Bluetooth Support in Android

well for sure you can do what I do i.e. don’t buy stuff that force you to use Android or iOS etc.

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Nothing forces me using it, thats why i have bought this headset. Anyway by using this approach you end up buying worse products and your choice goes down - a lot. Those are top end earbuds but I cant set equalizer due to missing bluetooth passtrough.

I will survive by setting it on android and not changing it but it is an annoyance, while for all other features I dont care.

At the end i care about the sound but if you tell someone who wants to get off android that he will have to ditch his hardware, there is no chance in hell he will switch.

Integrating android into sailfish was the right move as without software no OS can survive, regardless how good it is. The NFC will probably never support payments and probably no one will miss it until we still have credit cards / money, but bluetooth is needed.

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worst products? Depends on the point of view. For me the product is worse if it’s force me to do something I don’t want to and limit my choices.

they’re still BT

erm, you bought BT headphones that doesn’t go hand in hand.

so be it.

that’s not true. The same mistake has been done by BlackBerry. Doing that they killed their own system. It’s like joining monopoly game when everybody bought all the locations on the map and left you only with electricity.

There were already explanations why this market is hermetic because Apple and Google set the rules and until the only comparison will be done by how many software you can install from the store everyone else will lose so you need to figure something else. What is that is beyond me but a new set of rules need to be created. Maybe it will happen with the latest proposals from EU parliament.

Without Android support there is no financial future for Sailfish.

For me BT LE is requirement, not an option. There is no alternative e.g. for Oura ring so I just use an Android phone without SIM to access that.

I would prefer one phone only and would be happy to give Android full BT access and Sailfish basic audio routing only. That would work for me just fine.

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No rules will change the fact that there is < 1% of Sailfish users. And for OS to operate you need software, which is not going to be written if there is no financial perspective for developers.

The normal user doesnt care for what OS is running on the phone, it cares about the software. And if its favorite crappy fb or whatever app doesnt work, even worse if the hardware that he bought doesnt work this is a bad promotion for OS. I would switch back to cooking android ROMs if the earbuds wouldnt work (but they work great). Equalizer is an annoyance but except for it i dont need any of other crapware that Sony ships.

BT is no longer some shitty technology but de facto standard. NFC is still a shitty technology but it is becoming standard. And more and more devices and services need it. I am reversing my bank app each major version to throw out all the checks that prevent me to run it in Sailfish. This is acceptable for me.

But if the bus in my city will start to accept only NFC payments (it is moving into that direction but there are still cards as an alternative), I will buy android phone and start cooking roms again - not as I dont like Sailfish but as I need public bus transport.

Same goes for BT. When I will need it to open company doors, control the tv, or whatever, the game is over. This is why supporting the peripheral devices is important and this is why Sailfish needs support for them even if not directly but trough android lxc.

Sailfish needs to be in line with current development of everything else or it will just become FreeBSD. It kicks ass, but most use Linux.

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why you’re using non-android phone then when you need it?

there’s no financial perspective for devs because of many reasons.

SFOS in it’s current state is not something a normal user would try to use anyway because of all the installation procedure.

hold on, you bought a product that you knew would not work with SFOS and now you complain about SFOS? Am I the only one not seeing logic here?

not sure what this statement has with all that.

Why do you use banking app in the first place? This phone isn’t safe! And I wouldn’t use banking app even on Android. I’d maybe consider using iOS but even then I see no reason to. There’s webpage that works. Well at least these webpages used to works until some unknown “intelligent” did destroy them in a way that it now works mainly only on desktop browsers. But guess what. I used to use that bank site often on my often, now it’s not working and you know what? Turns out I don’t need it. I can live without it - you should try it!

so do everything that it won’t, start using cash money only where you can.

yes I admit this is annoying, that’s why I’m sending mails from time to time to companies that ofter some public transport options for other way of using their stuff as right now they not only require android but even Google Play Service which means LineageOS is a no go. I suggest you start doing the same. You can even add a cronjob for automatic mail send from time to time.

you don’t have a card for that?

