Android – How to programmatically pair and connect a HID bluetooth device(Bluetooth Keyboard) on Android

androidandroid-bluetoothbluetoothhid

I am able to pair a bluetooth keyboard but not able to connect so as to make it an input device.
I went through the documentation provided at developer site – http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth.html#Profiles

It says that the Android Bluetooth API provides implementations for the following Bluetooth profiles but you can implement the interface BluetoothProfile to write your own classes to support a particular Bluetooth profile.

  • Headset
  • A2DP
  • Health Device

There is no documentation how to implement BluetoothProfile for HID bluetooth device(Keyboard)

Android has itself implemented bluetooth connection for HID devices but those API's are hidden. I tried reflection to use them too. I do not get any error but keyboard does not get connected as input device. This is what i have done –

private void connect(final BluetoothDevice bluetoothDevice) {
    if(bluetoothDevice.getBluetoothClass().getDeviceClass() == 1344){
        final BluetoothAdapter mBluetoothAdapter = BluetoothAdapter.getDefaultAdapter();
            BluetoothProfile.ServiceListener mProfileListener = new BluetoothProfile.ServiceListener() {
                @Override
                public void onServiceConnected(int profile, BluetoothProfile proxy) {
                    Log.i("btclass", profile + "");

                    if (profile == getInputDeviceHiddenConstant()) {
                        Class instance = null;
                        try {
                            //instance = Class.forName("android.bluetooth.IBluetoothInputDevice");
                            instance = Class.forName("android.bluetooth.BluetoothInputDevice");
                            Method connect = instance.getDeclaredMethod("connect", BluetoothDevice.class);
                            Object value = connect.invoke(proxy, bluetoothDevice);
                            Log.e("btclass", value.toString());
                        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        }



                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void onServiceDisconnected(int profile) {

                }
            };

            mBluetoothAdapter.getProfileProxy(this, mProfileListener,getInputDeviceHiddenConstant());


    }

}

public static int getInputDeviceHiddenConstant() {
    Class<BluetoothProfile> clazz = BluetoothProfile.class;
    for (Field f : clazz.getFields()) {
        int mod = f.getModifiers();
        if (Modifier.isStatic(mod) && Modifier.isPublic(mod) && Modifier.isFinal(mod)) {
            try {
                if (f.getName().equals("INPUT_DEVICE")) {
                    return f.getInt(null);
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("", e.toString(), e);
            }
        }
    }
    return -1;
}

Best Answer

Due to security reasons, it is not possible for third party applications to connect to a bluetooth keyboard as the application can be a keylogger. So it can be only done manually by the user.