Blue Hound

Welcome to the Blue Hound blog. Blue Hound is now available on the iOS App Store.

For quick in-app documentation, tap the (?) button on any page.

For support, please contact us at:
scenicmap@gmail.com

Scanning for Bluetooth devices in Blue Hound:

Yes! You can find lost Airpods with Blue Hound. If they are paired with your phone they will show up as "<Name>'s Airpods". For example, mine are "Mark's Airpods". If they are not paired, they will appear as a generic "Beacon" but you can still find them using Blue Hound. They will appear while they still have battery power if they are not in their charging case.

All other Apple products that support BlueTooth will also appear if they have it enabled. This includes iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, Apple Watches, Apple Pencils, Apple TVs and Macintosh computers of all varieties.

Devices that are paired with your iPhone appear with [Paired] at the end of their name in the list. Paired devices often do not advertise themselves. If you are looking for a bluetooth device paired with another iPhone, turn off Bluetooth on that iPhone. You should then be able to see the device in Blue Hound using any other iOS device.

Not all Bluetooth devices advertise themselves. Some devices only advertise themselves from periodically. You will see devices appear and disappear from the scanner list over time. Apple devices will change their identification. When this happens, they will go inactive and reappear at the top of the list as a new device.

Android devices do not advertise themselves normally. This is a design decision Google made. You can get third party Android apps that will cause a device to advertise itself so there is no compatibility issue between iOS and Android. Hopefully Google will change its mind in a future version of Android. It would be great to see all the Android phones and tablets show up.

You may notice some odd behaviors of iPhones. Some appear as having "Bluetooth disabled". When you disable bluetooth on your iPhone, it still appears when scanning for devices but will not does not provide information about its model or maker. If you visit an Apple Store, none of the demonstration iPhones will connect at all. This appears to be intentional on Apple's part.

Macintosh computers sometimes appear in the list twice. I asked Apple about this and they said: The Mac is advertising for two things; continuity/handoff and co-ordinated alerts. This is expected behavior.

In very crowded environments, such as a convention center, Blue Hound will have trouble connecting to Bluetooth devices. This may be due to bandwidth congestion or noise as hundreds of devices constantly advertise or try to connect with each other.

Sorting the list

Swipe down on the list view and a search part will appear at the top of the screen. You can enter text to filter the list for words like "iPhone" or "Fitbit". If you tap the Search button, devices you have found in the past will also be found. Leave the text blank and all past devices will be found. Tap Search again and more devices will be found if you have found many in the past.

Tap the book icon on the right end of the search bar to open the Search Options. This will control the sorting mode for the list and the distance range used to search for devices you found in the past. Sorting by Age will show the devices you found most recently at the top of the list. Sorting by Distance will show the closest devices at the top. Sorting by Name will display the devices alphabetically. Devices are always listed in three sections: Active devices, inactive devices and past devices that were found when you do a search.

The Blue Hound preview video:

If you have watched the preview video for Blue Hound, downloaded the app and wondered why you are not seeing as many Bluetooth beacons, I will let you in on the secret of how the video was made. I drove to the nearest Best Buy and walked in the front door while screen recording the app. That's why the list of visible devices is growing rapidly in the video. Typically you will see one or two Bluetooth devices but some people live where there are no nearby devices. Just visit a location that people gather and you should see a lot of Bluetooth devices.