For IR we have control systems, Global Caché, Raspberry Pi, and such, along with IR code libraries. (supported by the tireless good work of many on these forums) Lately, I'm seeing more and more Bluetooth remotes and IR seems to be pasted on. At some point manufacturers will decide that IR is just an expensive nag and they'll eliminate it.

Is anyone aware of a 3rd party Bluetooth control scheme?

Bond Bridge but you’ll need a control system and driver

Also, only works with certain frequencies and devices.

Their website does not mention Bluetooth. Are you sure that they support Bluetooth?

They do not

Bond doesnt do Bluetooth.

Its already happening. Tivos new Streaming box is Bluetooth only in its "Cable Company" form. Pretty sure even the standard version off the website is also BT only.

I have some very upset clients because of this.

Whoops my apologies. RF remotes only, not sure how I bypassed bluetooth in your post.

I don't know specifics about Bluetooth control. Is it a standardized protocol? Or does every manufacturer get to implement their own protocol?

I am thinking the answer is no. If it were like CEC, and manufacturers were forced to comply to an industry standard, in guessing we would have already seen this happen.

Harmony hubs were able to control PS3 and PS4 via Bluetooth, but as far as I recall, that is the only system I have used that had any kind of Bluetooth control option.

I expect that BT discovery would be more or less standard, but the actual data transactions are custom — unless equipment manufacturers tend to license something. A relatively quick (workaround) implementation for many devices would be control using CEC. This would be relatively straightforward with a Raspberry Pi, but I’d rather stay away from the vagaries of CEC.

It would be very convenient if the actual control data is a rehash of familiar IR commands.

Harmony hubs was able to use BT for controlling some devices, like AppleTV, but I would have to look into the others. Maybe other companies will look into this as a way to control devices when IP isn't a good option but I doubt they'll do anything until they receive enough inquiries or pressure.

Just hope and pray everyone really jumps onto the Matter bandwagon. That is the only hope for cable boxes, TVs, control systems, and everything else to reliably work together. It will never happen, but that is our only hope.

If the cable/sat & other equipment companies would yank their heads out, the IR input jacks would work and we wouldn't need to deal with IR as much. Any IR/IP/RF hub/extender would work far better.