How to Display Bluetooth Paired Devices Programmatically in Android?

Bluetooth’s technology is a high-speed, low-powered wireless technology link designed to connect devices such as phones or other portable equipment. It has a specification (IEEE 802.15.1) for low-power radio communications to link computers, phones, and other network devices over a short distance in a wireless manner. Bluetooth signals cover distances, typically up to 10 meters or 30 feet. Bluetooth supports the waveband of 2.45 GHz and may support up to 721 kbps alongside three voice channels. This waveband has been put aside by international agreement to use Industrial, Scientific, and Medical devices (ISM).rd-compatible with 1.0 devices. Bluetooth is capable of connecting up to “eight devices” at a time. Every device offers a unique 48-bit address from the IEEE 802 standard. The Bluetooth specification defines and supports a variety of Bluetooth network connections. In this way, Bluetooth networking may be a remarkably flexible form of a wireless system for various short-range applications. Through this article, we want to share with you the implementation of an application that displays a list of Bluetooth Paired Devices along with their MAC IDs. A sample image is given below to get an idea about what we are going to do in this article. Note that we are going to implement this project using both Java and Kotlin language. 

Step by Step Implementation

To programmatically show a list of Bluetooth Paired devices against our device in Android, follow the following steps:

Step 1: Create a New Project

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. Note that select Kotlin as the programming language.

Step 2: Working with the AndroidManifest.xml file

Go to the AndroidManifest.xml file and add these permissions required by the Bluetooth adapter: BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH_ADMIN, and ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION. 

<uses-permission android:name=”android.permission.BLUETOOTH”/>

<uses-permission android:name=”android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN”/>

<uses-permission android:name=”android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION”/>

Below is the complete code for the AndroidManifest.xml file.

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="org.geeksforgeeks.bluetoothpairedlist">

    <!--Permissions Required for accessing Bluetooth services-->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"/>

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

Step 3: Working with the activity_main.xml file

Now go to the activity_main.xml file which represents the UI of the application. Create a Layout that will display the Paired list of Bluetooth devices along with their MAC Addresses, and a Button to fetch them. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail. 

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <!--Button will perform a task to fetch the
        list of paired Bluetooth Devices-->
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnGet"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:text="Get Paired Devices" />

    <!--A layout to display 2 text views, one consisting
        of names and the other displaying their mac ids-->
    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/info"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@id/btnGet"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true">

        <!--Paired devices name-->
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/nameTv"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

        <!--Paired devices mac ID-->
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/macAddressTv"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_toRightOf="@id/nameTv" />

    </RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

Step 4: Working with the MainActivity file

Go to the MainActivity file, and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail. 

Kotlin

import android.bluetooth.BluetoothAdapter
import android.os.Build
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.TextView
import android.widget.Toast
import androidx.annotation.RequiresApi
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    @RequiresApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR2)
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // Declaring the textView for name from the layout file
        val tvName = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.nameTv)

        // Declaring the textView for MAC ID from the layout file
        val tvMac = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.macAddressTv)

        // Declaring the button from the layout file
        val btn = findViewById<Button>(R.id.btnGet)

        // Initializing the Bluetooth Adapter
        val bAdapter = BluetoothAdapter.getDefaultAdapter()

        // Button Action when clicked
        btn.setOnClickListener {

            // Checks if Bluetooth Adapter is present
            if (bAdapter == null) {
                Toast.makeText(applicationContext, "Bluetooth Not Supported", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
            } else {
                // Arraylist of all the bonded (paired) devices
                val pairedDevices = bAdapter.bondedDevices
                if (pairedDevices.size > 0) {
                    for (device in pairedDevices) {

                        // get the device name
                        val deviceName = device.name

                        // get the mac address
                        val macAddress = device.address

                        // append in the two separate views
                        tvName.append("$deviceName\n")
                        tvMac.append("$macAddress\n")
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Java

import android.bluetooth.BluetoothAdapter;
import android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import java.util.Set;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    TextView tvName, tvMac;
    Button btn;
    BluetoothAdapter bAdapter;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        // Declaring the textView for name from the layout file
        tvName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.nameTv);

        // Declaring the textView for MAC ID from the layout file
        tvMac = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.macAddressTv);

        // Declaring the button from the layout file
        btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnGet);

        // Initializing the Bluetooth Adapter
        bAdapter = BluetoothAdapter.getDefaultAdapter();

        btn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                // Checks if Bluetooth Adapter is present
                if (bAdapter == null) {
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Bluetooth Not Supported", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                } else {
                    // List all the bonded devices(paired)
                    Set<BluetoothDevice> pairedDevices = bAdapter.getBondedDevices();
                    if (pairedDevices.size() > 0) {
                        for (BluetoothDevice device : pairedDevices) {

                            // get the device name
                            String deviceName = device.getName();

                            // get the mac address
                            String macAddress = device.getAddress();

                            // append in the two separate views
                            tvName.append(deviceName + "\n");
                            tvMac.append(macAddress + "\n");
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        });
    }
}

Output: Run on Physical Device

Note: Some data is masked to maintain privacy.