Thingy vs ST BLE Toolbox
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Thingy
Interact with a multi-sensor IoT device to capture and view environmental data, motion, and audio. Control the device's LED, speaker, and trigger events through a user-friendly interface without needing programming skills.
- View temperature, humidity, air quality, and pressure
- Compass, step counter, and tap detection
- Accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data
- Control RGB LED color, brightness, and mode
- Stream audio to and from the device
- Trigger programmable events
- Update device firmware
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The Thingy app is designed to work with the Nordic Thingy:52™ devices. Nordic Thingy:52 is a compact, power-optimized, multi-sensor device built around the nRF52832 Bluetooth® 5 SoC from Nordic Semiconductor. Capture, view, and interact with the sensor data acquired from your Thingy, with no programming skills required. Use this app to connect your iPhone or iPad with Thingy and gain access to the following functionalities: - View the current temperature, humidity, air quality, and atmospheric pressure. - Use it as a compass, step counter, or detect taps on any of its axis. - Check the orientation of your Thingy and get live accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data at a high rate. - Measure the gravity vector. - Trigger programmable events by pressing the button on top of the device. - Control the color, brightness, and mode of the RGB LED. - Stream PCM audio to its speaker, or play predefined notification sounds when events occur. - Stream audio from Thingy to a mobile device using the built-in microphone. - Play programmable tunes in frequency mode. - Using the free Thingy app, update the firmware on your Thingy as soon as new firmware versions are released. For firmware and mobile developers: Thingy can be flashed with your custom firmware, just like any other development kit from Nordic Semiconductor. The Thingy firmware package contains comprehensive documentation, so you can easily customize it to your own needs. Additionally, We provide a CocoaPod in Swift 5 for iOS 9.0 and above, This library is built exclusively for Thingy to ensure that installation and integration in your project are as smooth as possible! Learn more about Thingy at http://www.nordicsemi.com/thingy
ST BLE Toolbox
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The ST BLE Toolbox is a user-friendly application to interact and debug ST Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices. Upon launch, the app scans for BLE devices. For each device found it is possible to display advertisements and connect to it. The key features are: - Discovery peripherals - Show output of standard profiles - Show peripheral services and characteristics - Perform Read, write and notification interactions with peripherals
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Thingy at every 3 months against ST BLE Toolbox's every 6 months. Thingy also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Thingy ships an update every 3 months, ST BLE Toolbox every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on August 24, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Thingy | ST BLE Toolbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 45 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nordic Semiconductor ASA | STMicroelectronics |
In-app purchases
Thingy
No in-app purchases
ST BLE Toolbox
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Thingy free?
Is ST BLE Toolbox free?
Do Thingy or ST BLE Toolbox have ads?
Which is updated more often, Thingy or ST BLE Toolbox?
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