Hi there, We’re developing a companion app for a smart home product that communicates over the user’s local network. To provision the device, it initially creates its own Wi-Fi network. The user joins this temporary network and enters their home Wi-Fi credentials via our app. The app then sends those credentials directly to the device, which stores them and connects to the local network for normal operation. We’re using AccessorySetupKit to discover nearby devices (via SSID prefix) and NEHotspotManager to join the accessory’s Wi-Fi network once the user selects it. This workflow works well in general. However, we’ve encountered a problem: if the user factory-resets the accessory, or needs to restart setup (for example, after entering the wrong Wi-Fi password), the device no longer appears in the accessory picker. In iOS 18, we were able to work around this by calling removeAccessory() after the device is selected. This forces the picker to always display the accessory again. But in iOS 26, a new confirmation dialog now appears when calling removeAccessory(), which confuses users during setup. We’re looking for a cleaner way to handle this scenario — ideally a way to make the accessory rediscoverable without prompting the user to confirm removal. Thanks for your time and guidance.

Hello, I understand that to discover and pair a device or accessory with Wi-Fi Aware, we can use either the DeviceDiscoveryUI or AccessorySetupKitUI frameworks. During the pairing process, both frameworks prompt the user to enter a pairing code. Is this step mandatory? What alternatives exist for devices or accessories that don't have a way to communicate a pairing code to the user (for example, devices or accessories without a display or voice capability)? Best regards, Gishan

TN 3115 states that apps that do not use AccessorySetupKit will loose the ability to launch into the background to service bluetooth in iOS26. Starting in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, only apps that use AccessorySetupKit to setup Bluetooth accessories will be relaunched. Is there any more information regarding this? Will it affect any app under iOS26 or only those build against the iOS26 SDK? My app (dev build) is still relaunched, even though I'm running iOS26, so I wonder if there are any more conditions checked.

This is not a question but rather a small bit of documentation on how Accessory Setup Kit actually works. I spent a couple days figuring this out so I thought let's share my findings. The example app is very light and the documentation definitely has room for improvement so here are a couple important notes. Findings: If you're running > iOS 18 and add any property to your Info.plist file you're no longer able to scan for devices by using CBCentralManager.scanForPeriphals. This will no longer return discoverable devices. Below iOS 18 these properties in the Info.plist are ignored by the OS and you can safely use the "legacy" method of connecting to bluetooth devices. If you're running > iOS 26 the removeAccessory will show a prompt to the user. If you're running < 26 you can silently remove the accessory and start each session with a clean state. If you create CBCentralManager before you start the ASK session you'll not get the state = PoweredOn. If you have 0 accessories connected to your application CBCentralManager will never enter the state = PoweredOn when you create the CBCentralManager. Pre-ASK this would be the trigger for iOS to ask the user permission. This is no longer necessary with ASK. If you have have 1 or more accessories authorized to your app this will be returned in the session.accessories after the session has started. This is an important indicator to determine app behavior. If you have 1 or more accessories CBCentralManager.scanForPeripherals will ONLY return previously authorized AND discoverable devices. Use this for when you want to connect to a previously authorized device. If you have 1 or more accessories and the CBCentralManager.scanForPeripherals returns nothing you can (safely) assume the user attempts to onboard a new device. So for my application I take the following steps: Check for iOS version, if > iOS 18 start ASK session. Are there previously authorized devices? -- yes: run CBCentralManger.scanForPeripherals -- no: show the picker Did the scan return any devices? -- yes: show UI to select device or connect with first available device in the list -- no: show the picker Feel free to add any of your findings and @Apple please update the documentation!

