Can Windows Phone 8 and Android connect over Wifi Direct?

Question

I am developing a multi-platform multi-player game app and want to be able to connect the players to each other. To avoid possible latency issues (and the need for a server) I would like to connect the players to each other using Wifi Direct.

It appears that Windows Phone 8 and Android both now support WiFi Direct but can they be made to connect to each other?

Ideally I would want the player to be able to decide whether they are hosting or joining a game and then accept connections or see a list of players hosting a game accordingly. (Game joiners wouldn't be able to see each other)

Android has some documentation here https://developer.android.com/training/connect-devices-wirelessly/nsd-wifi-direct.html which looks like what I need.

Windows Phone has some documentation here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/apps/windows.networking.proximity.peerfinder but I am still not sure whether it supports Wifi Direct (rather than only bluetooth) and it doesn't look like it will allow me to a host a network service.

Even if Windows Phone DOES support WiFi Direct, is it compatible with Android's implementation?

Answer 1

Windows Phone 8 doesn't support WiFi direct communication from the WP8 SDK.