We develop an iPhone app that performs user-started Bluetooth discovery for 1–5 minutes, with visible progress, cancellation and a Live Activity.
We need to discover arbitrary BLE advertisers, including nonconnectable devices, and receive repeated RSSI samples during that bounded scan.
The app declares bluetooth-central, creates its central manager before starting the Live Activity in the foreground, and scans with nil service filters and duplicates enabled. Discovery continues behind another app while the display is on, but saved observation timestamps stop advancing after the phone is locked with its display off.
We understand the restriction described in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/815189.
Is there an iPhone managed entitlement or supported program that permits this use case? If so, what are the eligibility criteria and application route?
We also found com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-screen-off-scanning mentioned in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/835684. That discussion concerns watchOS medical use; we are asking whether any corresponding iPhone capability exists.
If no route exists, should we submit an enhancement request through Feedback Assistant?
Is there an iPhone managed entitlement … that permits this use case?
I’m not aware of such a capability.
In general, managed capabilities are documented on our website and you request them via the same path. See New Capabilities Request Tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles for more about the latter.
If no route exists, should we submit an enhancement request through Feedback Assistant?
I encourage you to file an enhancement request for any functionality that you feel would benefit your product. However, you have to keep your expectations realistic:
- Apple’s engineering teams have many competing demands on their time.
- They also have to carefully balance the needs of app developers against the needs of users. Notably, users really appreciate all day battery life.
If you do file an ER, please post your bug number, just for the record.
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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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