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Generic gadget support

Heart rate service

Gadgetbridge supports any Bluetooth devices that report a standard heart rate service, such as heart rate bands. Support is limited, and right now it only saves and displays the real-time heart rate values received while the device is connected.

If you have a device that is not officially supported by Gadgetbridge, but works with the generic heart rate support, please open an issue or reach out on Matrix.

Audio devices

Starting from version 0.85.0, Gadgetbridge supports all Bluetooth devices that are recognized by the operating system as audio devices. To use this feature, the device must already be paired with your system and then added to Gadgetbridge.

If the battery status of the audio device is detected by the OS, it should also be available automatically in Gadgetbridge.

This enables features such as reading notifications and caller names or numbers aloud.

Automatic connection defaults to off

The "Connect on connection from device" preference is not enabled by default. You probably want to enable it, which can be done in the device preferences (found under the cogwheel on the device card).

Scannable

pull request #3621 added support for Gadgetbridge to react to the advertising of any device that is scannable. Gadgetbridge will not be able to connect to the device, but can detect its advertising.

When such a device is detected, the following intent is broadcasted:

  • Action: nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadgetbridge.BLUETOOTH_SCANNED

In order to add a device as "Scannable", just add it as a test device from the debug menu, or follow the Pairing unsupported gadgets page. In any case, select "Scannable Device" as the device type. The device will then appear in your devices overview. To start scanning for it, click it one.

If it is configured to auto-connect, the device will be automatically scanned for, henceforth.

It is also possible to configure the following settings:

  • Debounce timeout - once scanned, GB will wait for this amount of time before starting to scan for the device again
  • Minimum unseen time - after re-starting to scan for a device, GB will ignore scans if the lie within this amount of time from the last detection. In other words: Only react to this device if it has been away for a certain amount of time
  • Minimal RSSI threshold - only register this device as scanned if it's RSSI surpasses this threshold. Cou can find out about a devices RSSI through apps like nRF connect

Using Scannable devices require the "Reconnect by BLE scan" setting in the "Discovery and Pairing options" to be enabled.