Will the mobile presence using Hubitat app will ever work consistently?
I know there are a lot of topics and other workarounds, but I would like an official answer from Hubitat.
I see they don't really bother with topics they don't know how to solve...
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Nice...real nice little jab there. I am sure the Hubitat devs are just super excited now to try and answer your question.
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wait - that was sarcasm !
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Yes. Our developers are continuously fine tuning both mobile apps so that more and more people can achieve increased reliability.
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@florinangelescu There are so many variables when dealing with presence detection in a generic level not to mention the public api that Hubitat uses (google I think). Mix models of phones, variables in their power conservation rules, their gps hardware etc... it can be very difficult to nail anything down. Which is why things like life 360 and what not do a better job.
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I’m curious how well this tactic has worked for you in the past while trying to solve other problems.
In my experience, people are rarely motivated to respond to questions that are paired with insults.
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@rlithgow1 has given you some reasons why geofencing is hard to implement.
Here are a few relevant points from @jwetzel1492, who as an iOS engineer, has projects that require geofencing and location tracking:
I strongly encourage you to read his post. Personally, I use an app that is dedicated to geofencing (OwnTracks), and integrate it with Hubitat.
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The current beta app in TestFlight has one update note which is "Geofence improvements"
might be worth checking out? It has been published for about a week now.
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Unless stating the obvious that the mobile app geofencing never worked, I don't see where the insult is.
As a software developer, I would be ashamed to have a live feature that doesn't work.
Since they don't work on having stable apps, they might as well browse the forums and reply to topics.
I see all ambassadors are really annoyed when someone states the obvious about Hubitat hardware / software product that doesn't work as expected.
I'm sure you are always happy to buy products with available unusable features.
No software developer goes to work to do a bad job. If the system they develop doesn't work, that's something to work with them to help improve. Asking when they are going to get it right, which implies it is not working for anyone, which is not accurate, that does not motivate developers, what we all enjoy is the engagement with users to help move the platform forward In a constructive way, i.e. working to better understand why and when something does not work as expected and how best to fix it. Blanket statements with negative undertones do not help anyone...
My comments, and I expect the comments from others here, are not meant as "arguments" or alternative points of view, we are trying to articulate how best to engage with the people who can best help deliver the outcome you want.
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Works for me. Samsung S8.
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Never worked for who? You? Perhaps your phone and mobile network are an edge case.
Because the app certainly works for many others. For example, here's one of my posts comparing a few methods to evaluating presence:
Now, I prefer OwnTracks because it lets me set multiple different geofences (home, work, the gym etc). But the Hubitat app continues to work to determine presence at the location where my hubs are.
The app was stable on my Google Pixel, was stable on my iPhone SE, and is stable on my iPhone 13. What phone do you have? Although my use case for Hubitat is almost entirely sensor driven, so I need to use the app very very rarely.
If your use case requires heavy app use, and the Hubitat app is not stable on your phone, perhaps your time would be better spent switching to a platform that meets your needs. From your profile, it appears you have been using Hubitat for ~3 years. Past behavior is the best predictor of future performance. If Hubitat hasn't met your needs for 3 years, the likelihood of those needs being met going forward is nil. From my perspective it seems illogical for you to continue using Hubitat.
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It never worked for me on Samsung phones. But it looks like something to do with Samsung.
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Samsung phones are very popular. I would recommend communicating with @support_team with details of your phone and OS. Because I would anticipate they would like presence to work on popular devices like Samsung phones.
See above post
Thanks for your feedback, though. Since the answer you have been looking for has been given, this thread will now be closed.
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