# Bluetooth Inspector — Discover what's around you

> Discover and inspect nearby Bluetooth devices, their services, and characteristics. (iPhone/iPad app by George Garside.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bluetooth-inspector/id1509085044 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [George Garside](https://appshunter.io/developer/815604170)
- Category: Developer Tools, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 1,535 App Store ratings · 169 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 17 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2020-05-02
- Data updated: 2026-08-26
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bluetooth-inspector/id1509085044/reviews.md

## What is Bluetooth Inspector?

Discover nearby Bluetooth peripherals and inspect their services for information and characteristics.

• View information and signal strength for all peripherals and devices, updating in real time as you move around.

• Get battery level for your own Apple devices — no need to install the app on all your devices.

• See model identification broadcast by devices around you, mapping device identifiers to the marketing name.

• Extract software and firmware version strings from devices broadcasting this information.

• Read any characteristic's value, even for services not well known and are custom to the device being interrogated.

• Write characteristic values back to the peripheral as string, numeric or hex.

• See a history of the value of a characteristic since the session started, timestamped to when the value changed.

• Log found peripherals, services, characteristics and values, and export a .log file of timestamped events for your analysis.

• Shortcuts integration with actions for scanning and interrogation, enumerating services and characteristics, and reading values.

• Background scanning by advertised service IDs with device count mapped by location found and status shown in a Live Activity.

Get support @grgarside or georgegarside.com/apps/bluetooth-inspector

Constant use of Bluetooth connectivity can drain your device's battery. Bluetooth connectivity is only used when this app is in the foreground and up to a few seconds after being backgrounded to safely disconnect from peripherals being interrogated, unless Background Scanning is enabled in the app and the Live Activity is running.

## Key features

- Real-time signal strength and device information
- Apple device battery level monitoring
- Device model identification
- Software and firmware version extraction
- Read and write characteristic values
- Characteristic value history
- Log and export data
- Background scanning with Live Activity

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bluetooth Inspector Pro | $3.99 | one-time |


## Chart rankings

- #34 in Top Free · Developer Tools (US App Store)
- #38 in Top Grossing · Developer Tools (US App Store)

## What do users think of Bluetooth Inspector?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Accurate Bluetooth detection
- 🔍 Useful for finding lost devices
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface

**Cons**

- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 🔍 Difficulty identifying unknown devices
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🔒 Privacy concerns with device interrogation

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Inability to refresh device list without reinstalling
- Inconsistent behavior when selecting devices
- Mapping feature not functioning as expected

**Most requested features**

- Ability to rename detected devices
- Option to filter or hide known devices
- Integration with device location tracking
- Support for other wireless protocols (Wi-Fi, etc.)

## Recent user reviews (10 of 169)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bluetooth-inspector/id1509085044/reviews.md

### 3/5 — Sending writes stopped working

*2026-07-27, version 1.7.7*

I was using this to program my blinds after I connected Somfy Sonesse to Zigbee for my Home Assistant. Now when I try to write, the app just crashes.

### 5/5 — Haven’t deleted it yet so..

*2026-07-12, version 1.7.7*

Does what it’s advertised to do… I’d like to see some more powerful apps from you please!

### 3/5 — Helpful, but could use work.

*2026-06-30, version 1.7.7*

I am trying to find a lost AirTag that i lost two years ago. Apples find my app won’t cut it so I spent 4 dollars for the pro version of this. Just saying it isn’t worth it, but it could be if you add these things: a bar that fills up from left to right to show signal strength, this way you could check how close you are and it’s easy to understand. Also add a distance meter, and also on map, allow you to click the dots to see what device it is. Also an option to Pin devices would be nice. This would help tremendously in my search for a long lost AirTag, and it could definitely help in so many other ways. I just hope this gets added because I just paid $4 for a map that barely even works.

### 4/5 — Good Scanner - Needs Edit/Naming

*2026-06-08, version 1.7.6*

I’ve got a couple Bluetooth scanner apps and so far I find that it has the best feature set and frankly a very nice look (nerdy apps don’t have to be ugly…)

But, it is missing an editing feature - being able to name devices so I’m not guessing what is what on future scans would really be super helpful.  Especially when a get more than a dozen “Unknown” devices and once I figure out what they are I can’t tell the app so it shows me
It’s “xyz sensor” going forward

### 5/5 — Novice

*2026-05-16, version 1.7.6*

Pretty cool app learning as I go.

### 5/5 — best ble app out there

*2026-05-11, version 1.7.6*

tried many. all suck. this one is great. too busy using it to write a long review. finally, after years of searching, i've found the holy grail.

### 2/5 — Need work

*2026-05-04, version 1.7.6*

App crashes constantly. Even after I paid for pro.

