Bluetooth UI/Implementation Improvements (suggestions/thoughts)

[PhoenixLandPirat]

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd come up with a list of thoughts and ideas in regards to Bluetooth, its implementation, and how it could be improved.

Getting Started:

Fast Pair:
To my understanding this is a propretary standard in Android and iOS, so it may not be something that could easily be added, in any way, however, it would be really nice, if when you clicked a sync button on a device close by, you could get a notification with a quick pair or cancel button.

System Settings:

Smaller Lists:
System Settings shows a long list of devices that you've previously connected to, new devices, and connected devices, this list can get very long, I suggest that the devices are either collapsible, so that you can hide devices you've connected to before, if you're syncing to a new device, or they're moved to tabs, so that if you're syncing a new device, it will be in the pair tab.

Search Lists
Adding a search button so users could search "Fair" for there fairphone earbuds or "Mouse" for there mouse would make it a bit easier for devices that need to be connected to manually.

Rename devices:
Some Bluetooth names are confusing, or are duplicated if you have two of the same bluetooth devices, we should be able to change the viewable names of the BlueTooth devices in the System Settings.

Indicators:

List devices that are currently connected or nearby
In the Bluetooth indicator, you can turn off or on Bluetooth, but if you quickly want to disconnect for a call, or to switch from your speakers to your earphones, you have to go into system settings, it would be nice if there was a list of devices you're connected to, or that are near by, so that you can quickly toggle between them without turning off bluetooth to disconnect, or mooch about the system settings for a couple extra moments.

Battery Life
Knowing how much battery life you have in device is really useful, and it would be nice if it could be reported back in the indicator menu, just a quick swipe down and see how much power your speaker has before next charge is needed.

Advanced Application Features

Many EarPhones and Speakers have some advanced features, or features that may be a little harder to integrate, but I think its worth talking about to see how they may be implemented into the OS itself, or into separate apps, as has happened with watches.

Party Mode Audio/stereo pairing
This is a tough one because many speakers use different standards, but many speakers some have the ability to create Party Mode groups, then when you connect to the group, you are connected and synced to several speakers at once, this feature is usually used at parties, but could also be used for playing the same music in your front room and kitchen, if you're moving between rooms.

Stereo paring is a bit different, this is where you connect to two speakers, and one act as the left speaker and the other acts as the right speaker.

Party Mode Audio examples:
Sony Stereo Pair/Sony Party Connect
AmpMe (Requires 1 phone per speaker)
JBL Connect+
alteclansing House Party Paring

Group Devices General
Group Audio can be done in a few different ways, and to my understanding, involves the speaker, talking to other speakers itself, Group devices is different, in this scenario, it's grouping commonly used together bluetooth devices, if you always use a specific bluetooth mouse with a bluetooth keyboard, it would be good if you could have those two in group, so that when you connect to one, either the other is automatically connected as well, or its easy and convenient to connect, with only 2 bluetooth devices, it probably wouldn't be to convenient, but some people use a lot of devices together, and it could be a case that they come home after work, and just want 4 or 5 devices to connect.

Audio Modes
I can't tell you to much about these but here's a small example of some

EQ balancing
Fine-tune audio playback.

Multi-Device
Some devices will tell you what other devices are connected, these can sometimes give you extra controls like the ability to remove them.

End

Please let me know if you guys have any further suggestions, and if any of these are being worked on, or have a bug report that we could reference, please let me know, and I will add them to the main post.

Obviously this is just a list of ideas, and wants, it maybe that these never get implemented, or someone might see one of the suggestions and hack something nice together in a couple of days, but I thought it would be good to put some suggestions, see what people think, and maybe someone might be inspired to work on an issue/suggestion or two.

[DPITTI]

Your idea is good, although the actual Bluetooth interface of Ubuntu Touch has the feature built in. Have a look at Xenial's Bluetooth apps, where I think there is even such an app. I think it even ran on Focal. I also made some attempts with Bluetooth from Ubuntu Touch to have a working handsfree. On Xenial, Bluetooth ran successfully and without problems, at least on a SIM card. Somehow the developers had to change something about Bluetooth. But since Bluetooth sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, depending on the device, I put my hopes on hold and went back to MIUI.

[kugiigi]

@PhoenixLandPirat The system app items seems to be the most doable The indicator ones would be nice to. Not sure how to do that now since we use Ayatana upstream if I am not mistaken.