Plugin.Maui.NearbyConnectivity

Plugin.Maui.NearbyConnectivity provides the ability to discover, connect to, and exchange data with nearby devices that run your .NET MAUI application, without a server or an internet connection.

Get started API reference NuGet GitHub

Demo

The NearbyChat sample on three Android phones: two discoverers connect to one advertiser, each phone stops advertising or discovering, each pair compares its authentication code, the advertiser sends one peer a text and a photo, the other peer sends the advertiser a video, and both peers disconnect. Recorded on real devices.

Advertiser

Discoverer

Discoverer

The video sent is a clip of Big Buck Bunny, (c) copyright 2008, Blender Foundation / www.bigbuckbunny.org, licensed under CC BY 3.0.

Supported platforms

Target	Minimum	Support
net10.0-android	API 24	Requires Google Play services. Built on Nearby Connections.
net10.0-ios	iOS 26.0	Built on Multipeer Connectivity.
net10.0	None	Reference target for shared code and unit tests. CheckAvailabilityAsync reports NearbyAvailability.Unsupported, and every start method throws.

Important

A device connects only to devices on the same platform. Android connects to Android, and iOS connects to iOS. On iOS, the plugin stops the session when the app moves to the background. On Android, a connection ends when the process ends, so it survives the background only if your app runs a foreground service. See why the platforms do not interoperate and backgrounding.

Start here

Connect two phones, step by step

• Get started

Do one specific thing

• Accept and make connections
• Send and receive payloads
• Show a presence before connecting
• Bind to a MAUI page
• Test code that uses the plugin

Fix something that is not working

• Troubleshooting
• Turn on logging

Look up a type or a limit

• API reference
• Options and limits

Know what the plugin cannot do

• Platform behavior
• Security

Read a complete app

• Samples

Install

dotnet add package Plugin.Maui.NearbyConnectivity

Android needs no manifest changes. iOS needs two Info.plist keys. See Set up Android and iOS.

Then follow Get started, which takes about ten minutes.

Samples

The repository has two sample apps.

• samples/Minimal is the app that the Get started tutorial builds. It is MAUI in code only, in four files plus the platform files.

• samples/NearbyChat is the larger app. The how-to pages link to the file that does each task:

  Task	Page
  Answer a request before it expires	Handle a request that expires
  Block sends until a person compares the code	Compare the code
  Put an avatar in the presence	Put structured data in the info
  Send a file, and handle each failure	Send a file
  Receive in one loop for the whole app	Receive data
  Bind connected devices, and rows with their own state	Bind to a MAUI page
  Stay connected in the background on Android	Keep a connection open in the background