Apple Notification Center Service is a GATT service that will send push notifications to an connected bluetooth device whenever a notification event occurs on the iOS device. This code lays out the basic stuff you need to get ANCS working on a project with an embedded device, such as a DIY smartwatch.
In order to have your device show up in the list of available bluetooth devices in the system settings pane, you need to register your interest. The Punch Through Design blog post on ANCS left a hint about how to do this. You need to use "Service Solicitation" to indicate that you are interested in subscribing to the ANCS service.
Core 4.0 Vol 3 Part C, 18.9 gives the AD identifier, $15. I included a local name in my packet so that I could identify my device. In actual byte order, here is the contents of my packet:
02 AD Field, 2 bytes
01 AD Flags
02 General Discovery, no BR/EDR, you can change this as needed
04 AD Field, 4 bytes
09 AD Complete Local Name
4C 45 44 LED, not sure why I called it that
11 AD Field, 17 bytes
15 AD Service Solicitation, 128 bits
D0 00 2D 12 1E 4B 0F A4 99 4E CE B5 31 F4 05 79 The ANCS service in LSB to MSB order.
Subscribing to events requires that the devices be paired. Bluegiga has a doc that I worked from to start encryption when the connection event is fired on the device. You do not need to have a pin.
Before you can enumerate the ANCS service, you must find its handle range. iOS will only return characteristics for the correct service range, so enumerating $0000 to $ffff will not work.
ANCS is a primary service, so listing all primary services will allow you to find it, as well as give you the start and end handles for attribute enumeration. An excellent bluegiga example health thermometer collector, gave me the structure I needed for enumerating the services, enumerating the attributes of the service of interest, subscribing to a notifiable attribute using the Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor, and receiving new values via an event callback.
Here are the attributes of the ANCS service, as returned to my device, in the exact order that the bytes given to the buffer, essentially reverse-documentation order.
00 28 Primary Service
03 28 Characteristic Declaration
d9 d9 aa fd bd 9b 21 98 a8 49 e1 45 f3 d8 d1 69 ANCS Control Point
00 29 Characteristic Extended Properties
03 28 Characteristic Declaration
bd 1d a2 99 e6 25 58 8c d9 42 01 63 0d 12 bf 9f ANCS Notification Source
02 29 Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor
03 28 Characteristic Declaration
fb 7b 7c ce 6a b3 44 be b5 4b d6 24 e9 c6 ea 22 ANCS Data Source
02 29 Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor
Core 4.0 Vol 3 Part G, 3.4 lists built-in types, and 4.0 Vol 3 Part G, 3.3.3 provides more information on each type.
Save the attribute handles for:
- The ANCS Control Point
- The Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor for the Notification Source
- The Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor for the Data Source
At minimum, set the Notification Source CCC for notification (indication is not supported) by writing 01 00 to the Notification Source CCC attribute. If you also want to get textual or other data, first subscribe to the Data Source by setting the Data Source CCC for notification, then set the Notification source after that. When you receive a notification, get the textual data from the notification by writing a message to the ANCS Control Point attribute. You will receive a response from the Data Source attribute with the notification id and data requested.
Example incoming notification:
New incoming call (value source is NS handle):
00 Event ID - Event Added
02 Event Flags - Important
01 Category ID - Incoming call
01 Category Count - 1
15 00 00 00 Notification UID
Get the caller id (write this to the CP handle)
00 Command ID - GetNotificationAttributes
15 00 00 00 Notification UID
01 Attribute ID - Title
0B 00 Attribute max length (11 bytes)
Response (value source is DS handle)
00 Command ID - GetNotificationAttributes
15 00 00 00 Notification UID
01 Attribute ID - Title
0A 00 Attribute length (10 bytes)
73 6c 61 63 6b 68 61 70 70 79