this is the biggest crap that is showing lately. Operating tv from the phone is a huge step back in usability. It’s impossible to operate it without looking at the phone - just impossible. If touch screen will finally gain some additional layer that you could feel the buttons under thumbs then I can agree. Without it it’s just a joke - was forced to use this for a while - no no. And also BT remotes are a problem cause at least for now there’s nothing like universal remote. So I’m forced to use what manufacturers did provide to me which is not enough if you have more than one device and no HDMI-CEC doesn’t help in this case.

but the road you expect SFOS is taking is not the way to go. It’s exactly the same as it is with Linux. People blame Linux for missing support instead of spamming for example Broadcom for not releasing documentation. So go and start spamming the companies that make the services to release the api the specs so someone can make the apps, do not expect the otherwise cause it means a huge lock in and from what I understand we’re trying to use SFOS just be able to get out from the lock in.

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I have a longlived dream of getting my Sailfish to connect with camera. My camera is Fujifilm and the Android app for it is called “Camera Remote”.
Bluetooth is only used to make the contact and then it should be handed over to Wifi. Has never worked to connect with bluetooth. I’ve tried to make connection straight with Wifi via manual settings, but no success there either.

I guess we’d need a few million more Sailfish users before we start to get solutions for these 3rd party devices to connect properly with…

I have just bought Xperia 10 III as the next Sailfish phone…but…to lose again so many functionalities in phone…(and get those irritating Sailfish bugs installed again, i.e. lost audio in phone calls) …I need to have few nights sleep before I can make the decision…

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Me? Please checkout how hard is to write any driver when you don’t have specsheet. Sniffing communication with locked device isn’t trivial either. This takes a lot amount of time and time means money.

When you buy the device you should expect that you can use it freely not in limited manner as producer allows you. Read about the “right to repair” in USA and what are the problems they’re trying to fight. They fight for the right cause and it’s not silly. In EU we have a bit better rules but corporations are doing their best to prevent us from owning devices we’re buying. For example look what is actually happening with consumer network devices like access points, routers modems etc how much those things are being locked not to mention that there are devices that you can operate only through the infrastructure of the company that manufactured the product. Do you want to tell me it’s fine? Then sorry but it’s not me who should change his point of view.

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What driver stuff? The android has its own driver, it just needs to be able to talk to bt device on sailfish. Thats why it is called passtrough. And you have various ones from network to RS232.

Regards everything else, 0.001% of users wont change that, but on the other side if things like this are not changed the user base will stay on 0.001% or actually drop with time. Spare me your political and philosophical discussions and face the reality.

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I’m talking about general device support.

yes it’s called bluetooth profiles but SFOS to expose this to Android need to play a lot with it. Ok in this case it’s a bit easier as there’s all info required.

the reality is this: it won’t change if you do nothing. Asking Jolla to fix something that’s not directly their fault is doing…nothing and as you said “barking at wrong tree”

You are too late for this. You could go with this agenda 20 years back, now it is like pissing on steaming burned down house.

What can be done is Sailfish being a workable alternative for most android features.

Doing something by “protesting against asphalt not using asphalt surfaces” is just futile nonsense.

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it’s all about money which you can use to vote. But it’s always easier to pretend “it does nothing”.

if you say so. I’m doing what I can, sending mail and voting with $$ I just don’t buy stuff that is not in line with my thoughts. For example I still don’t have BT headphones. Tried few times and nope. The quality is just bad for the amount of money compared to wired ones and paying just to get a little bit of flexibility when I do something in the garden - nah, no problem. If i destroy my wired ones I’ll buy a new pair which will be very cheap. And I don’t need to think and check if it will work with the phone because it has standard 3.5mm jack and yeah that’s also why I didn’t went into phone without jack.
So yeah these are choices we made and the sales guys see that in their spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet is showing that it’s selling then they do nothing if it will go down, then they will do something with it. The only thing is to get more people to follow and as we can see now, people are just comfortable. They will trade comfort for everything including their lives.

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Again, this is something that might work 20 years back (actually when I remember those time it didnt work even than)

No one cares for some marginal group of strange people with beard (and with bone trough it, forgotten there from precovid times) that are cumulative in range of statistical error.

Once there will be so many users that this will reflect into sales there might be something to be done with it but until then we can only take care that there is going to be more users - to be at some point attractive for the vendors. Only THEN boycotting makes sense.

