Use a local-only Wi-Fi hotspot

You can use a local-only hotspot to enable applications on devices connected to the Wi-Fi hotspot to communicate with each other. The network created by this method will not have Internet access. Each application can make a single request for the hotspot, but multiple applications can request the hotspot at the same time. When multiple applications have successfully registered concurrently, they share the underlying hotspot. LocalOnlyHotspotCallback.onStarted(LocalOnlyHotspotReservation) is called when the hotspot is ready for use.

If your app targets Android 13 (API level 33) or higher, you must request the NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES to use a local-only hotspot, as shown in the following code snippet. Apps that target an earlier version of Android must request ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION instead.

<manifest ...>
    <<!-- If your app targets Android 13 (API level 33)
          or higher, you must declare the NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES permission. -->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES"
                     <!-- If your app derives location information from
                          Wi-Fi APIs, don't include the "usesPermissionFlags"
                          attribute. -->
                     android:usesPermissionFlags="neverForLocation" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"
                     <!-- If any feature in your app relies on
                          precise location information, don't include the
                          "maxSdkVersion" attribute. -->
                     android:maxSdkVersion="32" />
    <application ...>
        ...
    </application>
</manifest>

For more details on using local-only hotspots, see startLocalOnlyHotspot().