We are currently developing an application that runs in the background and continuously scans for other nearby devices via peer-to-peer networking. Generally, the high-level goals are: Scan for nearby devices while the app is in the background state. We only need to discover devices that are also running our app. Read a small token of data from each peer device found (no need for full-duplex connection) Submit this token to our server via a background network request On Android we have demonstrated this functionality using both Bluetooth LE and WifiDirect service discovery, and background operation is easily achieved with Android services. We are currently trying to expand our application to support cross-platform compatibility between IOS and Android, including IOS<-->IOS and IOS<-->Android discovery (in the background). Is there a way to achieve this desired functionality on IOS?