I am working on a BLE device that connects to an android app. The device uses Random Resolvable Private Addressing for privacy reasons. The android API seems to use "hardware address" as the only way to identify a device. Same with the Kable library. I would expect that if the device is periodically changing its address, then at some point I'm not going to be able to keep track of each device. I don't see a way to access the IRK at all. I'm looking for a way to keep track of each device as the interact with my app.

I did some testing and it sort of seems that when you bond with a BLE device, Android fixes its "hardware address" and keeps it constant even as the device changes it's address. This would mean that I could use the hardware address as a unique identifier for each device but I would like some confirmation that this is indeed the case.

I am working on a BLE device that connects to an android app. The device uses Random Resolvable Private Addressing for privacy reasons. The android API seems to use "hardware address" as the only way to identify a device. Same with the Kable library. I would expect that if the device is periodically changing its address, then at some point I'm not going to be able to keep track of each device. I don't see a way to access the IRK at all. I'm looking for a way to keep track of each device as the interact with my app.

I did some testing and it sort of seems that when you bond with a BLE device, Android fixes its "hardware address" and keeps it constant even as the device changes it's address. This would mean that I could use the hardware address as a unique identifier for each device but I would like some confirmation that this is indeed the case.

• android
• bluetooth-lowenergy
• mac-address

Share Improve this question Follow asked Mar 14 at 5:41 Achu Geetha ByjuAchu Geetha Byju 111 silver badge

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 1

Yes, you are correct. The identity address is shared during bonding and that can be used as the "stable" identifier.

In case you want to avoid bonding and if you have access to the device code and want a stable identifier, you could also expose your own identifier via the custom advertising data.