Using Bluetooth 5 on iPhone

Question

I have application that already uses BLE. I know bluetooth 5 is supported on iPhone 8 and iPhone X. Client wants me to add support for bluetooth 5. I found that CoreBluetooth can be used only to "Communicate with Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy devices". How can I use Bluetooth 5.0 on iOS?

Answer 1

At the time of writing this, Apple has not provided API support for Bluetooth 5 functionality or any of its features (e.g. Long range, 2xSpeed, LE Advert Extensions, etc), so there's nothing you can do at your end. Currently only Bluetooth 4.2 features are supported (e.g. Data Packet Length Extension, LE Secure Connections, etc). Please have a look at the links below:-

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2017/712/

https://developer.apple.com/bluetooth/

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

iOS BLE 4.0 API s are not specific for Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy devices. Whatever works with Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy devices will also work for Bluetooth 5.0 low-energy devices.

Answer 3

Core Bluetooth library was working with BLE. Its means no need to write different delegates and methods for bluetooth 4.0 or bluetooth 5.0. All delegates working same for BLE(4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and 5.0 = BLE).