Transfer Bluetooth data

After you have successfully connected to a Bluetooth device, each one has a connected BluetoothSocket. You can now share information between devices. Using the BluetoothSocket, the general procedure to transfer data is as follows:

1. Get the InputStream and OutputStream that handle transmissions through the socket using getInputStream() and getOutputStream(), respectively.

2. Read and write data to the streams using read(byte[]) and write(byte[]).

There are, of course, implementation details to consider. In particular, you should use a dedicated thread for reading from the stream and writing to it. This is important because both the read(byte[]) and write(byte[]) methods are blocking calls. The read(byte[]) method blocks until there is something to read from the stream. The write(byte[]) method doesn't usually block, but it can block for flow control if the remote device isn't calling read(byte[]) quickly enough and the intermediate buffers become full as a result. So, you should dedicate your main loop in the thread to reading from the InputStream. You can use a separate public method in the thread to initiate writes to the OutputStream.

Example

The following is an example of how you can transfer data between two devices connected over Bluetooth:

private const val TAG = "MY_APP_DEBUG_TAG"

// Defines several constants used when transmitting messages between the
// service and the UI.
const val MESSAGE_READ: Int = 0
const val MESSAGE_WRITE: Int = 1
const val MESSAGE_TOAST: Int = 2
// ... (Add other message types here as needed.)

class MyBluetoothService(
       // handler that gets info from Bluetooth service
       private val handler: Handler) {

   private inner class ConnectedThread(private val mmSocket: BluetoothSocket) : Thread() {

       private val mmInStream: InputStream = mmSocket.inputStream
       private val mmOutStream: OutputStream = mmSocket.outputStream
       private val mmBuffer: ByteArray = ByteArray(1024) // mmBuffer store for the stream

       override fun run() {
           var numBytes: Int // bytes returned from read()

           // Keep listening to the InputStream until an exception occurs.
           while (true) {
               // Read from the InputStream.
               numBytes = try {
                   mmInStream.read(mmBuffer)
               } catch (e: IOException) {
                   Log.d(TAG, "Input stream was disconnected", e)
                   break
               }

               // Send the obtained bytes to the UI activity.
               val readMsg = handler.obtainMessage(
                       MESSAGE_READ, numBytes, -1,
                       mmBuffer)
               readMsg.sendToTarget()
           }
       }

       // Call this from the main activity to send data to the remote device.
       fun write(bytes: ByteArray) {
           try {
               mmOutStream.write(bytes)
           } catch (e: IOException) {
               Log.e(TAG, "Error occurred when sending data", e)

               // Send a failure message back to the activity.
               val writeErrorMsg = handler.obtainMessage(MESSAGE_TOAST)
               val bundle = Bundle().apply {
                   putString("toast", "Couldn't send data to the other device")
               }
               writeErrorMsg.data = bundle
               handler.sendMessage(writeErrorMsg)
               return
           }

           // Share the sent message with the UI activity.
           val writtenMsg = handler.obtainMessage(
                   MESSAGE_WRITE, -1, -1, mmBuffer)
           writtenMsg.sendToTarget()
       }

       // Call this method from the main activity to shut down the connection.
       fun cancel() {
           try {
               mmSocket.close()
           } catch (e: IOException) {
               Log.e(TAG, "Could not close the connect socket", e)
           }
       }
   }
}

public class MyBluetoothService {
   private static final String TAG = "MY_APP_DEBUG_TAG";
   private Handler handler; // handler that gets info from Bluetooth service

   // Defines several constants used when transmitting messages between the
   // service and the UI.
   private interface MessageConstants {
       public static final int MESSAGE_READ = 0;
       public static final int MESSAGE_WRITE = 1;
       public static final int MESSAGE_TOAST = 2;

       // ... (Add other message types here as needed.)
   }

   private class ConnectedThread extends Thread {
       private final BluetoothSocket mmSocket;
       private final InputStream mmInStream;
       private final OutputStream mmOutStream;
       private byte[] mmBuffer; // mmBuffer store for the stream

       public ConnectedThread(BluetoothSocket socket) {
           mmSocket = socket;
           InputStream tmpIn = null;
           OutputStream tmpOut = null;

           // Get the input and output streams; using temp objects because
           // member streams are final.
           try {
               tmpIn = socket.getInputStream();
           } catch (IOException e) {
               Log.e(TAG, "Error occurred when creating input stream", e);
           }
           try {
               tmpOut = socket.getOutputStream();
           } catch (IOException e) {
               Log.e(TAG, "Error occurred when creating output stream", e);
           }

           mmInStream = tmpIn;
           mmOutStream = tmpOut;
       }

       public void run() {
           mmBuffer = new byte[1024];
           int numBytes; // bytes returned from read()

           // Keep listening to the InputStream until an exception occurs.
           while (true) {
               try {
                   // Read from the InputStream.
                   numBytes = mmInStream.read(mmBuffer);
                   // Send the obtained bytes to the UI activity.
                   Message readMsg = handler.obtainMessage(
                           MessageConstants.MESSAGE_READ, numBytes, -1,
                           mmBuffer);
                   readMsg.sendToTarget();
               } catch (IOException e) {
                   Log.d(TAG, "Input stream was disconnected", e);
                   break;
               }
           }
       }

       // Call this from the main activity to send data to the remote device.
       public void write(byte[] bytes) {
           try {
               mmOutStream.write(bytes);

               // Share the sent message with the UI activity.
               Message writtenMsg = handler.obtainMessage(
                       MessageConstants.MESSAGE_WRITE, -1, -1, mmBuffer);
               writtenMsg.sendToTarget();
           } catch (IOException e) {
               Log.e(TAG, "Error occurred when sending data", e);

               // Send a failure message back to the activity.
               Message writeErrorMsg =
                       handler.obtainMessage(MessageConstants.MESSAGE_TOAST);
               Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
               bundle.putString("toast",
                       "Couldn't send data to the other device");
               writeErrorMsg.setData(bundle);
               handler.sendMessage(writeErrorMsg);
           }
       }

       // Call this method from the main activity to shut down the connection.
       public void cancel() {
           try {
               mmSocket.close();
           } catch (IOException e) {
               Log.e(TAG, "Could not close the connect socket", e);
           }
       }
   }
}

After the constructor acquires the necessary streams, the thread waits for data to come through the InputStream. When read(byte[]) returns with data from the stream, the data is sent to the main activity using a member Handler from the parent class. The thread then waits for more bytes to be read from the InputStream.

To send outgoing data, you call the thread's write() method from the main activity and pass in the bytes to be sent. This method calls write(byte[]) to send the data to the remote device. If an IOException is thrown when calling write(byte[]), the thread sends a toast to the main activity, explaining to the user that the device couldn't send the given bytes to the other (connected) device.

The thread's cancel() method allows you to terminate the connection at any time by closing the BluetoothSocket. Always call this method when you're done using the Bluetooth connection.

For a demonstration of using the Bluetooth APIs, see the Bluetooth Chat sample app on GitHub.