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I'm trying to gather information regarding ANT+ hardware support in Android phones. Basically, what Android phones have ANT wireless hardware?

ANT and ANT+ ( http://thisisant.com/ ) as wireless protocols are quite promising, especially with potential open source support for ANT+ ready-made fitness devices ( see http://www.thisisant.com/news/stories/ant-enabled-live-google-data-feed ).

For now only Sony Ericsson has officially stated they have it in X10 mini pro, X10 mini, X8 and upcoming Xperia Arc (and AFAIK "plain" X10 is not included) - http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/developerworld/2011/01/06/use-your-sony-ericsson-phone-with-ant-enabled-health-and-fitness-products/ . Also it is known that Texas Instruments WiLink 6 and WiLink 7 module support ANT as well (some sources state Motorola Droid and Motorola Droid X have it, and therefore interesting too).

Any other? Please, share if you find others!

UPDATE: Sony Ericsson support seems to made its way to users, here the list of phones regarding Android ANT+ API ( http://www.thisisant.com/pages/developer-zone/android-api ). Still waiting for any official or unofficial support for non-SE phones.

UPDATE 2: list of supported phones from Android market description of the ANT+ software - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dsi.ant.service.socket

Currently supported phones:

ANT+ enabled phones: Any device with USB Host feature and a connected ANT USB stick.

HTC

  • Rhyme

Motorola

  • MOTOACTV

Sony Ericsson / Sony

  • Xperia acro S
  • Xperia ion
  • Xperia S
  • Xperia active
  • Xperia arc
  • Xperia arc S
  • Xperia mini
  • Xperia mini pro
  • Xperia neo
  • Xperia neo V
  • Xperia pro
  • Xperia ray
  • Live with Walkman
  • Xperia X8*
  • Xperia X10 mini*
  • Xperia X10 Mini pro*

(* May require system update.)

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5 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

As well as the phones with embeded ANT support it is now possible to use ANT via a USB ANT stick. The phone needs to have working USB Host mode support but that is true for most modern phones. I posted some details when the anouncement came out a few months back as a developer of some ANT related apps.

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Thanks, from your linked page it looks like to use a USB ANT device in addition to working USB Host Mode support on your device, you need to install the ANT USB Service and ANT Radio Service (both free from Play Store)? – GAThrawn Nov 28 '12 at 6:56
Yes you need the two software packages from the store to get things working. You then of course need some apps with ANT support built into them like my IpBike. – Ifor Nov 28 '12 at 9:13
up vote 2 down vote

For the Tour de France Google created some custom firmware to run on HTC Legends so that they could track the riders in real-time. It seems those phones also have the ANT+ capabilities. I believe that those chips are fairly common in many phones. The protocol is apparently similar to Bluetooth so it's not much additional work for the chip manufacturers, like TI, to put it into their chips.

I think the biggest obstacle is the drivers for the ANT+ protocol don't come with the phone. That was the custom part of the firmware that Google provided.

Check out this article here for more about the Tour de France.

Have a look at this link as well.

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1  
seems those HTC Legends were not standard ones, HTC Legend you can buy uses Quallcom chips instead of TI WiLink :( see this thread - groups.google.com/group/mytracks/browse_thread/thread/… – IgorK Jan 12 '11 at 15:13
I hope when SE gets their things done with public firmware, someone will be able to figure out how to use it with custom firmwares on other WiLink phones as well. But it's just a hope, and I'm not 100% sure SE Xperia X8/X10mini/X10pro uses WiLink :( – IgorK Jan 12 '11 at 15:15
up vote 2 down vote

You can also go to the official ANT+ website at www.thisisant.com and then under the 'directory' tab (www.thisisant.com/directory) select in the filter options the following checkbox: CATEGORIES > Mobile Phones/Devices

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If you need it for sports and want to buy now, maybe worth looking at Sony acro S. At least it is more protected (water-proof) than most phones. Anyway going for ANT+ enabled phone right now means you miss a lot of other interesting options though :-( (too many more capable newer models around are still coming without ANT+) – IgorK Dec 3 '12 at 12:43
really? so, you recomend me to wait? but, if newer models without ANT+ are better, how they can receive beat rate signals? (I mean, without attaching any adapter) – JMR Dec 5 '12 at 11:08
depends on what you need, just saying that most latest-greatest are not with ANT+ right now. for active usage external USB dongle is a dubious endeavor too. so for now, if you need ANT+ for sports in your phone - list is very narrow (and for some people even old and cheap SE Active would suffice) – IgorK Dec 5 '12 at 11:32
yes right, I agree – JMR Dec 5 '12 at 12:29
up vote 2 down vote

In order to enable ANT+ in Android devices there are mainly two options.

One is to have a smartphone with ANT+ built-in, another is to add an ANT USB stick and connect it to the smartphone using a USB OTG (OnTheGo) cable.

However, also the Android applications have to be written to support the external ANT USB stick. At the moment, only applications that use the official ANT Alliance APIs are able to communicate with the external accessory. This situation will probably change in the near future, but this is the state of the art, concerning ANT+ and Android.

For more info, check this how to: http://www.selfloops.com/resources/tech-guides.html

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up vote 0 down vote

ANT+ is enabled by sw upgarde only in phones that contains TI 1271/1281 connectivty devices

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3  
And which phones are those, perchance? – Al Everett Feb 6 '11 at 13:45

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