Connecting a Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR class 2 device with an iOS App

Question

I have a Bluetooth® device which is on version 2.1 with EDR. I want to connect and read the services that it transmits in my iOS app. This device is based on Personal Area Network (PAN) profile which is supported by apple. I believe, for supported profiles, there is no need to enroll for the MFI program.

The problem i am facing is the device is not discoverable with the iOS devices even in the Settings --> Bluetooth page. What could be the issue ?

Answer 1

While iOS supports the PAN profile, this is only for the purposes of Internet tethering -

Personal Area Network Profile

(PAN) Personal Area Network Profile provides network connectivity over Bluetooth. With iOS, this is common with multiplayer games and Personal Hotspot on iPhone. Learn more about peer-to-peer connectivity*.

iPod touch and iPad with iOS 4.3 or later support Internet tethering from an iPhone with iOS 4.2.6 or later through PAN.

You will not be able to interact with a PAN profile device from your own app, there simply isn't a framework that exposes this level of Bluetooth connectivity.

In general you can only write apps to work with BLE GATT profile devices unless you are enrolled in the MFi program (You can send audio streams to supported devices using the AV framework and a keyboard will work with any app using the HID profile, but you can't control pairing etc from your app)