androidgoogle-play-servicesbluetooth-lowenergygoogle-nearby

Google Nearby Connection API: measure signal strength


Recently I found a seemingly cool way to communicate between devices using Google Nearby API. Skimming through the documentation didn't answer my question - is it possible to measure the connection signal strength in real time, or should I invent some kludges e.g. measuring time of sending and receiving data or something else?

Thank you.


Solution

  • As a developer of Nearby API stated in thread Google Nearby Messages - Cancel initial link between devices :

    Today, Nearby doesn't expose distance directly

    He suggests to use BLE RSSI instead

    You can get a rough approximation of distance by measuring BLE RSSI if one of the devices is capable of BLE advertising. This will be sensitive to how the device is held, antenna gain and environmental factors but better than random.

    There's not a straight-forward "tape measure" API, though.