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Android App

The Biscuit Manager app for Android provides the full suite of Biscuit features using native Android components.

Requirements

  • Android 10 (API 29) or later
  • Device with Bluetooth Low Energy support
  • Google Play Services (for maps and location)

First Launch

The first time you open Biscuit Manager, you will see the License Agreement screen. You must tap Accept to continue. Tapping Decline closes the app; reopening it brings the License Agreement back. Once accepted, the screen does not appear again, including across app updates.

Connecting to Your Device

The app opens straight to the Dashboard. Tap the connect button in the top-right to open the device panel, which slides in from the right. It lists every Biscuit you have connected before – each with its model picture, name, and a live Nearby badge with signal strength when it is in range. (On your very first launch, with nothing remembered yet, the panel opens for you automatically.)

  • Connect – tap a device. A status banner drops down from the top (Connecting… then Connected) and the panel closes once you are linked.
  • Switch devices – while you are connected, the panel shows your current device marked Connected alongside the rest. Tap a different one to hand off – it disconnects the first and connects the second.
  • Add a new device – tap + Add new device to show nearby Biscuits you have not connected before, then tap one to connect.
  • Out of range? – you can still tap a remembered device that is not nearby; the app keeps trying and connects when it powers back on or comes into range.
  • Forget a device – swipe a remembered device to remove it from the list.
  • Close the panel – tap outside it, swipe it to the right, or use the system Back gesture.

Your devices are remembered between sessions and each keeps its own name. If you rename a Biscuit it updates in the list automatically, so using two devices just works. If the connection drops, the same top banner shows Reconnecting… while the app re-links – tap the X on it to stop.

An active node wardrive resumes its selected scan roles after reconnecting to the same Biscuit. Node indicators turn green as each node confirms its role or sends matching scan data; orange means the app is still waiting for that confirmation.

To view the Patreon supporters or support Biscuit development, open Settings and tap the heart in the top-right.

Themes

Open Settings → Display & UI → Appearance to pick a theme. Each entry shows a colour preview and a name; tap to apply.

  • System – follows your phone’s light or dark mode setting.
  • Light – Biscuit Classic on a light background.
  • Dark – Biscuit Classic on a dark background (default).
  • WDGWars – near-black cyberpunk styling with neon cyan controls, pink and violet highlights, and lavender text.
  • Talking Sasquatch Synthwave – bright cyan background fading to deep plum at the top, with white text, cyan action buttons, and dark purple nav.
  • Midwest Gadgets Brown – cream paper background with dark brown nav and text, in an earth-tone palette.
  • Ghost Strats Purple – pitch-black background with bright indigo accents and mint highlights.
  • Valley Tech Moonlight – black background with bright silver moonlight accents, white highlights, and chrome outlines.
  • Black Wire Militia – true-black background with bold red highlights, buttons, and outlines throughout.
  • Frostbyte Ice Blue – deep navy-blue background with teal and bright-cyan accents, icy-white text, and a navy depth gradient.

Your selection is saved and applied immediately across every screen. WDGWars, Sasquatch, Ghost, Valley Tech Moonlight, Black Wire Militia, and Frostbyte are fixed dark palettes; Midwest is a fixed light palette. The partner themes do not switch with the phone’s light/dark setting.

Map Appearance

Below the Appearance picker, Settings → Display & UI → Map Appearance lets you choose how the wardriving map is styled, independent of the app theme:

  • System – map follows your phone’s light or dark mode.
  • Light – forces the standard Google Maps light style.
  • Dark – forces a dark Google Maps style tuned for low-light use.

Permissions

The app requests the following permissions:

Permission Why It’s Needed
Nearby Devices / Bluetooth Communicating with your Biscuit device
Nearby WiFi Devices Android wardriving and nearby-radio access on current Android versions
Fine Location GPS data plus WiFi, BLE, and cell-tower scanning during wardrives
Background Location Optional – enables background wardriving
Notifications Operation status and firmware update alerts
Foreground Service Keeping operations running when the app is backgrounded

Foreground Service

Android uses a Foreground Service to keep operations running reliably in the background:

  • When you start a scan, attack, or wardrive, a persistent notification appears in your notification shade
  • The notification shows the current operation type and live status
  • This prevents Android from killing the app’s BLE connection while it’s backgrounded
  • Tap the notification to jump back into the app
  • The notification automatically dismisses when the operation stops

The Foreground Service is the Android equivalent of iOS Live Activities – it ensures your operations keep running even when you switch to other apps.

