Native Hubitat app Geofencing not working - why is life360 still listed in built in apps?

Probably MAC randomization. iOS is more aggressive about it than Android. Android will set a random MAC the first time you connect to a new SSID but that one doesn't change unless you manually forget the network. If I'm not mistaken iOS will regenerate the random MAC periodically.

This is what I do as well, works perfect.

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Unlike Life360, OwnTracks is an open-source solution and is unlikely to have the same issues for that reason. It's free, and will provide the same functionality as the paid version of Life360. I think it's an upgrade, actually, and recommend that you try it out.

I too would like this. But it does not seem as though it's likely to happen, given that the native presence has had issues for quite some time. Not sure what to make of it, but I've come to terms with it and have been happy with the 3rd party options available. Frankly, the custom apps for this likely provide more functionality than what a native solution would offer. For example, I doubt anyone would expect a native solution to provide geo coordinates and reverse geocoding like Life360 or OwnTracks.

That's not been my experience. I've been very happy with it.

Life360's most recent troubles haven't been going on for THAT long. And it especially hasn't been that long since Life360 actually revealed that they are no longer supporting others' access to the API. I suspect Hubitat will remove the built-in app and update marketing materials soon enough. Claims of false advertising might be a bit harsh and premature at this stage, IMO.

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Curious. I was really hoping this would be the saviour of 360. I am on IOS and have found it suitably unreliable not to be a contender so far.

If you have done anything special Id be keen to know as I really want this to work and see no viable solution currently.

I don't see any questions/posts from you in the Owntracks topic. If you have tried it and found difficulties using it, you should post there so the author and other users can investigate and help you resolve issues. That's the best place to ask questions/get help w/the new Owntracks integration. The author is very active and responsive.

Oops - initially I linked to the old Owntracks integration - updated the link! Sorry.

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I have had 5 apps that had geofencing enabled on my android before I had Hubitat. Ecobee, Arlo, Google Home, and Samsung Smartthings, ALL of them are or were unreliable. So, I am not sure which apps you are or were using, but in general, gefencing apps on android that rely on Play Services location (which most do), are going to be unreliable for various reasons (mostly on battery and compass calibration - you would be surprised and shocked at how easily the phones lose calibration when subjected to magnetic cases and/or thos magnet mounts - I have a video demo that I did to prove it to one of the manufacturers). The one app that I use that is almost bullet proof is Tasker. However, I use that in conjunction with HE presence. It only has to take over less than 5% of the time (observational estimation there).

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I've been thinking about including location in the Tasker app I am building. I might look at it in more detail now.

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I have also found other apps to have problems with geofencing.

The Hubitat app is particularly problematic on iOS, but it’s hardly in a league of its own from my other experiences.

Sounds intereseting...what will it do, and are you planning on sharing it?

It has been out there for a while, but doesn't currently include any presence-related stuff specifically.

That said, my intention was to introduce some logic to use a combination the home Wi-Fi network and a heartbeat to detect when the phone is at home. I am also working on detecting Bluetooth devices, which could allow detection of connections to handsfree setups in a car. All this along with geolocation could be quite interesting.

I am also interested to try and support integrating with MaxeoDroid in the phone as an alternative, as well as Node RED at some point.

There's still plenty I want to do, some I have already done, before I release it properly, but you can still use it as-is if you want, just be prepared to re-install it later.

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Thank you for this idea. I don’t have android phones and find their OS even more buggy than Apple (although I’ll admit Apple is seemingly catching up with the number of bugs in day to day tasks).

The one thing the iPhone DOES very well is location awareness and now that I’ve created virtual switches in hubitat, shared them with HomeKit, and created automations within HomeKit to turn the hubitat virtual switches on and off, I do seem to have a spectacularly solid solution for geofencing. Kudos @j715 for such a easy win.

you can disable the iPhone MAC randomization in the phone setting. Not sure a non-family member will allow you to mess with his/her phone though.

My current implementation uses location to toggle HE combined presence (via maker api) IF HE hasn't already marked me away. I have it notify me if this was required so I can check HE later to make sure my gps didn't need recalibration. (Rarely has to notify me as HE usually works) It then callsa task that turns wifi on off based on that location. This calls a wifi check to determine if I'm on my home wifi, or my travel router wifi (with built in Wireguard), or other, and trigger Wireguard tunnel to turn on or off base on the wifi

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Thanks @tray_e , I'll think about this when I start to write this part of my app.

I implemented the Iphone Homekit solution right after HE implemented the Homekit integration. Since then there has only been 1 time that the presence didn't work. That would be 1 time out of several hundred.

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Sounds like you need to switch to an Android phone.... :wink:

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I gotta admit that the 1 time caused a little panic with the better half, but she got over it... :stuck_out_tongue:

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I saw another message in my e-mail about resource management. But, that may be the one you deleted.

To answer the question I saw: Yes, I did change the monitoring settings in preferences. I increased the GPS frequency to 120 seconds. In Tasker, I do not use wifi at all for determination of presence. It is based entirely on GPS location. The only thing I do with WIFI, is monitor for changes and use that to turn on/off Wireguard. I haven't noticed any more/less battery drain with this setup.

I though better of it posting here... but meh... no biggy...

The question I had was whether you use what I suspect are options between using GPS vs mobile network tower location. I was't sure if they could impact battery usage, which i was seeing as significant, having only just setup a profile using location this afternoon.

I might setup a separate topic for this when I get a chance, maybe tomorrow, given it is somewhat separate to the HE Geofencing discussion.

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Same experience here with Android (Pixel) except hasn't missed any, mines been 100% LOL