Issues with iOS Presence

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I finally gave up on HE's ability to accurately track my presence on our iOS phones. I installed Life360.com's app, tested the free edition, which has been 99% perfect, smaller battery drain, and the paid annual version has some very nice location "circle" features that allow for advanced automations... HPM has a nice app that interfaces with HE and pulls street address, etc...

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I am still using HE presence, but I have also added using the Alexa app as a presence sensor. It has worked very well for me. HE works at about 90% of the time, the Alexa App is at about 99.5%. I have only had is not work once that I can recall since I started using it. With the combination of both it has been spot on.

I believe that’s an Android-only solution.

There’s also the iPhone WiFi presence sensor and combined presence app by @jwetzel1492, which works great. And ironically despite the name, it works with (most) android phones too.

Nope, use it with my iphone

This?

According to the release thread it uses an android app from the google play store.

Works fine with both mine and my wife's iphone

Hmm, I wonder why the developer describes it as android-only and what the function of the separate android app is :man_shrugging:.

Not sure... I looked at the code and nothing in there seems android or apple specific... Maybe @Johndc7 will chime in

I'll also note that the one I showed doesn't require an app at all, it simply checks for the ip on the network. You reserve an ip in your DHCP server and the moment your phone connects or disconnects from wifi the action is tripped. The one you're posting shows you install an app on the phone. This one doesn't do that.

Maybe it’s a WiFi presence sensor that’s mobile OS agnostic, with additional features for android users that make use of the separate android app. The dev has only one release thread AFAICT.

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Yeah. Maybe more geofencing in the app. For me personally my phone connects to my Wi-Fi at the street . By the time I get to my front door the door unlocks and the lights kick on. Though I will be changing that around with multiple triggers soon

Not sure... I looked at the code and nothing in there seems android or apple specific... Maybe @Johndc7 will chime in

The reason it is Android only is because all of the presence data / events come from the app. Since I only wrote the app for Android (I don't have an App Store developer account or an iPhone to test with), it is Android only.

Most other WiFi presence solutions are just pinging an IP address on your network to see if it is available. I could implement something like this for iOS devices but it would most likely be much slower since the accuracy would be limited to the rate that Habitat is pinging the device.

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Doh! I realized I had @johndc7's installed but not being used, I'm actually using Joe Wetzels.... @marktheknife I feel a bit dumb at the moment

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I am wondering if you could explain a little more for a newbie how you use the Alexa app as a presence sensor. Thanks.

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I have an Alexa routine That turns off a virtual switch when I leave the house and another routine that turns it back on when I arrive home.

In the Alexa routine under "When this happens" select location. From there you can select the Alexa routine to execute when you leave or arrive at a location.

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Got it. Seems to work. Thanks much.

If you already use the Apple Home app and have a “Home Hub” you can bypass the need for needing homebridge or creating a bunch of fake switches.

Using the Automation tab in the Home app on your phone you can create a trigger when you “arrive home” that talks to hubitat locally. (You’ll make another for when you leave home too)

Use Hubitat’s Maker API to create a local endpoint for updating a device or variable in Hubitat then take note of the Device ID and command you want to send to hubitat when you arrive/leave.

When you go to add an automation in iOS, when prompted to select a device, scroll to the bottom of the list and tap “convert to shortcut”

Search for “url” and find the appropriate options to match the attached example.

You’ll just want to swap the device id, command, and access token info from my attached example to match the info from your Makers API instance.

I am in the process of migrating from ST. Overall, a pretty smooth process. I do have a presence problem with my wife's iPhone XS. I have installed the app and have the device in HE. I have notifications and location services turned on. Also have changed it to always report position. In HE the status is Unknown. I have sent multiple Geo Events and taken the phone in and out of the Geofence, but there is no update in HE. My Android seems to be working fine. I see there are problems with presence reporting consistently with HE Presence on iPhones, but I would like to get it working at least periodically before I add other services. Does anyone have thoughts on what I can do to get the iPhone working on HE?

I have also set my wife up with a different HE ID and have elevated her to admin.