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I want to use the Qt framwork to enable my Android devices to communicate over Bluetooth. As of today Qt 5.2 is the newest and from what I understand Bluetooth is not supported yet. On this page:

Qt Bluetooth information

it says that Bluetooth is only supported for Blackberry and Linux (on BlueZ 4.x). I do not know anything about BlueZ, but Android is based on a Linux kernel so is there a possibility that newer versions of Android OS is supported?

I have previously written an app in java that established and sends/receives data over Bluetooth. Is it a good choice using JNI to call the java code? Have anyone done this with Bluetooth?

I assume Bluetooth will be added in an update soon, Qt 5.2.x or 5.3 at latest, but I need a temporary solution.

I am asking here before I decide how to proceed.

László Papp
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uniquenamehere
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  • @karlphillip: Basically I want to know what is the best approach using Qt to implement bluetooth communication. There are also additional questions that can be answered. I would like to hear thoughts and experiences. – uniquenamehere Dec 24 '13 at 01:45
  • @Phataas : Latest android does not have bluez stack, its replaced by bluedroid, that may be the reason Qt f/w does not support on android – ashish Dec 24 '13 at 11:11
  • As an update to this question, Qt 5.3 supports Bluetooth for Android. – uniquenamehere Mar 05 '14 at 14:02

1 Answers1

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it says that Bluetooth is only supported for Blackberry and Linux (on BlueZ 4.x). I do not know anything about BlueZ, but Android is based on a Linux kernel so is there a possibility that newer versions of Android OS is supported?

Short answer: No.

Longer elaboration: to see the history behind QtBluetooth, you need to understand that it had been part of Qt Mobility during the Qt 4 lifecycle. It was not an official Qt module, really.

When Nokia turned down the Maemo/MeeGo development, this module became pretty much abandonware. Recently, this module was brought back to life for Qt 5 when the original author from Brisbane joined Digia in Berlin. It has undergone some improvements, but as the documentation writes, Android is not supported at this point.

Also, note that new major features cannot be added to the Qt 5.2 series since only minor bugfix releases will follow without introducing new symbols.

Respectively, your best bet is probably 5.3 for the earliest support date, but do not take it as a guarantee, it will depend a lot on the workload that the people can sacrifice for this module.

Based on the following blog post from KDAB, it seems to be targetted for 5.3. by Bogdan who has been the original author of the Qt Android fork for Qt 4, which has been called Necessitas.

Hope, this clarifies the history, the presence, and the future plans.

László Papp
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