Bluetooth HID Support in WP8.1

[tohoshinki]

Not to rain on the 8.1 preview parade but I'm wondering if anyone knows the status of of HID support in Windows Phone 8.1?

I love mobile office and it'd be a real productivity boost if I was able to connect a Bluetooth Keyboard to my WindowsPhone.

WPCentral and WMPowerUser both reported a while back that a revised Bluetooth stack was coming to WP 8.1 but from what I can see today that isn't the case. BT keyboards still don't work which is a huge disappointment.

Are there any work arounds? Has anyone gotten a BT keyboard to work on 8.1?

 

[BIGPADDY]

I haven't heard any news on this unless this will be part of the first GDR1 update.

I would love this feature specially when im planning on purchasing a Bluetooth keyboard.

 

[press_z]

I can't find the link, but I read that this will be something that will have to be added by OEMs. So you won't just be able to add any HID, but if an OEM wants to bundle or offer an HID then THAT device will work.

 

[cfordg]

As of the end of April, 2014, I've found 2 brief reviews of the 8.1 release which mention the HID question. One was posted on the AAWP site while the other was from a UK poster which site I have forgotten. In both cases, the HID support in 8.1 remains crippled compared to what we enjoyed back in the days of Windows Mobile 6.x.

I am at a loss concerning this ongoing state of affairs which has now persisted for years in spite of being voted as a desired feature over 11,000 times on some internal MS forums. Personally, I feel that MS doesn't want a high-end phablet competing with its Surface tablets although I think there are desirable ways of integrating the two such as LG's new tablet (Android) that can interact with certain LG phones in a manner such as taking calls while working on the tablet.

I recently dropped my HTC Trophy and cracked the screen. It still works fine, but I'm not going to sink $100 into the deductible for a 2-year old phone. I've been hoping to hang on to my old phone until the HID support appears in some iteration of the Windows phone OS, but no one has the faintest idea when, if ever, this will happen.