FB18383742 Setup 🛠️ Xcode 16.4 (16F6) 📱 iPhone 13 mini (iOS 18.0.1) ⌚️ Apple Watch Series 10 (watchOS 11.3.1) Observations As AccessorySetupKit does not request "Core Bluetooth permissions", when a watchOS companion app is installed after having installed the iOS app, the toggle in the watch settings for Privacy & Security > Bluetooth is turned off and disabled After removing the iPhone associated with the Apple Watch, Bluetooth works as expected in the watchOS app Upon reinstalling the iOS app, there's a toggle for Bluetooth in the iOS ASK app's settings and the ASK picker cannot be presented 🤨 From ASK Documentation: AccessorySetupKit is available for iOS and iPadOS. The accessory’s Bluetooth permission doesn’t sync to a companion watchOS app. But this doesn't address not being able to use Core Bluetooth in a watch companion app at all 🥲 Reproducing the bug Install the iOS + watchOS apps Launch iOS app, tap "start scan", observe devices can be discovered (project is set up to find heart rate monitors) Launch watchOS, tap allow on Bluetooth permission pop-up watchOS app crashes 💥 Meanwhile, in the iOS app, there should be a log entry for 💗 CBCentralManager state: poweredOff and the ASK picker is no longer able to discover any devices The state of the device permissions: iOS app has no paired accessories or Bluetooth permission watchOS app's Bluetooth permission shown as turned off & disabled Remove the iOS app Relaunch the watchOS app Notice the CBCentralManager state is unauthorized Remove and reinstall the watchOS app Tap allow on Bluetooth permission pop-up watchOS app does not crash and CBCentralManager state is poweredOn The state of the watch permissions: Bluetooth is turned on & the toggle is not disabled Note that at this time the iOS app is not installed, there is no way to remove Bluetooth permission for the watch app. Reinstall + launch the iOS app Notice a warning in the log: [##### WARNING #####] App has companion watch app that maybe affected if using CoreBluetooth framework. Please read developer documentation for AccessorySetupKit. Notice a log entry for 💗 CBCentralManager state: poweredOn before tapping start scan Tap start scan and observe another log entry: Failed to show picker due to: The operation couldn’t be completed. (ASErrorDomain error 550.) ASErrorDomain 550: The picker can't be used because the app is in the background. Is this the expected error? 🤔 The state of the iOS permissions: The app's settings show a Bluetooth toggle normally associated with Core Bluetooth, but the app never showed a Core Bluetooth pop-up The iOS ASK app now has Core Bluetooth permission 😵‍💫 Following up with Apple This is a known bug that should be fixed in watchOS 26 when Bluetooth permissions for watch apps can be set independently of the iOS app. I've yet to test it with watchOS 26. See repo for the same post with screenshots of the settings and demo code reproducing the bug: https://github.com/superturboryan/AccessorySetupKit-CoreBluetooth-watchOS-Demo

I'm developing an application using the accessory setup kit (BLE) on iOS 18+. An important aspect of the connection process is being able to find and choose the correct device. I noticed on iOS 18.2 that I was able to both scroll through the discovered accessories as well as view the advertised name. However, after upgrading to 18.7.2, only a single device is viewable and the advertised name is no longer available. Is there a trigger for this feature that I need to enable or was this "multiple discovery" feature removed? If so, why?

I am developing an app that communicates with external BLE device over GATT. The device has a secure-read characteristic exposing some of it's data and requires pairing/bonding in order to communicate with it. I was able to pair and connect with the device using AccessorySetupKit and .bluetoothPairingLE option: let descriptor = ASDiscoveryDescriptor() descriptor.bluetoothServiceUUID = CBUUID(string: serviceUUID) descriptor.supportedOptions = [.bluetoothPairingLE] let picketItem = ASPickerDisplayItem(name: name, productImage: image, descriptor: descriptor) In this case when setting up accessory, I was prompted to compare passkeys and after confirming I can read the characteristic etc. Then I tried adding .confirmAuthorization to picker item and problems started: let descriptor = ASDiscoveryDescriptor() descriptor.bluetoothServiceUUID = CBUUID(string: serviceUUID) descriptor.supportedOptions = [.bluetoothPairingLE] let picketItem = ASPickerDisplayItem(name: name, productImage: image, desc pickerItem.setupOptions = [.confirmAuthorization] When setting up, I can see a passkey to be confirmed, but when confirmed the setup ui get's suck in loading state. Under the hood in logs, I can see that my app has connected to peripheral and was able to read the characteristic. I am unsure why the ui is stuck in loading state in this case. What is the difference when using .confirmAuthorization option and what should be the proper flow of events to setup accessory and then access protoected characteristic?

I am working on an app that requires the usage of CoreBluetooth – using both its CBPeripheralManager and CBCentralManager classes. Our app works with other phones and hardware peripherals to exchange data – so we wanted to explore adding AccessorySetupKit to streamline the hardware connection process. AccessorySetupKit has been integrated (while CBPeripheralManager is turned off) and works great, but even with ASK added to our app's plist file and not in use, CBPeripheralManager fails with error: Cannot create a CBPeripheralManager while using AccessorySetupKit framework. Is there any workaround or suggested path forward here? We'd still really like to use ASK while keeping our existing functionality, but are not seeing a clear way to do so.

Hello Apple Developers, I'm currently working on building a custom HomeKit Accessory using the HomeKit ADK v6.3 and running the Remote.OpenSSL sample on a Raspberry Pi 4 (64-bit Ubuntu / Linux Kernel 6.1.21-v8+). I'm trying to pair the accessory via the MFi HomeKit ADK pairing process. I've successfully compiled the ADK using: The application (Remote.OpenSSL) launches correctly, and the accessory server starts as expected, broadcasting via mDNS. However, when I attempt to initiate pairing via iOS (or simulate pairing), the following error occurs: Fault fatal error - HAPPlatformAccessorySetupLoadSetupInfo @ PAL/Linux/HAPPlatformAccessorySetup.c:93 This causes the application to crash.

