I'm looking for recent (2024) experiences and comments on the reliability of the Hubitat integrated geofence feature - I don't see much about this in relatively recent posts.
For several years I have been using the excellent HD+ android app by @jpage4500 (Joe Page) for geofencing since it has been MUCH more reliable for me for geofencing.
I use geofencing to have Hubitat switch my Abode security system between away and standby modes and to perform various related RM tasks such as locking/unlocking doors and turning devices on/off.
I have been geofencing using two Android mobile devices (OnePlus series 7 and 8 devices with Verizon carrier). The problem now is that I must add iPhone devices to the mix but HD+ does not (and I would guess probably won't be) available for IOS. I am transferring my C7 and my house to a new owner/friend who exclusively uses IOS devices and doesn't have the time or interest in a lot of DYI tinkering (I'll set up some basic RM and RL rules and let them interact via Alexa) with minimal direct interaction with HE, maybe just device control by room.
So I am asking for recent (2024) user (experts to novices) experience with the integrated Hubitat geofencing for detecting and reporting devices crossing the perimeter. With HD+ geofencing, reliability has been about 95%. in the past for me Hubitat geofencing has been less than 50% reliable, all things being equal.
So has Hubitat geofencing reliability substantially improved in the last couple of years or should I recommend my IPhone friends not to bother with it - keep in mind that the don't want to tinker, they just want it to work.
Thanks for your patience in reading the long post and thanks in advance for all comments.
GeoFencing is a "conversation" between your mobile device and your Mobile Provider. iPhone to Apple in that one case. Notice how Hubitat isn't in that path. Every mobile device, with geo enabled, reports it's location to the Provider. The Provider runs the math on if the device is inside going out or outside going in. On boundary changes, a notification is generated.
Hubitat receives the notification, but everything to that point, is entirely NOT Hubitat related.
Caveats: I personally use an iPhone/Apple and get Homekit notifications that are handed to Hubitat over that integration. I have never used the Hubitat Mobile App.
That splits the "problem" into: a) how well or how accurate is the mobile device's location and b) how well is a notification handled.
Obviously if the mobile device's location is lagging hundreds of feet, entering and leaving the geofence area is lagging too. If the mobile device's location is not 'getting through', making it appear that the mobile is jumping around, geofencing decisions are going to be delayed. If the Notification is one of a million being sent in this particular second, then the notification can get lost or delayed.
It happens that for my particular home/area, I get good results. I certainly see variability. My geofence is coincidentally the same as my street. When I drive in from either end, I cross into the geofence. I have that notification do one thing: open my garage door if it is day time. The variability is visually apparent. On the quick end, the garage is more than halfway open when I get to the driveway. On the slow end, I wait 2-3 seconds in the driveway for the garage door to start to move. (I use a Linear/GoControl Garage Door Opener that has a required 3 second visual and auditory warning, which is why I critique based on door movement alone.) Once every two to three months, it's outside of this normal range of variability and I give up and push the button. I still get the notification, but it's beyond my patience.
I use IOS and the new app seems pretty good so far. That is of coarse a limited sample set as I have only switched a few weeks ago and I also use a combined presence sensor, Geofency, Wifi, and Alexa. So if the HE geofence fails I wouldn't know it because of the other sensors. It seems, however, that the new app is working pretty well. I would say my geofence reliability is about 99.8%.
So, when I said "all things being equal" we're talking the same moble devices and carriers. The difference being the Hubitat Android app or the HD+ android acting as the middle man. I do know from talking with @jpage4500 that he incorporated notification retries (to the hub via the cloud api) in the case of reporting failures. He put special attention to the issue of the mobile device transitioning between wifi connection and mobile network connection when the perimeter cross occurs. That implies variability based on the mobile hardware and OS.
Also the IOS hubitat mobile app and carrier may work better or worse than the android app.
Hi All
My recent experience is very poor and I'm getting quite frustrated having tried resetting the hub and deleteing and reinstalling both the new and legacy apps. I've posed twice on the forums hoping to find a fix, but no luck yet. See here.
I had saw a post where someone had reached out to another user for a fix, but I cant seem to find it now. @terminal3 or @Sebastien ,can you help or point me in the right direction?
I have a C8 hub and my wife and I both have iPhone 12s running the latest version of the App. I am always careful to keep my hub and phones up to date. Both phones show that we are outside the Geofence, but our status isnt showing as departed or arrived.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks Sebastien. I'm desperate to find a permanent solution that isnt a work around. I'll keep looking on the form as well to see if I can find the previous post I've referred to. @bobbyD , is this something you can help with? Sorry for reaching out directly.
I handle multiple sources as follows. I have a hubitat virtual switch (e. g., IsHome) that I expose to alexa. When ON, I am home. You set up your phone # in the alexa app. In the alexa app, go to Settings, my locations. define one for your target home position. Then set up an alexa routine that triggers on a location event of your phone is home (at that point you can define your perimeter radius). In that routine, the action should turn your IsHome switch ON. Then define another similar routine to trigger on your phone leaves home and set switch IsHome to OFF.
Also in hubitat you can trigger an RM on your phone presence changed and set IsHome switch appropriately. Now define an RM to detect switch IsHome changed and do any tasks you want for arriving or leaving home.
The advantage of the IsHome switch approach is you can set the switch from any presence detector such as alexa, hubitat or others and just have a single routine triggered in IsHome changed to do your tasks.
Separate switches because each must be tracked individually: typically you run your at-home chores when ANY phone enters the geofence but you perform the away-from-home chores only after ALL phones have left the geofence.
