MFI certification/ Detecting local wifi networks

Question

I am re-posting my previous question in regards to enabling our app to detect local wifi networks so that users can connect the product to wifi.

My company is developing an app enabled sound machine. The sound machine similar to many other products today like security cameras, computers, iPhones, even some air purifiers, takes you through a set up process through the app where you can then connect the device to a Wi-Fi network.

Typically of course this Wi-Fi network that you connect to will be the Wi-Fi network in your home, or office, or wherever you will be keeping this product. When you are going through the app and get to the portion where you then connect the product to Wi-Fi all of the Wi-Fi network names in the area will pop up. So for example, if you live in apartment building your Wi-Fi network name will pop up along with maybe three or four of your neighbors.

Now this is the screen we are having a challenge with. You can manually type in your Wi-Fi network name and password and it will connect with no issues. But we are unable to get the app to detect the Wi-Fi network names in the area. This creates a massive inconvenience for users because at that point they have to type in both their WiFi network name and the password manually. They are unable to just click on their Wi-Fi network name then enter the password like other apps.

We have been reaching out to Apple development program but for some reason they have been denying us the ability to do this. We are Wondering if that is because of not having an MFI certification. Or if there is a different implementation that we are not considering.

Answer 1

1. The MFI certification process entails that you need to submit a product plan to Apple, you need to use an authorized manufacturer to produce the MFi component, you to follow various guide lines from Apple and finally you need to submit an actual product and packaging to Apple for final approval.

2. Yes, you do have to submit an actual product to Apple for review. You cannot just send a link to a web page describing your product.

3. You seem to be relatively vague or unclear about the technical details on what you need to accomplish. This is why it is hard for others to direct you to the right place. In general you can easily let an app discover a non-MFi accessory via Bluetooth and you can definitely communicate with it over WiFi - all without MFi certification.

However, depending on exactly what you mean by "detecting local WiFi-networks" you might still need to go through some kind of approval process, but it could be much easier than MFi certification.

If you quite literally mean that you need to detect all the local WiFi-networks, then the process is quite easy. It's not possible - MFi certified or not.

However, that's usually (and quite obviously) not involved in connecting to accessories, such as for example a speaker.

You might mean that you to add a Hotspot Helper to your app. In that case you need to apply for the network extension entitlement for you app. That's usually very straightforward by simply filling out the form I have linked to, and then waiting a few days for Apple to approve (or not) the request. It does sound unusual for a Bluetooth speaker though.

It could also be that you really want to use the NEHotspotConfigurationManager API in order to temporarily connect to a WiFi network advertised by your speaker, or perhaps to add that WiFi network to the list of networks the phone will connect to. In that case you also need the entitlement described above.

A third possibility is that you really wanted to use Wireless Accessory Configuration or perhaps you want the speaker to become available as a HomeKit accessory (i.e. using the HomeKit API).

I would suggest that you visit this page from Apple's documentation in order to do the necessary research, so that you can clearly state the technical functionality that you want your app to include:

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/qa/qa1942/_index.html