Android Wardriving

Open Wardriving and tap Start without connecting a Biscuit to record with the Android phone. There is no capture-source setting: the app automatically uses a connected Biscuit when one is ready and otherwise uses the phone. When Biscuit is connected, Start proceeds with its connected saved Nodes even if the Node list is refreshing. In All mode, confirm their scan roles to begin. If a remembered Node Manager is disconnected, Start waits for it to reconnect; you can cancel or explicitly choose Use Phone. Phone capture records nearby WiFi access points, Bluetooth Low Energy devices, and supported cell technologies (GSM, CDMA, LTE, WCDMA, and 5G NR) into the same live map, history, report, and WiGLE export used by Biscuit sessions.

Android wardrive collects continuously and refreshes WiFi, Bluetooth, and cell-tower totals together as one responsive stats snapshot. New unique detections appear promptly without delaying their underlying GPS-stamped records.

All and BT Only have no 15-second recording limit. If an older Android build stops at exactly 0:15 after collecting results, use an app build containing the wardrive compatibility fix. This fix does not require a firmware update or a change to Node mode.

During a Biscuit wardrive, the Biscuit supplies WiFi and Bluetooth observations while Android adds the phone’s cell-tower observations. If the Biscuit disconnects, phone WiFi and Bluetooth scanning take over automatically without ending the session; the app returns to Biscuit scanning after it reconnects. A small phone or Biscuit icon beside the current mode shows which one is capturing, with an amber dot only while reconnecting or WiFi scanning is throttled. A foreground notification stays visible throughout the wardrive.

Android limits how often ordinary apps can request a fresh WiFi scan. When that system throttle is enabled, Biscuit keeps accepting passive scan updates and shows a shortcut to Developer options. Turn off WiFi scan throttling there for WiGLE-like scan speed; leaving it on can delay the first fresh WiFi results.

Background Operation

  • The Foreground Service maintains the BLE connection when the app is backgrounded
  • Active scans and attacks continue uninterrupted
  • Wardriving continues to log GPS and scan data
  • Automatic reconnection if the BLE connection drops, with a two-phase strategy: a burst of fast retries first, then a longer patient wait so the app reconnects even if your Biscuit takes a while to come back
  • If a reconnection is taking too long, tap the X on the Reconnecting… banner to stop, then pick a device from the panel and try again
  • On manufacturer skins that aggressively throttle background apps (Nothing OS, OxygenOS, MIUI/HyperOS, One UI, and similar), the app keeps the BLE link alive with an automatic recovery if the link goes quiet for too long – without sending extra traffic to your Biscuit

Data Storage

  • Wardriving sessions, EAPOL captures, and counter-surveillance reports are stored using Android’s DataStore and local file storage
  • Settings are managed through Jetpack DataStore Preferences
  • Exported files (PCAP, CSV) can be shared via Android’s share sheet to other apps or cloud storage

Tips

  • If the app can’t find your device via BLE scan, make sure Location is enabled in Android Quick Settings (Android requires location for BLE scanning)
  • Grant “Allow all the time” location permission for the best wardriving experience
  • On Android 12+, you may need to grant the “Nearby Devices” permission separately from Location
  • Battery optimization may interfere with background operations – consider disabling battery optimization for Biscuit Manager in Android Settings
  • If the foreground notification disappears unexpectedly, the operation may have been stopped by Android’s battery management
  • Nothing Phone users: if you experience frequent disconnects, open Settings → Apps → Biscuit Manager → Battery and select “Unrestricted”. Apply the same setting to the system Bluetooth service (enable “Show system apps” first). If your phone has a “RAM Booster” or “Memory Expansion” toggle, disable it – it moves background apps to slower flash storage, which the BLE radio cannot tolerate. The app already applies a protocol-level accommodation for Nothing OS; these user-side steps close the remaining gap.