I just got home and same delayed reponse in presence detection.
I looked at the logs. I have the infamous status 403
Away status works and arrival status works its just delayed
I hadn't really been paying much attention to it since it's been working here even through multiple (and Beta) updates and rollbacks (.116 update bug) , but also see this in the logs.
Yes, I did. Also I changed the password in the app and tried to log. Still doesn't work.
My Life 360+ continues to update location on my phones - I haven't checked how quick it is updating as I don't depend on it since they made the changes. I am using Geofency as we are all apple.
However if you have a Home Assistant instance running you can also try this:
Again, for apple users but it exposes a ton of data which are quite useful.
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I confirmed my Presence detection is still working with Life360+. There is a 10 min delay on arrival. To adjust for the delay, I increased my radius. Let's see if this stays consistent
I have decided to cancel my annual Gold Membership to Life 360 based on their companies short sighted direction to cease supporting API presence for 3rd party applications. Sad day but I have already switched to the OwnTracks Hubitat Integration App which is free and works nicely with Hubitat. Win-Win.
Here is Life 360's support ticket reply to my question on API presence access.
Hi Kurt,
Thank you for contacting Life360 about 3rd [arty API. I can provide you details on this.
We understand the importance of using the Homey system with Life360. However, we no longer support home automation programs such as Hubitat, Home Assistant, Google Home, Alexa, IFTTT, and others, and Life360 is no longer compatible with these programs.
Currently, we do not have any plans to reintroduce compatibility with these programs, but we appreciate your feedback, and I will share it with the appropriate team. Please make sure that you always use the most updated version of the app for you to be able to catch up with the latest updates from the app and be able to get the updated features.
Have a safe day,Dwen
Life360 Customer Care
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A copy paste response I'm afraid.
They don't care. The ha market is probably a tiny portion of sales.
I too use owntracks now. Its a shame to lose the historical features of life360 as the UI for those were awesome. Owntracks recorder can be used for basic replacement but it's nowhere near as polished.
Sad times.
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Is there any benefit to using Owntracks over Geofency? I have installed Geofency on two phones and it works well and we are 100% Apple. But just want to make sure I am not getting FOMO?
I use both. Owntracks seems to have one benefit - it doesn't have to be 'running' in background.
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I use OwnTracks for presence detection, and really like it over $4.99 iOS only Geofency app. Both get the job done, but I prefer the OwnTracks open source project which I can customize to my particular needs,
According to the OwnTracks "What Owntracks Does" documentation, the OwnTracks app runs in the background on your Android or iOS device and waits for the smart phone to tell it that the device has moved, whereupon OwnTracks sends out a message with its current coordinates.
OwnTracks waits for the device's operating system to inform it of movement; only then can OwnTracks react and do something. To make matters even more complicated, OwnTracks on Android runs in the background, all the time, whereas on iOS it is "killed off" by the operating system and woken up every several hundred seconds, in which it gets a teeny tiny time slot to do its thing.
I find it interesting as to what, "Runs in Background" means to developers, all the time, some of the time, randomly, or waits for the O/S to wake the process!
Whatever, Owntracks does not use as much iPhone battery as Life 360 did on my iPhone and that is highly desirable for my needs.
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So I understand this is broken, but I've still got 'current' updates coming in for the 3 people I track presence on for the house. But interestingly, the hubitat app didn't update my 'home' status until 22:52 last night, even though I arrived home at 20:59, as recorded in the app.
It updates literally all day, even when I'm not moving, but my 'arrive/depart' is substantially delayed. Is this a direct result of their hate for API? Perhaps they throttle or delay on their end?
Most likely.
It is just weird that they'd allow all these numerous other attributes to feed through except presence changes. I am seeing battery updates, latitude and longitude updates literally all day.
I do see LOTS of these in my logs, not sure what it's representing..
403 is not authorized.
Understood, but curious what's the request action that's not being allowed? I'm wondering if there is a code change needed, and perhaps it's bombarding the API on their end and therefore throttling me later or something. I've got it set to 5 minute refresh, but faster when moving.
L360 has made it exceedingly clear they are not going to make the API work for 3rd-party stuff - you really should just move on to a better solution instead of wasting time trying to figure this out.
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Just from the message I'd say anything requesting an update to the members' status.
I know, the challenge is asking extended family to install an 'unusual' app like OwnTracks on their devices just for my SmartHome convenience... sigh. It's like the WAF x 10 haha!
I did leverage Apple Shortcuts (I'm the only android and have a plethora of options lol) for some that won't install Life360 to hit their corresponding virtual presence device arrived/departed as they arrive/leave my house..
I worded it in that OwnTracks is needed so the house knows you are here or not, so that it will arm itself, or disarm, if people come and go. I also just set it up on their devices myself. The hard part is Apple's stupid uninstalling apps if they aren't actively used often. After a few months the house was stuck thinking someone was present when they weren't.
Obviously I'm not an Apple fan, but I find it stupid that the only option to "pause" apps is within the entire AppStore? It's an all or nothing pause vs a per app option like Android. Please correct me if I am wrong so I can make that change back on my iPhone OwnTrack users.
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I've got 2 homes, our primary and a vacation rental. The extended family are my dependents apparently so also use it and therefore OwnTracks won't suffice, at least in current state to manage presence in both locations. I might literally just use Shortcuts for everyone else on IOS and maybe Tasker for myself.
We've used Life360 for what feels like over a decade and I wish I could slam the door on the way out so hard the glass breaks. Such a d move when companies just flat out say "we don't care what you want, we only care about how it benefits us, basically selling your location data"
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