Just switched to iPhone, looking for suggestions

[lcw731]

Good Morning,. and Merry Christmas!
I recently made the switch from android to iPhone. I'm looking for suggestions for integrations I should consider (home kit is on the list, but just not yet). One i know I'm going to need if for presence. I gave up on the habitat app long ago. is iPhone WiFi Presence Sensor still pretty much the gold standard here? Or is there a different or better suggestion?
Any other suggestions, or tips would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[jonathanm8]

I use Life360 and it works very well for what I use. I have a schedule to "push" the Life360 refresh button once in the morning around 8-9 and at night around 9 pm just to make sure everything is correct before running the night rules, but that is probably not needed as it does well on it's own. I have mine turn on outside lights when we pull into the neighborhood, etc. Also turning off everything when everyone leaves.

[terminal3]

I added the Geofency integration to my iPhone, along with the Alexa app it’s been pretty good.

[RELEASE] Geofency Presence

I used to use Geohopper for my presence controls but have migrated to Geofency (iOS only, Android folks - but perhaps OwnTracks will work for you?). The benefit of this over the Hubitat app for presence is you can use as many geofences as you want and trigger as many virtual presence sensors as you wish. Benefit of this over Life360 is that you're not giving a company access to your location/private info. My use-case for this over Hubitat's native geofencing is I have a wider geofence to do th…

[marktheknife]

@lcw731

iPhone WiFi Presence Sensor still pretty much the gold standard here?

On its own, not exactly.

Very good for arrival, but because of the way iPhones periodically disconnect from WiFi when asleep, it’ll end up throwing a false departure event, unless you set the time out to rather long, like >15 mins. If that doesn’t pose any problems for departure-related automations you use (or plan to use), then it’s not that big a deal.

But I think most people would combine WiFi presence with another option, like Locative, Geofency, or the Apple Home app.

[brianwilson]

@terminal3

I added the Geofency integration to my iPhone, along with the Alexa app it’s been pretty good.

Geofency is by far the most accurate presence using native iPhone capabilities. OwnTracks has random issues, but Geofency has always been highly reliable. The biggest thing to remember is if you migrate to a new hub, you have to update your URL’s

[lcw731]

@marktheknife

If that doesn’t pose any problems for departure-related automations you use (or plan to use), then it’s not that big a deal.

@brianwilson

Geofency is by far the most accurate presence using native iPhone capabilities. OwnTracks has random issues, but Geofency has always been highly reliable.

There are a couple that use both departure and arrival . On android I was using Life360, Improved Mobile Presence (Android only) and the Hubitat app feeding into Presence Monitor.
I don't have a problem swapping something out for Improved Mobile Presence (Android only).
I looked at OwnTracks before and i just can't figure it out. Truth be told, the only thing I still use the hubitat app for is SmartStart, and even that's been spotty lately. I haven't even looked for it for iPhone yet.
Would Geofency be something that I could just swap out for [RELEASE] Improved Mobile Presence ?

[lcw731]

@brianwilson

Geofency is by far the most accurate presence using native iPhone capabilities.

Looking at your Gefency thread, what would be an example of an ibeacon? Pretty sure I don't have any.

[marktheknife]

An iBeacon is a type of Bluetooth tag that connects to a phone. You’d probably know it if you had one.

[lcw731]

Would something like this or this work?

[marktheknife]

Just going by the product descriptions, the first item is an iBeacon, so yes it probably could.

The second item is a USB adapter to connect Bluetooth devices to a PC, e.g. a mouse, keyboard, speakers etc. So no it wouldn’t work for this purpose.

[jrvisconti]

I can't trust the Hubitat App for location data, it has never worked smoothly.

Regardless of what you do for location I highly recommend getting Homekit setup, great way to control switches.

I use SmartThings for location data, it has ALWAYS worked.

Up until last night I used hubconnect, now I'm using HubiReplica

I believe you can setup a shortcut / virtual switches in homekit/hubitat to for location triggering

[kahn-hubitat]

Go back to android lol

[lcw731]

@jrvisconti

I can't trust the Hubitat App for location data, it's never worked smoothly.

Yep. that has been my experience as well. Back in the early days, an app was not high priority, and it shows. It still apparently isn't either. even with SmartStart, i've only had limited success with it. The combination of presence sensors and apps I was using has been rock solid, but Improved Mobile Presence is Android only.

@jrvisconti

Regardless of what you do for location I highly recommend getting Homekit setup, great way to control switches.

I do plan to look into home kit eventually, but I wanted to get a bit more used to iPhone before I did that (I was a die hard windows phone guy until ST pulled support and shortly after Microsoft shut it down. went to Android at the time, so I am still exploring and getting used to iPhone, plus I still have my wife on Android. I think she will switch eventually, but not sure when.

@jrvisconti

I use SmartThings for location data, it has ALWAYS worked.

Up until last night I used hubconnect, now I'm using HubiReplica

@jrvisconti

I use SmartThings for location data, it has ALWAYS worked.

My Smart Things hub has been gone for a few years now. I do run two hubs, and used to use hubConnect to link them, but unfortunately when I changed my router, the IP addresses changed, and even though I updated them, I could never get it working right again, so I ended up scrapping it and going with hub mesh.

[lcw731]

If I could, i would go back to Windows Phone. Seriously, so far (three days) the experience with this iPhone is by far better than android (my last was a Note20 Ultra 5G), and far different than what I remember iPhone being a about 7 years ago when my wife was doing level 2 support for Sprint and T-Mobile. Android has always annoyed me, but it seems like Google keeps taking more and more stuff away or locking things down. Heck most my tasker automations have been locked down to the point they don't work. I tried using the ADB to change the necessary settings, and I can't get that to work either.

[salieri]

I recently migrated from SmartThings to Hubitat and I'm also in the iPhone ecosystem.

1. Geofency: Highly recommend and has been the most accurate for me. I also like the fact you can define multiple locations within the app. I use it with this driver.

2. iPhone WiFi Presence. Recommended.

3. I use #1 & #2 with this Hubitat App.

Other Things I've tried:

1. OwnTracks: Didn't care for the UI and immediately ditched it.

2. HomeKit w/Virtual Presence Switch: Had issues with false positives in my house of it going off randomly at night. No longer use.

[jrvisconti]

My first smart phone with a droid back when iPhone 3 came out.

I bought the iphone 4 and it was very hard to use.

I hated how my gmail and calendar worked - any everything else

I told myself I'd return the iphone if I couldn't deal with the differences within a week.

I'd never go back.

[jrvisconti]

Thx, i'll check it out

[ogiewon]

I use Locative for geofence based presence sensing on my iPhone. Incredibly lightweight, very accurate and reliable, and uses almost no battery. It does take a little bit of work to set it up, using a virtual presence sensor and MakerAPI, but it works very well.

[lflorack1]

My wife and I both have iPhones and use them for geofencing. Habitat’s presence accuracy, like SmartThings before that are completely unusable. Hubitat can’t even distinguish that I’m home or not - no matter the elapsed time since a significant change in location or distance. However, for both SmartThings and Hubitat, using webCoRE presence has proven to be completely accurate and reliable.