Hi there! I'm developing a dual-mode bluetooth accessory and would like to pair it through AccessorySetupKit. I'm using an ESP32 with Bluekitchen btstack. This supports CTKD, which seems to be a requirement for the Bluetooth transport bridging according the WWDC19 session 901. I've been in contact with the btstack developer and verified that I can get the device to generate an LTK for the classic transport when reading an encrypted attribute. I'm not able to get this to work with the bluetoothTransportBriding option with AccessorySetupKit though. What I've found so far is that if I omit the .bluetoothTransportBriding option during pairing I will get a pairing request when I read an encrypted attribute after connecting with the CBConnectPeripheralOptionEnableTransportBridgingKey option. If I accept this request it seems like the system automatically brings up the A2DP profile. However if I include .bluetoothTransportBriding and/or .bluetoothPairingLE this option does not pop up, but the system does not bring up the A2DP profile. In this case things seem to end up in a weird situation where the device doesn't show up for pairing in Bluetooth Settings either, making it impossible to manually connect for A2DP. Based on the AccessorySetupKit example from WWDC24 I've created a dice accessory firmware for ESP32 using btstack. The code for this is available here: https://github.com/ljodal/esp32-btstack-ctkd-test I've also tweaked the AccessorySetupKit example app for iOS to add the ASAccessory.SupportOptions. The code for that is available here: https://github.com/ljodal/accessorysetupkit-ctkd-test Is there any documentation available anywhere on what is expected of the device for Bluetooth Transport Bridging to work with AccessorySetupKit?

Hello, I am working on a application that connects to a peripheral using AccessorySetupKit. Peripheral is currently advertising it's custom service UUID. With this setup I am able to discover and connect to the device without issues. Firmware team wants to introduce a change and add a "manufacturer data" to the advertisment for better recognition. Upon testing with iOS app, it turns out that current code breaks and does not discover the device anymore. I am unable to configure AccessorySetupKit to be able to discover the device when it has both service uuid and manufacturer data in advertisment. Removing the newly added manufacturer data "fixes" the issue and app is able to discover peripherals again. Looking at the documentation of ASDiscoveryDescriptor it does not specify that those are mutually excluding fields nor does it provide any insight how the configured fields are evaluated against each other. Is this a bug in AccessorySetupKit? Is there a way to update the descriptor in a way that application will still be able to discover the peripheral if only service UUID is provided? Thanks in advance

I am very happy to see that HealthKit with OS26 is bringing HKLiveWorkoutDataSource to iOS and iPadOS. I have been replicating a similar type for the last several years for users that only have an iPhone. I did notice that the data types that the different platform data sources collect automatically is different. That makes sense if you think exclusively about what the device can actually capture. Bluetooth HRM is the only Bluetooth SIG profile that is out-of-the-box supported for Apple Health on iOS and iPadOS (right?). Whereas watchOS 10 got all of the cycling sensors (woohoo!). It would be great if the types to collect were the same across platforms even if the device couldn't collect the data now, because then in the future when / if new sensor support is added, it will be transparent to developers. Fantastic. Easier life as an indie / third party developer. At least that is the idea. And yes, I know I can also write Core Bluetooth code and roll my own SIG implementation for the cycling profiles, but Apple already has this code in one os, 'just copy it, it will be easy'. I know that isn't the reality especially against the new ASK framework, but one can hope and dream right? Imagine how many more apps would contribute that data if it was supported out of the box. An alternative, GitHub is a great place for Apple to share their Core Bluetooth implementation of the SIG profiles :). Just another thought. Here are some feedbacks related to this: FB17931751 - HealthKit: Add built-in support for cycling sensors on iOS and iPadOS - copy paste the code from watchOS. It will be easy they said (June 2025) FB12323089 - CoreBluetooth / Health / Bluetooth Settings: Add support for cycling sensors announced in watchOS 10 to iOS and iPadOS 17 (June 2023) FB14311218 - HealthKit: Expected outdoor cycling to include .cyclingSpeed quantity type as a default HKLiveWorkoutDataSource type to collect (July 2024) FB14978701 - Bluetooth / HealthKit / Fitness: Expose information about the user specified for Apple Watch paired Cycing Speed Sensor like isConnected and wheelCircumference values (August 2024) FB18402258 - HealthKit: HKLiveWorkoutDataSource should collect same types on iOS and watchOS even if device cannot produce data today (June 2025) FB14236080 - Developer Documentation / HealthKit: Update documentation for HKLiveWorkoutDataSource typesToCollect for which sample types are automatically collected by watchOS 10 and 11 (July 2024) Tangentially related: FB10281304 - HealthKit: Add HKActivityTypes canoeBikeRun and kayakBikeRun (June 2022) FB10281349 - HealthKit: Add HKActivityType walkCanoeWalk and walkKayakWalk (June 2022) FB7807993 - Add HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.paddleDistance for canoeing, kayaking, etc type workouts (June 2020) FB12508654 - HealthKit / Settings / Bluetooth / Workouts: Cycling sensor support doesn't allow for 'bike selection' in use case of multiple bikes and multiple sensors (borrow a bike to ride together) - production usability issue (July 2023)