I'm looking to combine presence. I searched and found two in the community. I want to know the difference. The benefits of one to the other. Have you noticed any increased activity with one vs the other? Hub slow downs? Please be constructive and think about what you say before you post. I don't want any bashing. I truly want to weigh these two apps, so unbiased opinions are what I'm looking for.
April
Are there only two? I thought there was more.
And, what devices are you looking to ācombineā?
Andy
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I found one of the two, āCombined Presenceā, to be easy to install, easy to setup, well documented on GitHub and most importantly it has worked absolutely rock solid using nothing but the Hubitat app and the app āiPhone WiFiā. Iām home a lot (work from home guy), Iāve never seen this app give a false positive in the 6 -8 weeks Iāve been using it
The other one was confusing, needed way to many prerequisites, and there was little help on the confusing setup other than a long thread filled with others in frustration. Never mind the fact that it leans on Life360, which is giving an outside third party a heck of a lot information.
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Andy,
Iām guessing April has not included your old App in the list seeing as itās not currently available.
Presence Central, wasnāt it ? 
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It is, but I thought that there were more than this 
PC will be back soon, along with a new 'Lite' version
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I think there is also a "presence governeur" @adamkempenich, isn't this yours?
I have only used combined presence + advanced. Now running solid with hubitat, life360 and a virtual presence device for about 6 months.
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I believe you are thinking of a different app... April asked about Combined presence vs Presence Plus. You gave a glowing review about Combined presence and then a completely false review of 'The other'.
Presence Plus installs just like any other app.
- There are no prerequisites.
- The thread has only 19 posts
- I'm always on here, willing to help
- Does not require Life360 at all, but it can be used if one chooses
Combined presence is a great app too and I always say 'choice is good'. Just make sure you know the facts.
For those they may want to know how Presence Plus really works. Please visit the thread and make your own decision.
Thanks
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Kinda a side note to all this. I have been doing some testing on my various presence detecting. Basically logging the events to see what is working and not working.
I have Life360, HE App, and and Alexa routine that sets a virtual switch based on location. I have these on both my wife's phone and mine.
I get some weird results. It seems if Life360 responds then the HE app doesn't. And vice-versa. Not always, but quite often. But as long as one or the other works, I get the job done.
What has been a little surprising is the Alexa app routine has been 100%. For over 2 weeks now with a lot of trips it has never failed.
Not sure what all that means, but I'm gonna keep monitoring for awhile.
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I'm a big fan of Presence Governor. I think it's the most logical approach to combining presence I've seen yet. If WiFi is connected, you're automatically present. Otherwise it switches to geolocation and then you can set thresholds so X number of sensors will need to show not present/present before it switches your virtual sensor.
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I personally have focused on SmartThings arrival and Xbee3 presence sensors for local presence and they work very well. Life360 has worked well also but is cloud based (ok for non security rules).
I have been thinking about these combined presence solutions.
If all devices work correctly I can see them working great but does it not also create multiple potential points of failure?
Say if one device is stuck present/departed or randomly cycles.
It shouldn't happen but does.
Only solution I can see is if there is a majority of devices in a state.
Say 2 of 3 are present then the combined device is present.
Odds of 2 or more of your presence sensors failing at the same time is fairly low.
It may not be as fast to go present but would be more secure and more reliable.
Maybe one of the apps out there already does this or maybe create though RM.
Just an idea
Unfortunately I am typing this from my phone on family vacation in Vietnam and won't be back until end of the week so it is a pain to look at the code.
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Between, Presence Governor and Combined Presence, I found Combined Presence the easiest to use and it also has an "advanced presence" child which I use.
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Wow! I'm so glad that I have you guys to answer my questions. I'm setting up a garage automation. I'm taking it slowly to work it out correctly. I'm not in an hurry, and I DO appreciate all of the input I've received on this topic. I'll have 4 apps to check out instead of just two. Also, I appreciate that you kept it civil. Each person could have loved and hated with this topic, yet you chose to be respectful and I appreciate that. This is why HE is my choice. Thank you all for your input. You've set realistic expectations for me on this and I DO plan on giving each one a chance. I probably didn't look deep enough to discover the other two apps out there.
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