bluetooth Get Started With Bluetooth LE on Windows Listen for a Bluetooth LE Advertisement

Example

General Listening

This example shows how to listen for a specific advertisement.

BluetoothLEAdvertisementWatcher watcher = new BluetoothLEAdvertisementWatcher();

// Use active listening if you want to receive Scan Response packets as well
// this will have a greater power cost.
watcher.ScanningMode = BluetoothLEScanningMode.Active;

// Register a listener, this will be called whenever the watcher sees an advertisement. 
watcher.Received += OnAdvertisementReceived;

watcher.Start();

Advertisement Filter: Listening for a Specific Advertisement

Sometimes you want to listen for a specific advertisement. In this case, listen for an advertisement containing a payload with a made up company (identified as 0xFFFE) and containing the string Hello World in the advertisement. This can be paired with the Create a Bluetooth LE Advertisement example to have one Windows machine advertising and another listening.

Note: Be sure to set this advertisement filter before you start your watcher!

var manufacturerData = new BluetoothLEManufacturerData();
manufacturerData.CompanyId = 0xFFFE;

// Make sure that the buffer length can fit within an advertisement payload (~20 bytes). 
// Otherwise you will get an exception.
var writer = new DataWriter();
writer.WriteString("Hello World");
manufacturerData.Data = writer.DetachBuffer();

watcher.AdvertisementFilter.Advertisement.ManufacturerData.Add(manufacturerData);

Signal Filter: Listening for Proximal Advertisements

Sometimes you only want to trigger your watcher when the device advertising has come in range. You can define your own range, just note that normal values are between 0 and -128.

// Set the in-range threshold to -70dBm. This means advertisements with RSSI >= -70dBm 
// will start to be considered "in-range" (callbacks will start in this range).
watcher.SignalStrengthFilter.InRangeThresholdInDBm = -70;

// Set the out-of-range threshold to -75dBm (give some buffer). Used in conjunction 
// with OutOfRangeTimeout to determine when an advertisement is no longer 
// considered "in-range".
watcher.SignalStrengthFilter.OutOfRangeThresholdInDBm = -75;

// Set the out-of-range timeout to be 2 seconds. Used in conjunction with 
// OutOfRangeThresholdInDBm to determine when an advertisement is no longer 
// considered "in-range"
watcher.SignalStrengthFilter.OutOfRangeTimeout = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(2000);

Callbacks

watcher.Received += OnAdvertisementReceived;
watcher.Stopped += OnAdvertisementWatcherStopped;

private async void OnAdvertisementReceived(BluetoothLEAdvertisementWatcher watcher, BluetoothLEAdvertisementReceivedEventArgs eventArgs)
{
    // Do whatever you want with the advertisement

    // The received signal strength indicator (RSSI)
    Int16 rssi = eventArgs.RawSignalStrengthInDBm;
}


private async void OnAdvertisementWatcherStopped(BluetoothLEAdvertisementWatcher watcher, BluetoothLEAdvertisementWatcherStoppedEventArgs eventArgs)
{
    // Watcher was stopped
}

Note: This is only for listening in the foreground.