Most successful presence detection?

[wayne.pirtle]

I do the same with virtual presence sensors through Homebridge. It is a solid solution for iPhone presence detection.

[wiegout]

Most successful presence detection?

Here's a link to the method of setting up using HomeKit as a presence sensor. FWIW this worked perfectly for my iPhone and never was reliable for my wife's iPhone and I was never able to figure it out so I abandoned this approach and switched to using Locative which works almost perfectly. Warning: neither of these integrations are a walk in the park. How do I setup presence using Homekit and Homebridge?

[GHN1013]

Thanks so much @wiegout . Had same issue yesterday with one phone working while other phone wasn’t.. although both seemingly set up same. Spent several hours trying to figure it out yesterday, and finally was able to fix it by Settings > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset Locations & Privacy. (Note: Once reset, will have to re-choose Locations services options per app).

Both phones work great now as presence using HomeKit. Will try it out for next few weeks.

[bogdan.mail]

Hi wiegout

Thank you very much

[StephenH]

Iris Smart Fobs have been very reliable for me. I have used them for years. I just found another "new" one which I just ordered. I tend to be rough on them and the cases being plastic can break after they have been dropped a number of times. Having a spare is good.

[wiegout]

Interesting. Might give that a shot on her phone. Locative has been solid though. Glad this helped and I appreciate the tip.

[velvetfoot]

@StephenH

Iris Smart Fobs

I've been using the SmartThings arrival sensor fobs for the cars.
I don't have one in pocket.
They also have been good for me for a couple years now.
The batteries, cr2032, have to be changed monthly or so.
Some people have made adapters for larger batteries for the car, but I haven't.
I'll have to check out the Iris Smart Fob.

Too bad something similar still isn't being made...or is it?

[StephenH]

Iris Smart Fobs, model # 3450-L are scarcer than hens' teeth now. I purchased one that was "new". I saw two others listed, but without the back covers that hold the battery in. I could use them as I have old ones that could provide the missing covers, but they aren't much use otherwise.

Anything carried in the pocket gets much more wear and gathers much more dirt than something that sits in a car. I've had to glue the two sides of the case together because after a number of drops, it came apart and could not be snapped back together. That is why I purchased another one. I wanted a spare for when this one dies. Also, sometimes, the contact for the rim of the battery cell will break off. Surface mount is not the strongest of ways to mount a batteryterminal that can be stressed. Through mount would likely have been better.

I agree. It would be nice to find a supplier for them.

[velvetfoot]

@StephenH

Iris Smart Fobs, model # 3450-L

Wow, it has buttons as well as proximity. The ST arrival sensor doesn't have buttons. It sends out a signal every 20 seconds, hence the one month battery life. How is the SmartFob on battery life?
I've squirreled away several spare ST sensors for when mine break.

[GHN1013]

Still loving the switch over to HomeKit for iPhone Geo Presence detection. Works flawless and is quick to respond (and still able to use more complicated automations with my Hubitat/Webcore).

One question though for those using this method, is how do I create or see the status of the actual phone’s presence from HomeKit (other than viewing the status of the virtual switches)?

[ogiewon]

@GHN1013

One question though for those using this method, is how do I create or see the status of the actual phone’s presence from HomeKit

Good question... Not sure there is a native way of seeing this in the native Apple Home app on the iPhone. I wonder if one of the paid third-party Home/HomeKit apps supports seeing this information?

[StephenH]

Battery life is long, well over a year. I have had to replace batteries in them, but not very often.

[GHN1013]

So got responses from Apple Support. There is no direct way to see the phone’s home/away status in Apple Home app. Instead, I was redirected to use “Find My” app to see if the phone’s location is within your home. Or just setup some automation notification (which is not quite the same thing)..

[tonyk1322]

I do this too in Webcore using motion sensors, door sensors, and TV power sensors to detect when TVs are on. I have a piston that runs every 15 min and looks to see if any of those devices are active or were active within the last 15 min. This also have been reliable for me.

[cdikland]

I use Homekit/iPhone for presence sensing as well but I am looking for some clarification how others are using this,

My setup includes HomeBridge V2 on my Hubitat and HomeBridge Server on a Raspberry Pi. I use Apple HomePod Mini for the hub. When a family member leaves/arrives a HomeKit automation turns on/off a Hubitat virtual device which I added to Apple Home via the Homebridge V2 interface.

My issue with this setup is that it is way to complex for simply presence sensing. I setting up a whole new hub at a family members location with only one purpose. Monitor activity via motion sensors while someone is present and stop monitoring when he goes out. The idea of setting HomePod, Homebridge Server on a PI seems overkill.
Surely there is an easier way????

[ogiewon]

@cdikland

Surely there is an easier way????

Hubitat’s built in HomeKit integration means that the RPi running HomeBridge is no longer required, especially for just presence detection.

I use a Virtual Presence with Switch device that I have shared with Apple Home using Hubitat’s HomeKit integration. I then created two App,e Home Automations, that turn on/off the virtual switch when I arrive/depart.

This does still require at least one AppleTV4K or HomePod Mini to act as the Apple Home Hub, which runs those two Apple Home Automations.

If you’d like an even simpler solution (I.e. less hardware), you can use Locative. Locative runs 100% locally on your iPhone, and simply make calls to Hubitat’s cloud endpoint for MakerAPI running on your HE to expose a Virtual Presence sensor. There is a great thread that explains exactly how to set this up.

Locative Presence app for iOS full setup

Locative is a great app for presence sensing but is only available for iPhones. I previously used Life360 free version for over a year without any issues. I noticed that it would typically consume about 1% of my iPhone battery per day. I was not concerned with the privacy issues of being tracked. About a year and a half ago I saw a post by @ogiewon mentioning Locative. The cool thing about Locative - your phone decides when it is inside or outside your defined locations and only when your pho…

[cdikland]

@ogiewon

Hubitat’s built in HomeKit integration means that the RPi running HomeBridge is no longer required, especially for just presence detection.

Oh wow. Thanks for this info. I had totally forgotten about the built-in as my setup with HB server was working fine. I would still need an Apple hub and while he does have an iPad he sometimes takes it with him when he has a long hospital appointment. I will chck out this Locative options as an alternative

[ogiewon]

@cdikland

and while he does have an iPad

iPads can longer be used as Apple Home Hubs. This functionality was removed a few years ago during one of the iPadOS updates.

[cdikland]

I chose the Locative route. Very simple to setup/Use thanks to @steve.maddigan very detailed and easy to follow guide linked above.

[teri.schwein]

SInce this topic came back to life, I thought I'd provide feedback on what works best for me. I use the android App HD+. It has it's own built in presence capability and it's been pretty much flawless for me. It's especially nice for Samsung phone users, since for some reason Samsung has problems with consistant location reporting. Somehow the author of HD+ has gotten around this problem. I don't know whether a similar verison exists for Apple phones.