Does nRF conncet android app supports Bluetooth 5?

[Bhargav M]

I have nRF52840 preview DK and want to read advertisement packet using nRF connect android app. I have read that Samsung galaxy S8 has Bluetooth 5 support. Has anyone here tried to read Bluetooth 5 advertisement using android app?

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

Hi,

What exactly do you mean by "Bluetooth 5 advertisement"? The hardware of Samsung Galaxy S8 support Bluetooth 5 High speed mode (2 Mbit PHY), but it does not support Bluetooth 5 Long Range Mode (CODED PHY). Unfortunately, Bluetooth 5 is not supported by Android 7 API. If 2 Mbit mode is requested by an external device supporting 2 Mbit mode, Samsung Galaxy S8 is able to accept this and switch to the new PHY. Bluetooth 5 API support is introduced in Android 8.

Bluetooth 5 allows you to do "legacy advertising", which ensures backwards compatibility with Bluetooth 4.x devices. Bluetooth 5 also introduces Advertising Extensions and Periodic advertising, which allows you to do longer advertising packets, and advertising on all 40 channels (advertising and data channels). It does not seem that this features are supported by Samsung Galaxy S8, and it is not yet supported by our softdevices (hence no nRF Connect support).

Best regards,

Jørgen