Programmatically connect to paired Bluetooth device

Question

Is there a way, using the Android SDK, to programmatically connect to an already-paired Bluetooth device?

In other words: I can go into Settings -> Wireless & ne

Answer 1

Okay, since this was driving me crazy, I did some digging into the source code and I've found a 100% reliable (at least on my Nexus 4, Android 4.3) solution to connect to a paired A2DP device (such as a headset or Bluetooth audio device). I've published a fully working sample project (easily built with Android Studio) that you can find here on Github.

Essentially, what you need to do is:

• Get an instance of the BluetoothAdapter
• Using this instance, get a profile proxy for A2DP:

adapter.getProfileProxy (context, listener, BluetoothProfile.A2DP);

where listener is a ServiceListener that will receive a BluetoothProfile in its onServiceConnected() callback (which can be cast to a BluetoothA2dp instance)

• Use reflection to acquire the connect(BluetoothDevice) method on the proxy:

Method connect = BluetoothA2dp.class.getDeclaredMethod("connect", BluetoothDevice.class);

• Find your BluetoothDevice:

---

String deviceName = "My_Device_Name";

BluetoothDevice result = null;

Set devices = adapter.getBondedDevices();
if (devices != null) {
    for (BluetoothDevice device : devices) {
        if (deviceName.equals(device.getName())) {
            result = device;
            break;
        }
    }
}

---

• And invoke the connect() method:

connect.invoke(proxy, result);

Which, at least for me, caused an immediate connection of the device.