Something we think is important to have control over in our smart home is if someone is at home. By knowing if there is someone in the house or not, you can automate many tasks around e.g. cleaning, alarm, light and heat.
One of the easiest ways to automatically check whether someone is at home, is to check if your mobile phone is at home or not. Mostly you do not go anywhere without your mobile phone today.
There are several ways to check if a cell phone is at home:
- Via Bluetooth
- Your wireless network at home
- App on the phone. For example Life360
- If you have an Apple phone, you can use iCloud 3 which uses the Find my Phone functionality at Apple
There are pros and cons to all the ways.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth has a relatively short range. The disadvantage is that you then have to have several receivers around the house to be able to cover the whole house, but at the same time you can get a relatively accurate position inside if you want this. Then you can for example see whether the phone is in a given room, and then adjust the light / heat in the room.
The wireless network
This is perhaps the easiest way to check if your phone is at home. Once the phone connects to the wireless network, Home Assistant can detect this. The downside is that some phones go into “sleep mode” after a while, and disconnect from the wireless network. Then Home Assistant also thinks that you have left. Home Assistant only uses ping to see if anyone is answering the IP address of the phone. There are 3.parts solutions Home Assistant that allows, for example Apple’s products match regardless of whether one is in “sleep mode” or not.
Life360
Life360 is an app that is installed on the phone, and you integrate this in Home Assistant. Then Life360 will send continuous updates to Home Assistant where the phone is at all times. It is quick to update, and quite accurate. The disadvantage is that you must have a separate app on their phone. The advantage is that this can be installed regardless of whether you have an Apple or Android phone.
iCloud3
If you have Apple phones, it is possible to use one product called iCloud3. This solution uses Apple’s own Find my Phone / Family sharing opportunity, and there is no need therefore to have a separate app on the phone. If you have installed the Home Assistant app on your phone, it will also be used to get an even more accurate tracking of the phone. It can take a few minutes to detect a new location when moving, but this is rarely a problem
Our solution
Experience shows that a combination of 2 or more ways to track the phone is the best. For example, combining tracking on the wireless network with iCloud3 means that you know immediately when the phone is at home based on the wireless network, and you have the option to track the phone so that you can set up automation based on the location of the phone / person.
To track a person, you must in the Home Assistant, add “tracking device” under Person. If you add two or more devices here, then all the devices must have the same status for the person to get this status. If one of those shows that you are at home, so the person will also be home. If the tracking on the wireless network shows that you are gone, and iCloud3 or Life360 shows that you are in another location (eg work), then the person will be shown that you are in that location as well.
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