We're looking for a basic solution for a location based App for Android + iPhone (so only the very basic functionality for a prototype). The main challenge for building this solution/prototype is a Bluetooth hardware problem. Especially with iOS.

To be specific, thats what we need:
- A very basic Bluetooth App (Bluetooth enabled App)
- The Bluetooth App detects a Bluetooth device nearby
- The Bluetooth App detects/decodes a unique code from that device
- The Bluetooth App send that unique code to the App server


The issue is ensuring an identical experience from both iOS and Android Smartphones.


There are two parts to the problem:

1) Discovering a Bluetooth "beacon"
2) Getting a unique code


1) Discovering a Bluetooth "beacon" with iOS

Problem (1) is because iOS Apple authentication chip don't discover Bluetooth devices the way Android does.

If you switch on most phones, turn on Bluetooth, and scan for devices, you'll get the devices within Bluetooth range (20-30 feet), if they are discoverable (a Bluetooth mode/setting).

iOS is different: iOS devices typically will see other Apple products with Bluetooth (mice, keyboards, headsets). Anything that has the special Apple authentication chip on board.

So to use Bluetooth as a beacon, you'd either have to make some custom hardware that includes a special Apple authentication chip, or use an Apple device as your beacon.


2) Getting a unique code with iOS

Let's say you can detect some fixed Bluetooth device as a beacon. Now you need a unique code for each beacon.

Every single Bluetooth device has a the MAC address as a unique address, and this makes that id ideal as a unique identifier. Now on Android, Symbian and most other platforms, you can get access to this MAC address from an app. On iOS you can't! The MAC address is not available to the developer. So an iOS App can't grab the unique MAC address.

So there need to be a workaround for getting/decoding a unique code for each beacon.