Hi,
I am trying to understand if I am able to get bluetooth scanning for advertisements (no service UUID) when the app is moved into the background and the screen goes to sleep.
I am using swift on ios26.2 with a bluetooth class that uses the standard centralManager.scanForPeripherals to listen for particular Beacons. Testing on a real iPhone 15 this works fine whilst in the foreground, and also when on the lock screen. I am trying to get this to continue working in the background when the black screen sleep mode is on.
I have the bluetooth 'Uses Bluetooth LE accessories' in the background modes (as well as Audio, Airplay..) and the necessary Bluetooth peripheral usage description, bluetooth always usage descriptions in info.plist.
I launch a LiveActivity whilst the app is in the foreground and bluetooth has started scanning. From my understanding of core bluetooth with ios26 the LiveActivity should allow the scan to continue (without service UUIds and aggressive throttling) whilst the app is in the background.
Well this seems to work fine.. if I press the side button the phone goes to the Lock Screen, and whilst on the Lock Screen the bluetooth is scanning fine and receiving beacon data. Similarly if the app is sent to the background behind a different foreground app it also works. As soon as the screen goes to sleep however (after only a few seconds of inactivity on the Lock Screen) then all bluetooth scanning stops. If I click back on the screen and bring the Lock Screen up, then scanning resumes again.
Now is it possible to continue the scanning whilst the phone is in sleep mode (i.e. black screen)? Are there any additional acceptable steps to make the bluetooth scanning continue when the screen has gone to sleep. Or is it part of the design with core bluetooth that the 'continues in the background' feature only applies to the lock screen and when other active apps are brought to the foreground on an open phone. I want to understand the limitations of what can be achieved so I am not chasing unachievable objectives. Thanks
The scanning will be limited to scans for specific UUIDs, may be throttled, will not detect multiple advertisements, and will not read secondary advertisement packets (SCAN_RSP) unless the app is in the foreground and in use.
iOS 26 adds the existence of a Live Activity for an app to be considered sufficiently in use to continue scanning without these limitations, but on a locked screen which is turned off even the Live Activity is no longer sufficiently in use, so the scanning behavior will change.
There are no supported workarounds for this limitation.
