Google, Why is Android Bluetooth still so lousy?

Error message

The spam filter installed on this site is currently unavailable. Per site policy, we are unable to accept new submissions until that problem is resolved. Please try resubmitting the form in a couple of minutes.

Submitted by drink on

For literally years now, people have been asking for Bluetooth functionality in Android which is not there. One notable example is audio-to-headset, to permit listening to music on a headset device which does not support the bluetooth stereo audio profile. My pet issue is pinless trust, which is needed for devices like the Sony BD Remote and many Logitech mice which use no pin code. This has been a known issue at least since Gingerbread. Why is it still a problem?

This problem, of course, has long been reported to google; a quick search turned up issues #23527, #26041 #52529 (where I added my own complaints.) And there is a workaround in the form of the Bluetooth Pairing app. Just one problem: Google broke it in Android 4.2.2, when they re-engineered the bluetooth stack. It works fine on at least Android 2.3.2 through 4.1.1, but it hangs on 4.2.2 and then eventually does nothing. I have no 4.3 devices, so I don't know if the problem persists there.

It's hard to take Google seriously when they claim they care about the user experience if they don't even care about supporting basic bluetooth functionality.

Tags: 
google
android
bluetooth
pinless

Add new comment

More information about text formats

Default

  • Use [fn]...[/fn] (or <fn>...</fn>) to insert automatically numbered footnotes.
  • You may link to images on this site using a special syntax
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • To post pieces of code, surround them with <code>...</code> tags. For PHP code, you can use <?php ... ?>, which will also colour it based on syntax.
  • Internal paths in single or double quotes, written as "internal:node/99", for example, are replaced with the appropriate absolute URL or path. Paths to files in single or double quotes, written as "files:somefile.ext", for example, are replaced with the appropriate URL that can be used to download the file.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <blockquote> <q>

Issue

  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • To post pieces of code, surround them with <code>...</code> tags. For PHP code, you can use <?php ... ?>, which will also colour it based on syntax.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>

Drinking Game

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <p> <br> <pre> <h2> <h3> <h4>
  • Images may be embedded like: [image:node_id align=alignment hspace=n vspace=n border=n size=label width=n height=n nolink=(0|1) class=name style=style-data node=id] Leave off any attributes you don't want.
  • [img_assist|...] tags will be displayed, maybe. Please don't make more of them.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.