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In the Beacon overview it says that the Proximity Beacon API supports iBeacon.

Does this mean I can detect an iBeacon and retrieve data attached to it with the Nearby Messages API in an Android app?

EDIT: Since the Get Beacon Messages for iOS says as a note: "The Nearby API for iOS only supports finding Eddystone beacons", but it doesn't say anything for the Nearby API for Android, maybe we can assume that it can see every type of beacons? I'd still like a confirmation about this.

lucacome
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  • Yes, in your second link there is a menu item called [Get Beacon Messages](https://developers.google.com/nearby/messages/android/get-beacon-messages) – Tobrun Aug 21 '15 at 22:03
  • I used that for an Eddystone-UID, but it doesn't say anything specifically for other types of beacon, that's why I asked. – lucacome Aug 21 '15 at 22:07
  • @lucacome have you had any luck retrieving attachments from iBeacons on android? – Mr.Noob Nov 17 '15 at 08:55
  • UPDATE it works for me now! it was an issue with the beacon itself – Mr.Noob Nov 17 '15 at 10:42

2 Answers2

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The good news is that Nearby supports iBeacon in addition to Eddystone beacons.

Using the Proximity Beacon API you can totally register iBeacons and attach data to them.

Then, you can tell Nearby to give you messages for the attachment data associated with these iBeacons (in Nearby, you just specify the attachment namespace for the appropriate strategies):

  MessageFilter filter = new MessageFilter.Builder()
      .includeNamespacedType("my-attachment-namespace", "")
      .build();
  Nearby.Messages.subscribe(client, messageListener, Strategy.BLE_ONLY);

See this Stackoverflow question for more hints on how to register an iBeacon using Proximity Beacon.

The note you saw is, however, correct: iBeacon is not supported on Nearby iOS just yet.

Community
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MarcWan
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Nearby Messages on iOS now supports iBeacon scanning. And support for background scanning was just added. See the Nearby Messages Developer Site and the CocoaPod for details.

Dan Webb
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