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It seems like it would be super useful if an app existed for iPhone/Android that emulated a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse. e.g., you turn on the app, and suddenly you can type on your iPhone keyboard and your PC/PS3/etc. pairs with it as if it were a Bluetooth keyboard and receives the typed letters.

This idea seems so intuitive to me that I am thinking the only reason it doesn't exist is that it is not possible, but I don't understand why it wouldn't be possible.

Is there a limitation of Bluetooth which prevents a device from emulating a different type of device? Or, perhaps, a limitation in the APIs exposed by iOS or Android which would inhibit this?

EDIT: it looks like the iPhone Bluetooth APIs are fairly limited as you can only communicate with Apple-licensed accessories: Is it possible to develop an iOS app with bluetooth capabilities? This would presumably rule out anything along the lines of emulation of another type of device. The question is still open for Android though.

Community
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StilesCrisis
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  • Looks like there's a piece of hardware out there that does this: http://inputstick.com/ – Ajedi32 Nov 25 '15 at 16:59
  • how's the situation in 2018? I'd like to use my phone to control my laptop's presentation but I'd rather not install any extra software on my laptop if I can avoid it... – Lech Rzedzicki Jun 25 '18 at 06:45
  • Related: [Android - Bluetooth Low Energy Remote Keyboard & Mouse - Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21153444/android-bluetooth-low-energy-remote-keyboard-mouse) – user202729 Nov 09 '20 at 04:58

3 Answers3

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I'm surprised nobody has answered pointing out BlueputDroid as an Android solution for that. At the link you can find further information about device compatibilities.

I know this thread is rather old but I think it's worth to let it documented so others would end up here as me and will find an answer, at least for the Android half of the question.

EDIT: if you have problems to get your device connected to your ps3 like I did, try this out: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19881739#post19881739

user4815162342
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Leandro Del Sole
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    Super interesting, but it looks like it doesn't actually work with Windows and Mac OS (where I'd guess the Bluetooth stack is the most mature and is probably refusing to talk to devices which send malformed data). I wonder where things are falling off the rails. But at any rate, it's a proof of concept for sure. – StilesCrisis Oct 15 '12 at 16:20
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    BlueCtrl is another solution for android version no higher than 4.1: https://github.com/RonsDev/BlueCtrl – felix021 Apr 22 '14 at 07:19
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    Note that both BlueputDroid and BlueCtrl requires root privileges. – user202729 Nov 06 '20 at 14:39
  • Does anyone know of a source of an original apk for BlueputDroid? It's not on the play store anymore. And even better: does anyone know if it works with the PS5? Thanks. As for BlueCtrl... having to build it myself isn't ideal, and I see that it was last updated around 11 years ago... yeah. – nonzaprej Jul 15 '23 at 00:12
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The public iOS APIs do not currently appear to expose any functionality that would allow an app to make the iOS device to appear as a generic keyboard HID on Bluetooth.

However, iOS apps (iOS 4.2 and later?) can use external Bluetooth keyboards for input.

hotpaw2
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2

This is possible on Blackberry 10 devices. Use the app called: bluetooth keyboard-mouse. I have been looking but I don't think Android or IOS have capability to appear as a bluetooth hid device

Ton Plomp
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magnus voort
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