iOS with Alt Beacons

[paulchaffey]

Hello,

Interesting package... Does this support Broadcasting and scanning of Alt Beacons on iOS ?

I have this working fine on Android, and I am looking for an iOS solution.

Thx, Paul.

[gerardggf]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your interest! I'm currently investigating the iOS implementation, but I haven't been able to figure out why it's not working for any beacon yet.

Best, Gerard

[paulchaffey]

Hi Gerard,
yes the iOS BT Beacons is really tricky. I have a flutter developer experimenting with iOS also who is facing issues currently.
I have been trying to find a sort of feature matrix for iOS and Android which maps Beacons AltBeacon, iBeacon, Eddystone against foreground and background operation for normal Phy and Advertising Extensions (long range Phy).
If you come across such a piece of documentation, please let me know.
Thx, Paul.

[gerardggf]

Hi Paul,

Good news! After more testing, I've successfully got Eddystone beacons working on iOS, and AltBeacons should work the same way since they use similar BLE scanning methods.

I think the main issue was related to iOS permissions and proper initialization. I've improved the permission handling to properly request location and Bluetooth permissions, which are both required for beacon detection on iOS.

Make sure your app's Info.plist includes these permission keys (these are what I'm using in the example app that works):

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs access to Bluetooth to scan for nearby beacons</string>
<key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs access to Bluetooth to scan for nearby beacons</string>
<key>NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs continuous access to your location to detect beacons even when you are not using the app</string>
<key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs continuous access to your location to detect beacons in the background</string>
<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs access to your location to detect nearby BLE beacons while you are using the app</string>
<key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
<array>
    <string>bluetooth-central</string>
    <string>location</string>
</array>

For iBeacon specifically, iOS requires you to manually specify the UUIDs you want to monitor due to CoreLocation's region monitoring requirements. The latest version (0.0.3) supports this configuration.

Please update to version 0.0.3 and test it out. Let me know if it works for your use case!

Regarding the feature matrix you mentioned, I haven't found comprehensive documentation yet.

Best, Gerard

[hariprasathys22]

Will it work with KBeacon w59 version