Can an iOS device act as an iBeacon while listening for other iBeacons?

Question

I was wondering if an an iOS device can act as an iBeacon while listening for other iBeacons. Based on my reading, it seems as though the answer should be "no" but I would very much appreciate a definitive answer. I would test it out myself but I have yet to purchase an additional iOS device. Please let me know. Thanks!

EDIT:

Found an additional phone to test it out and it worked as confirmed below.

Answer 1

Yes, this works! I had actually never tried it myself until a few minutes ago. The only caveat is that when a device is both transmitting as an iBeacon and scanning for iBeacons, it does not detect its own transmissions.

Here is my test setup:

1. Locate for iBeacon v1.1 installed on an iPhone 4S (See NOTE), configured to transmit as an iBeacon with UUID 5AFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF, major 0, minor 0, power -59. Also configured to locate visible iBeacons (using ranging).

2. MacBeacon installed on a MacBook Pro, transmitting UUID 2F234454-CF6D-4A0F-ADF2-F4911BA9FFA6, major 1, minor 1, power -59

3. ScanBeacon installed on the same Macbook Pro, scanning for all iBeacons.

The result was that the iPhone detected the 2F234454-CF6D-4A0F-ADF2-F4911BA9FFA6 iBeacon coming from the MacBook and the MacBook detected the 5AFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF iBeacon coming from the iPhone. This proves an iPhone can transmit and range simultaneously.

NOTE: Version 1.1 of Locate for iBeacon, which allows simultaneous iBeacon transmission and iBeacon locating, is not yet available in the AppStore. I am the author and am in the process of adding that feature to the next release.