I'm developing Androfest, a native Android app with a SwiftUI macOS companion. It provides user-authorized notification forwarding, automatic clipboard synchronization, file transfer, and phone-call controls, with experimental call-audio relay.
I need a secure, direct connection between a nearby Android phone and a Mac without requiring both devices to join the same Wi-Fi network or using a cloud relay. Discovery, authenticated pairing, and a bidirectional IP data path are the requirements; application traffic uses certificate-pinned TLS. The Android side uses WifiAwareManager. My development devices are a Galaxy S24 FE running Android 16 / One UI 8 and an Apple silicon M4 Pro Mac running macOS 27.2.
I read the DTS answer in “Do Mac computers support Wi-Fi Aware?” (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/827887), which explains that the presence of the framework for Mac Catalyst does not imply usable Wi-Fi Aware support on Mac. I am asking specifically about the provisioning information below and whether there is an approved path for this use case.
In Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → Register an App ID → Capabilities → Wi-Fi Aware, the information popover currently shows:
- Platform Support: iOS
- Provisioning Support: Development, Ad hoc, App Store Connect, Developer ID
- Entitlement Keys: com.apple.developer.wifi-aware
This is confusing because Developer ID is listed while macOS is not listed under Platform Support. The native macOS SDK declarations I inspected mark the public Wi-Fi Aware APIs unavailable on macOS. Two previously generated Developer ID provisioning profiles for my test App ID had Platform = OSX, but neither contained com.apple.developer.wifi-aware. I also could not find a Wi-Fi Aware-specific approval request in the portal's Capability Requests list.
Could Apple clarify the following?
- Does the Developer ID entry describe a usable configuration for native macOS or Mac Catalyst applications, or is it a portal metadata issue?
- Is there a supported API, managed entitlement, or approval process for Wi-Fi Aware discovery and IP data paths between a third-party macOS app and an Android device? If so, which target platform, capability, provisioning-profile type, and signing configuration are required?
- Can that configuration operate on a standard Mac with SIP enabled, default NVRAM/boot arguments, and normal code-signing enforcement? A distributable application needs to work under those conditions.
- If Wi-Fi Aware is not supported for this scenario, what supported transport would Apple recommend for router-independent Android–Mac communication? Where should I file an enhancement request, and should the portal's Developer ID entry be reported separately?
I would appreciate guidance on the supported integration route and any missing provisioning or entitlement step. Thank you.
This is confusing because Developer ID is listed while macOS is not listed under Platform Support.
I agree that this is confusing. My interpretation of this is that if Wi-Fi Aware were supported on the Mac, it’d support App Store and Developer ID distribution.
Certainly, it’s not supported right now. If you create provision profiles from an App ID with Wi-Fi Aware enabled, this is what you see:
% security cms -D -i Test853064_iOSDev.mobileprovision | plutil -p -
{
…
"Entitlements" => {
"application-identifier" => "SKMME9E2Y8.com.example.Test853064"
"com.apple.developer.team-identifier" => "SKMME9E2Y8"
"com.apple.developer.wifi-aware" => [
0 => "Publish"
1 => "Subscribe"
]
"get-task-allow" => true
"keychain-access-groups" => [
0 => "SKMME9E2Y8.*"
1 => "com.apple.token"
]
}
…
}
% security cms -D -i Test853064_MacDev.provisionprofile | plutil -p -
{
…
"Entitlements" => {
"com.apple.application-identifier" => "SKMME9E2Y8.com.example.Test853064"
"com.apple.developer.team-identifier" => "SKMME9E2Y8"
"keychain-access-groups" => [
0 => "SKMME9E2Y8.*"
]
}
…
}
% security cms -D -i Test853064_DevID.provisionprofile | plutil -p -
{
…
"Entitlements" => {
"com.apple.application-identifier" => "SKMME9E2Y8.com.example.Test853064"
"com.apple.developer.team-identifier" => "SKMME9E2Y8"
"keychain-access-groups" => [
0 => "SKMME9E2Y8.*"
]
}
…
}
The entitlement shows up in the allowlist for the iOS development profile, but not for the Mac development profile or the Mac Developer ID distribution profile.
4- what supported transport would Apple recommend for router-independent Android–Mac communication?
Over Wi-Fi? I don’t see a lot of great options on that front. If the Android device has the equivalent of Personal Hotspot, and it supports STA to AP communication on that network, you could have the Mac join its network.
Alternatively, you have Bluetooth LE, USB, and TCP/IP over USB options to explore. I’m happy to talk to the Apple side of those, but I can’t help you with the Android side.
Where should I file an enhancement request … ?
Via the standard process. See Bug Reporting: How and Why? for lots of advice on that front.
Of course it’s not necessary for you to file a bug about this. I’m pretty sure that the Wi-Fi Aware team understands that there’s demand for macOS support (r. 154014980). However, there is one advantage to you filing your own bug about this: Once your bug is marked as a dup, our systems will notify you when the original gets resolved.
should the portal's Developer ID entry be reported separately?
If you’re going to file a bug against the Developer website, you should definitely do that separately.
If you do file any bugs, please post the bug numbers, just for the record.
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—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
