# google/physical-web

The Physical Web: walk up and use anything

Repository: https://github.com/google/physical-web
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/physical-web
Homepage: http://physical-web.org
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2018-12-05T21:09:11+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4355, "days_push": 2828, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5965, forks 648 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:33.798025+00:00)

## What it is
The Physical Web is an open approach to letting smart physical objects (beacons, posters, vending machines) broadcast URLs over Bluetooth Low Energy (Eddystone) so nearby devices can interact with them without installing an app. The repository contains reference implementations including Android/iOS scanner apps and tools for broadcasting URLs.

## Use cases
- broadcast a URL from a BLE beacon so nearby phones can open it
- scan for Eddystone-URL beacons nearby and list their links
- interact with smart objects like bus stops or posters without installing an app
- experiment with proximity-based web discovery
- build tools that emit URLs over Bluetooth Low Energy or mDNS

## When to choose
- you need to understand or maintain legacy Eddystone-URL beacon deployments
- you want reference code for BLE URL broadcasting on Android or iOS
- you are researching proximity-based URL discovery protocols

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new project - the project is archived and Eddystone-URL support was removed from Chrome and Android
- you need actively maintained beacon tooling
- you need a production proximity platform with vendor support

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: abandoned
- function: networking, search-engine, sdk
- domain: web-development, iot, mobile-development, developer-tools
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: bluetooth-low-energy, beacons, eddystone, url-broadcast, proximity, discovery-service, deprecated-by-google, android, ios

## Member repositories
- google/physical-web (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:33.798025+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:50:10.220264+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/google/physical-web (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:33.798025+00:00, sha a1ef2ada8aae)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.