Techniques for automatically establishing a long-lasting connection across computing devices configured for short-range wireless communication

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• initiating, at a first computing device including one or more processors, communication with a second computing device via a short-range wireless communication protocol;
• receiving, at the first computing device, a set of information from the second computing device via the short-range wireless communication protocol, the set of information indicating:
• (i) a first application currently executing in a foreground at the second computing device,
• (ii) a unique identifier for the second computing device, and
• (iii) a port address for communication with the first application executing at the second computing device via another wireless communication protocol;
• and
• automatically configuring, at the first computing device and in response to receiving the set of information from the second computing device via the short-range wireless communication protocol, communication between a second application at the first computing device and the first application executing at the second computing device via the other wireless communication protocol using the set of information,
• wherein the first application and the second application are a same type of software application.