Skip to content

Beacon (MAC) triggers

A Beacon (MAC) trigger fires when the listener's phone sees a Bluetooth beacon advertising a specific hardware MAC address. Optionally, you can require the last 4–12 hex digits of the beacon's UUID to match too — this lets you re-use the same MAC pattern across multiple beacons that differ only by their UUID suffix.

Android only

iOS does not expose beacon MAC addresses to apps. A spot or zone whose only trigger is a MAC-based Beacon will never fire on iOS. The admin flags these with an orange warning icon, and the place list's iOS compatible column shows a red ✗. Use iBeacon, WiFi, or GPS as an alternative or in addition.

When to use Beacon (MAC)

  • You're targeting Android only.
  • You have hardware that advertises a stable MAC and you want the simplest setup.
  • You don't have an iBeacon UUID (or your beacons aren't broadcasting one).

If your hardware can broadcast iBeacon advertisements, prefer iBeacon — it works on iOS and Android.

Adding a Beacon (MAC) trigger

  1. Select the spot or zone.
  2. Open the Triggers section, click Add Beacon.
  3. The draft row defaults to iBeacon — flip the segmented toggle to Beacon (MAC).
  4. Enter the beacon's MAC address. The input accepts hex digits with or without separators; it normalises to uppercase on save.
  5. Optionally enter a UUID suffix (4–12 hex digits) to disambiguate beacons that share a MAC pattern.

The trigger is created as soon as a valid MAC is entered.

Switching from iBeacon to Beacon (MAC)

If you switch a trigger from iBeacon to Beacon (MAC) and the existing UUID is longer than 12 hex digits, the admin asks you to confirm. On approval, the UUID is truncated to its last 12 hex digits (the suffix), since MAC mode only stores a suffix.

Notes field

Each trigger has a free-form Notes field. Use it to record where the beacon is physically mounted, its battery state, or any other context the next admin will need.