### 4/5 — It’s good

*2026-04-26, version 1.7.6*

Requires "pro" version for most features.

### 2/5 — Works Nicely but…

*2026-04-15, version 1.6.1*

After leaving it open for a while scanning, it used all of my ram and had to force quit most things open to get back to working. Must have a memory leak somewhere. Other than that, very useful and love it. Still keeping it.

### 5/5 — Fantastic

*2026-04-08, version 1.7.6*

I’m able to control battery levels of things plugged in and also turn off appliances that are on all the time eating a little power.Why does it have to be connected?

## Frequently asked questions about Bluetooth Inspector

### What does Bluetooth Inspector do?

Bluetooth Inspector allows you to discover nearby Bluetooth peripherals and inspect their services for detailed information and characteristics. It provides real-time signal strength, battery levels for your Apple devices, and identifies device models, software versions, and more.

### What are the key features of Bluetooth Inspector?

Key features include real-time scanning of peripherals, viewing battery levels of your own Apple devices, identifying device models and firmware versions, reading and writing characteristic values, logging and exporting data, and background scanning with Live Activity integration.

### Is Bluetooth Inspector free to use?

The app is free to download and use, offering core functionality. It also includes in-app purchases for advanced features or expanded capabilities, allowing users to choose the level of functionality they need.

### What devices is Bluetooth Inspector compatible with?

Bluetooth Inspector is designed for mobile devices that support Bluetooth connectivity. It specifically mentions monitoring battery levels for 'your own Apple devices,' suggesting compatibility with iOS devices. The app leverages Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for its scanning and inspection capabilities.

### How can I use Bluetooth Inspector for analysis?

You can use Bluetooth Inspector to analyze Bluetooth devices by logging found peripherals, services, characteristics, and their values. The app allows you to export this data as a .log file, which can then be used for further timestamped event analysis on your computer or other tools.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.7.8 — 2026-08-11

Fixes:
• Show progress and a clear result while restoring purchases
• Fix several edge cases that could cause purchases or restoration to fail silently

### 1.7.7 — 2026-06-17

Fixes:
• Fix race conditions in Pro purchase restoration.

### 1.7.6 — 2026-03-09

Features:
• Automatically detect peripheral name changes.
• Add 250+ descriptions to characteristics based on the latest Bluetooth specification.

Fixes:
• Fix crash in settings for a future version of iOS.

### 1.7.5 — 2026-02-07

Features:
• 40% more companies identified and over double the characteristics recognised.
• Toggle signal strength to RSSI by tapping the signal percentage in the peripheral detail view.
• Improve the signal strength calculation by considering the device model running the scan.

Fixes:
• Improve scanning performance and reliability in Low Power Mode.

### 1.7.4 — 2026-01-19

Features:
• Processing of device and scan information has been rewritten (using SwiftData) to be faster, more efficient, and with thread safety (using Swift 6 language mode) to reduce race conditions in processing changes from CoreBluetooth.
• Apple device knowledge updated for 2026.

Fixes:
• Fix context menu crash on peripherals list.
• Fix location map annotation visibility.
• Fix connectability state being re-queried constantly when lots of devices have been found.
• Fix orientation support in App Clip.
• Fix scanning mode picker button overlap.

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## More apps by George Garside

- [Thomas Deacon Academy](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thomas-deacon-academy/id686681384)
- [Lighthouse Score](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lighthouse-score/id1551494625)
- [Accessibility Inspector](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/accessibility-inspector/id1555847137)
- [Thermals](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thermals/id1567050762)
- [Arrowed](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/arrowed/id1567979689)

All apps by George Garside: https://appshunter.io/developer/815604170

## Related topics

[bluetooth scanner](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-scanner) · [bluetooth inspector](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-inspector) · [bluetooth scanner free](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-scanner-free) · [bluetooth sniffer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-sniffer) · [bluetooth signal meter](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-signal-meter) · [nearby devices](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/nearby-devices) · [bluetooth scanner device](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-scanner-device) · [blue hound](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/blue-hound) · [accelerometer bluetooth](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/accelerometer-bluetooth) · [dabble bluetooth](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/dabble-bluetooth) · [bluetooth scanner for tracking devices](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-scanner-for-tracking-devices) · [bluetooth detector of nearby devices](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-detector-of-nearby-devices) · [bluetooth device](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-device) · [bluetooth low energy scanner](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-low-energy-scanner) · [bluetooth signal strength](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-signal-strength) · [bluetooth devices](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-devices) · [bluetooth finder](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-finder) · [bluetooth battery](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bluetooth-battery) · [ble scanner](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ble-scanner) · [rfcontrol bt](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/rfcontrol-bt)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*