Use the Cluetooth Scanner
The Cluetooth Scanner listens for BLE advertising packets broadcast by nearby devices and displays information about each one on the CLUE's display. No connections are made to any device, the scanner just observes whatever the devices broadcast publicly. These packets can contain quite a bit of information.
For each nearby BLE device, the scanner captures:
- Address — the device's MAC address, either public (permanent, manufacturer-assigned) or random (device-generated, may rotate for privacy)
- Name — the device's advertised local name if present
- Company — decoded from the Manufacturer Specific Data (MSD) company ID bytes
- Chip — the silicon vendor inferred from the OUI (first 3 bytes of a public MAC address), e.g. Espressif for ESP32-based devices
- Guess — a best-guess device type for Apple devices based on advertisement payload analysis
- Apple type — the specific Apple Continuity message subtype
- Appearance — a standardized Bluetooth SIG device category code
- RSSI — received signal strength in dBm (color coded: green = strong, yellow = medium, red = weak)
- Services — advertised GATT service UUIDs decoded to profile names where known
- MSD — Manufacturer Specific Data raw bytes, or a decoded summary for known formats (Apple, Disney)
- Service Data — the 0x16 AD type payload if present
- Seen count — how many times the device has been detected across scan cycles
When you turn on the Cluetooth Scanner, it will start scanning for advertisement packets from nearby BLE devices. You'll see a list of devices start to form on the main screen, sorted by signal strength from highest to lowest.
``` ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ BLE SCANNER 29 │ ← header: name + device count ├─────────────────────────────┤ │ RHYTHM+2161232 │ │ iPhone/iPad │ ← 8 rows, color = signal strength │ AppleTV/HomePod │ │ 75" The Frame │ │ ... │ ├─────────────────────────────┤ │ 1^ 2v B:info │ ← footer: control hint └─────────────────────────────┘ ```
Row text color indicates signal strength: green (≥ -60 dBm), yellow (-60 to -75 dBm), red (< -75 dBm), lower negative numbers are stronger. The selected row is highlighted in an accent color.
Navigation
Tap the middle capacitive touch pad (labeled '2') to move down through the device list. Tap the pad labeled '1' to move up.
Details
You can get more details for a given item by pressing the Clue's B button.
This includes:
- Device name
- Company
- Chip
- MAC address
- RSSI in dBm
- Seen count
- Guess (Apple device type guess)
- Apple raw continuity subtype
- Appearance category
- Advertised servies UUID name
- Apple decoded MSD summary
Press B a second time to advance to the second page of details if they overflow the first.
Press A to go back a page or to the main list.
Page last edited June 01, 2026
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