtu size changes
readRssi	✅	✅	🔥	Read RSSI from a connected device
requestMtu	✅		🔥	Request to change the MTU for the device
requestConnectionPriority	✅		🔥	Request to update a high priority, low latency connection
pair	✅		🔥	Calls createBond on a device
removeBond	✅		🔥	Remove Bluetooth Bond of device
setPreferredPhy	✅			Set preferred RX and TX phy for connection and phy options
clearGattCache	✅		🔥	Clear android cache of service discovery results

BluetoothCharacteristic API

	Android	iOS	Throws	Description
uuid	✅	✅		The uuid of characeristic
read	✅	✅	🔥	Retrieves the value of the characteristic
write	✅	✅	🔥	Writes the value of the characteristic
setNotifyValue	✅	✅	🔥	Sets notifications or indications on the characteristic
isNotifying	✅	✅		Are notifications or indications currently enabled
onValueReceived	✅	✅		Stream of characteristic value updates received from the device
lastValue	✅	✅		The most recent value of the characteristic
lastValueStream	✅	✅		Stream of lastValue + onValueReceived

BluetoothDescriptor API

	Android	iOS	Throws	Description
uuid	✅	✅		The uuid of descriptor
read	✅	✅	🔥	Retrieves the value of the descriptor
write	✅	✅	🔥	Writes the value of the descriptor
onValueReceived	✅	✅		Stream of descriptor value reads & writes
lastValue	✅	✅		The most recent value of the descriptor
lastValueStream	✅	✅		Stream of lastValue + onValueReceived

Debugging

The easiest way to debug issues in FlutterBluePlus is to make your own local copy.

cd /user/downloads
git clone https://github.com/boskokg/flutter_blue_plus.git

then in pubspec.yaml add the repo by path:

  flutter_blue_plus:
    path: /user/downloads/flutter_blue_plus

Now you can edit the FlutterBluePlus code yourself.

Troubleshooting

Many common problems are easily solved.

Scanning does not find my device

1. your device uses bluetooth classic, not BLE.

Headphones, speakers, keyboards, mice, gamepads, & printers all use Bluetooth Classic. FlutterBluePlus only supports Bluetooth Low Energy.

2. your device stopped advertising.

• you might need to reboot your device
• you might need put your device in "discovery mode"
• your phone may connect automatically
• another app may have connected to your device

Try looking through already connected devices:

// search already connected devices, including devices
// connected to by other apps
List<BluetoothDevice> system = await FlutterBluePlus.connectedSystemDevices;
for (var d in system) {
    print('${r.device.localName} already connected to! ${r.device.remoteId}');
    if (d.localName == "myBleDevice") {
         await r.connect(); // must connect our app
    }
}

2. your scan filters are wrong.

• try removing all scan filters
• for withServices to work, your device must actively advertise the serviceUUIDs it supports

onValueReceived is never called

1. you are not subscribed

Your device will only send values after you call await characteristic.setNotifyValue(true)

2. you are calling write

onValueReceived is only called for reads & notifies.

You can do a single read with await characteristic.read(...)

3. your device has nothing to send

If you are using setNotifyValue, your device chooses when to send data.

Try interacting with your device to get it to send new data.

4. your device has bugs

Try rebooting your ble device.

Some ble devices have buggy software and stop sending data.