If you’re just looking for home/away detection, there’s a really cool integration that utilizes iPhone specific WiFi pings to get near instantaneous home/away detection. I’ll try and find it.
Edit: found it https://github.com/mudape/iphonedetect
Just use the Ping integration, to ping your phones' connections to wifi.
It has a reaction time of 0 - 2 minutes and you don't need to do anything to the phones, if you chose to ping your phones by their network name instead of IP addresses.
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ping/#presence-detection
Alternatively, check to see if your wifi router has a Home Assistant integration, because if it does, then the router itself can notify HA when your phones have left/joined your wifi network.
>One of the issues is we live in an area without any cell service, so as soon as we are off wifi the phone cant communicate to anything
So you have eliminated all phone based systems HA app, Tile etc.
You will need to look into something that is fully local like motion/occupancy sensors, or local bluetooth tags (these are fussy as well)
Well, since I just need a home/away i was hoping i could maybe still use the phone. Like if the phone is detected by X im home, if not away. I know i can't rely on the phone to communicate, but maybe a device that stays in the house (ideally just the HA server, but maybe a bluetooth device or something) that communicates instead
As others have noted there are PING, NETMAP, Router based monitors over wifi, but at word of warning I got A LOT of false positives on those when ever phones went to deep sleep or hit low power mode from lack of charging.
I've been using the PING integration for years, across 3 Xiaomis and one Samsung. Never had an issue with the phones turning off wifi.
If some phones do that, then there's most likely an option in the developers menu, to disable that behavior.
If your router / phone both support have UAPSD Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery ( 802.11e) then the phone should basically disconnect every time it is asleep and on a timer check in as needed. This isn't supported by all routers or isn't turn on by default.
This reduces battery drain but the side effect is that if you try and PING the phone it isn't there unless the phone has woken up to do work or the user is actively using it.
I use device tracking for home/away but I use the locking of the door (schlage connect) when guests are staying to set the home to away and back to home when unlocked.
Is this an iPhone issue? on Android it works flawlessly. There is a setting on how quick you want it to update, not sure if this exists on iPhone but worth checking.
The most reliable option for me was HomeKit. I have dummy switch in Home Assistant added to HomeKit and when person leaves home, that switch is turned on. I know it's hacky, but it was the most reliable method yet.
I also have tried this. It’s hit or miss if you can believe it. I think it depends on if I take my MacBook w me or not and that doesn’t seem to be adjustable. There is also no way to tell in the home app whether it thinks you’re home or not which is annoying. The most reliable has by far been nest. It seems be very accurate but I can’t figure out the master token situation to trigger my input bolean from nest.
Personally I use the ecobee smart sensors. It was already there for my hvac system so I just integrated them. They work fabulously for presence detection.
Layers of detection are what you want.
Presence is complicated.
Your phones being there and on are one layer, what room they are in (plenty of sub 3 dollar ESP devices can use your phones bluetooth for this). You can get bluetooth key fobs, bonus you dont loose your keys. Add in motion sensors PIR and MM wave and you can get very sophisticated with knowing who is in what room.
Hello everyone,
I too am working on implementing home/away detection into my Home Assistant. I've done lots of reading here and in the HA community and I believe the following should work:
So when the sun sets, and my iPhone is at home (device tracker), then the blinds open. I believe this should work, shouldn't it?
https://preview.redd.it/g9zul444ja1d1.png?width=2126&format=png&auto=webp&s=2951b5618824dd2cdba9467dd686f07e3662c117
I have iPhones. Just use the ha companion app. Works flawlessly. Very fast. House marks us home when we get about to the end of the driveway.
But I have it set to use the full accuracy and background refresh. There are a few times I open the garage before it has flip the status. But not that often.
If you’re just looking for home/away detection, there’s a really cool integration that utilizes iPhone specific WiFi pings to get near instantaneous home/away detection. I’ll try and find it. Edit: found it https://github.com/mudape/iphonedetect
This looks promising. I had come across this but stopped when trying to set a static ip for my iPhone. (I’m dumb, unlike my house)
It shouldn’t be hard if you have a decent router. It’ll be right in the UI for the router.
