Bluetooth Inspector 4+
Discover what's around you
George Garside
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- Free
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
Discover nearby Bluetooth peripherals and inspect their services for information and characteristics.
• View information and signal strength for all peripherals and devices, updating in real time as you move around.
• Get battery level for your own Apple devices (signed into the same primary iCloud account) — no need to install the app on all your devices.
• See model identification broadcast by devices around you, mapping the Apple device identifier to the marketing name.
• Extract software and firmware version strings from devices broadcasting this information.
• Read any characteristic's value, even for services not well known and are custom to the device being interrogated.
• Write characteristic values back to the peripheral as string, numeric or hex (pro).
• See a history of the value of a characteristic since the session started, timestamped to when the value changed (pro).
• Log found peripherals, services, characteristics and values, and export a .log file of timestamped events for your analysis (pro).
• Shortcuts integration with actions for scanning and interrogation, enumerating services and characteristics, and reading values (pro).
Get support on Twitter @grgarside or georgegarside.com/apps/bluetooth-inspector
What’s New
Version 1.6.1
Features:
• A new Hex option in the Write Value shortcut action lets you write a hex value to a characteristic from the Shortcuts app.
• Manually reload a characteristic value with the reload button above the characteristic value history.
• 5 battery icons are now used for more granularity in battery level.
Fixes:
• Make sure the peripheral is in the expected state before trying to write to a characteristic of it.
• Improvements to layout and legibility of various parts of the app for users with an accessibility font size set.
• Fix a missing animation when navigating to a peripheral on a compact display and fix navigating between services and characteristics in split view.
Ratings and Reviews
doesn't work
didn't want to give this a bad review as ratings are low i just wanted to address the issue for the devs to fix as it did nothing my 2016 macbook pro running Big Sur.
Developer Response ,
Thanks for your review. I’ve released v1.0.1 which fixes an edge case where the warning message when the app didn’t have access to Bluetooth was not shown. Did you get prompted to give the app access to Bluetooth when opening it? Double-check your Bluetooth is on and grant access to Bluetooth Inspector in System Preferences → Privacy & Security. If you'd prefer to contact me on email I'm at apps@georgegarside.com; thank you for helping me resolve this issue.
Impressive App with a Privacy Concern
I don’t know what “interrogation” means. But somehow, I was able to connect via Bluetooth with 2 Apple Watches, an iPad, and two iPhones that weren’t mine! I wonder what shows up to these devices and how much of my information is exposed to them.
The app helped me recognize that someone was spying on me in a hotel.
I’ve been hearing weird sounds coming from the wall behind my hotel bed. The floor map showed a small area that was behind the wall, but isn’t in the room. That was weird because the wall was a dry wall, this means that anything that happens inside my room can be heard from the other side. So creepy.
I was very impressed to know that the person spying on me was wearing an Apple Watch and had an iPhone 14 Pro.
I paid for the pro version because I saw that I can send messages but that wasn’t true. I couldn’t send any messages to any devices and this is why I gave it three stars. I don’t like to be misled or scammed.
The pro version connected my device to so many other devices and i was so creeped out. I’m sure they can know or see something that can show the name of my device at least. This information and all details must be shared with all app users.
This app helped me find my Apple Pencil
I misplaced my Apple Pencil. I knew it was in the house. The app’s basic functionality showed a signal strength for each device some of which were named. By moving around my home and re-scanning I was able to narrow down the room and then use the signal strength from other devices to figure out the general location.
It’s not going to home in on the device or do anything magical, but it will help you figure out the general location.
The signal strength percentage isn’t calibrated very well so you need to compare percentages to devices that are a known distance away and work off that.
In-App Purchases
App Privacy
The developer, George Garside, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary based on, for example, the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Provider
- George Garside
- Size
- 6.1 MB
- Category
- Developer Tools
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 13.0 or later.
- Apple TV
- Requires tvOS 15.0 or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
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English
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Location
- This app may use your location even when it isn’t open, which can decrease battery life.
- Copyright
- © 2020–2023 George Garside
- Price
- Free
- In-App Purchases
-
- Bluetooth Inspector Pro £3.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.