“The only thing is to get more people to follow and as we can see now, people are just comfortable. They will trade comfort for everything including their lives.”

Nope. They just dont care. They have android and it works for them, so who cares for some weirdos.

Thats why it is imperative that at least things that are manageable do work. And same as Jolla has figured out for software (no one except few entusiasths will write software for Sailfish with its user base), same goes also for hardware, but since the android lxc is here, this is the next logical step.

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To get into the office, I now need my iPhone, as bluetooth is used by the app ‘AirKey’ to open the door!

This functionality is urgently needed !

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what the company would do if you’d say you don’t have iPhone? Would the fire you or would they give you a company phone?

I would suggest to complain at your company and not here. I would expect this standard to be proprietary, so few chances for support on other phones. By the way, there are no promises for iOS App support.

Yes, iOS cant be supported, and also the topic is talking about Bluetooth Support in Android.

I would say the comment about AirKey is trolling.

These days, we need bluetooth-enabled apps to operate e-bikes, e-scooters, carshares, cameras, microphones, headphones, home air conditioners, dehumidifiers, and all sorts of other devices. Device makers are only offering Android and IOS apps, because that is what most people use.

Yes, one can try to avoid buying or using smart devices that require a bluetooth app to operate, but why leave yourself behind? I like SFOS, but I had to go back to Android (yuck!) simply because of the lack of bluetooth support for the android apps in SFOS. If this were fixed, I would go back to SFOS for sure.

Running android apps on SFOS is a necessary bridge to get more folks on the system. If enough of us use SFOS, developers would start making native apps.

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I think you have a very good and valid point. Which makes me think in the first place, why do I need a SAFOS phone at all? It forces me to use a smartwatch not the one I want but the one which can work Sailfish. It forces me to use headphones not which I want, but which work with my phone, same for a drone etc. So maybe it is my choice of phone which limits my choices?

Oh man, I am in exactly the same situation. While being temporarily on Android, with Xperia 10 III in the drawer, I’ve recently got Xperia Ear Duo (sadly, discontinued) ear buds for cycling, and it improved my life quality so much! I really want to give Sailfish another try. But boy, if it doesn’t connect to my ear buds, I’ll have to say goodbye :cry:. There is only so much I can sacrifice for being a geek.

The reason I am writing this is not to make another complain or a rant post. On the contrary. I think an argument that if you need something then others don’t need it is fundamentally wrong. Same goes for suggesting to adapt your lifestyle to your choice of mobile OS or adjusting your user habits. Such comments are discouraging for both faithful users and newcomers. This is a poor argument, a pathetic defense strategy, and IMHO should be deprecated as such. Unless problems are acknowledged, they are not addressed. A thought that those who work on Sailfish development share @lolek attitude is despairing, but hopefully (and I am sure so) they do not share this attitude.

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maybe, I don’t know. I don’t use SFOS as a daily phone because it’s not yet ready for this from my point of view. And call me a weirdo but by life style is really not a problem for SFOS as I don’t use BT headphones, I don’t use any android app any banking app etc etc for private use. For company use I have company phone and I don’t care what’s there as it’s not my phone and I’m using it only and only during work hours and only for work. So I don’t have any work related application on my private phone cause it’s a private phone. And if someone is using a private phone for work then sorry.

well as I said before. Peoples here are ranting/barking on the wrong side. They complain to Jolla that apps that are made to work on Android doesn’t work on SFOS. That’s entirely wrong. You should complain to the companies making the stuff you’re buying cause they’re creating apps for it either ask them to make SFOS app or release specification so some dev may create app for you.
This is the correct way to go. SFOS Android support is from my point of view just a plain simple workaround which as we can see makes more and more problems as people think that it gives them fully working Android which is of course not. But they want it, and they complain it and… why they won’t use Android if they already have everything there?

SFOS is niche system, as someone mentioned they don’t have enough resources to handle many tasks and personally I’d prefer Jolla to not waste time on Android things and instead focus on implementing and fixing things on SFOS. Only once it will be done there, then they could play with Android but imho it shouldn’t be the primary thing.