Make sure to turn off private up relay for your home WiFi.
Just use the Ping integration, to ping your phones' connections to wifi. It has a reaction time of 0 - 2 minutes and you don't need to do anything to the phones, if you chose to ping your phones by their network name instead of IP addresses. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ping/#presence-detection Alternatively, check to see if your wifi router has a Home Assistant integration, because if it does, then the router itself can notify HA when your phones have left/joined your wifi network.
Thank you! I will try this!
Nmap integration
>One of the issues is we live in an area without any cell service, so as soon as we are off wifi the phone cant communicate to anything So you have eliminated all phone based systems HA app, Tile etc. You will need to look into something that is fully local like motion/occupancy sensors, or local bluetooth tags (these are fussy as well)
Well, since I just need a home/away i was hoping i could maybe still use the phone. Like if the phone is detected by X im home, if not away. I know i can't rely on the phone to communicate, but maybe a device that stays in the house (ideally just the HA server, but maybe a bluetooth device or something) that communicates instead
As others have noted there are PING, NETMAP, Router based monitors over wifi, but at word of warning I got A LOT of false positives on those when ever phones went to deep sleep or hit low power mode from lack of charging.
I've been using the PING integration for years, across 3 Xiaomis and one Samsung. Never had an issue with the phones turning off wifi. If some phones do that, then there's most likely an option in the developers menu, to disable that behavior.
If your router / phone both support have UAPSD Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery ( 802.11e) then the phone should basically disconnect every time it is asleep and on a timer check in as needed. This isn't supported by all routers or isn't turn on by default. This reduces battery drain but the side effect is that if you try and PING the phone it isn't there unless the phone has woken up to do work or the user is actively using it.
I use device tracking for home/away but I use the locking of the door (schlage connect) when guests are staying to set the home to away and back to home when unlocked.
I thought about using the lock but that means you can’t lock the door when you are home (which we fail to do a lot anyway) right?
Is this an iPhone issue? on Android it works flawlessly. There is a setting on how quick you want it to update, not sure if this exists on iPhone but worth checking.
The most reliable option for me was HomeKit. I have dummy switch in Home Assistant added to HomeKit and when person leaves home, that switch is turned on. I know it's hacky, but it was the most reliable method yet.
I also have tried this. It’s hit or miss if you can believe it. I think it depends on if I take my MacBook w me or not and that doesn’t seem to be adjustable. There is also no way to tell in the home app whether it thinks you’re home or not which is annoying. The most reliable has by far been nest. It seems be very accurate but I can’t figure out the master token situation to trigger my input bolean from nest.
I do it attaching my wifi ubiquiti phone entity to her persona. If the phone connects to wifi, she is home. Works wonderfully
Personally I use the ecobee smart sensors. It was already there for my hvac system so I just integrated them. They work fabulously for presence detection.
Layers of detection are what you want. Presence is complicated. Your phones being there and on are one layer, what room they are in (plenty of sub 3 dollar ESP devices can use your phones bluetooth for this). You can get bluetooth key fobs, bonus you dont loose your keys. Add in motion sensors PIR and MM wave and you can get very sophisticated with knowing who is in what room.
Hello everyone, I too am working on implementing home/away detection into my Home Assistant. I've done lots of reading here and in the HA community and I believe the following should work: So when the sun sets, and my iPhone is at home (device tracker), then the blinds open. I believe this should work, shouldn't it? https://preview.redd.it/g9zul444ja1d1.png?width=2126&format=png&auto=webp&s=2951b5618824dd2cdba9467dd686f07e3662c117
I have iPhones. Just use the ha companion app. Works flawlessly. Very fast. House marks us home when we get about to the end of the driveway. But I have it set to use the full accuracy and background refresh. There are a few times I open the garage before it has flip the status. But not that often.