# \[APP\]\[Pro\] Absence Simulator — replay your home's real activity while you are away
**URL:** https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794
**Category:** Apps
**Tags:** app, homey-pro
**Created:** [August 1, 2026, 7:16am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794 "2026-08-01T07:16:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Oliver\_Jenni](https://community.homey.app/u/Oliver_Jenni)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2026, 7:16am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/1 "2026-08-01T07:16:01Z")
Absence Simulator watches what your lights, blinds, sockets and media devices actually do, keepting a rolling 30 days. When you are away, it replays that behaviour — the real rhythm of your
household, rather than a timer.
**Why it looks real**
A timer that switches the living room on at 19:00 every evening is a pattern anyone
watching for a few days can read. This app replays a genuinely recorded day instead:
- It picks one recorded day and reproduces it, rather than averaging several days into one
implausible evening of constant activity.
- It prefers a day with the same weekday, because Tuesdays look like Tuesdays.
- Anything recorded near sunset is re-anchored to \*tonight’s\* sunset. Around the equinoxes dusk shifts by nearly an hour across the thirty days the app remembers, and a change to summer time moves it by another hour overnight — so a light recorded at dusk three weeks ago still comes on at dusk tonight rather than an hour off.
- Every event is shifted by a few random minutes, so no two evenings are identical.
- Before replaying, it puts your devices into the state that day started in — so a room
that was already lit does not sit dark all evening.
**Useful from the first week**
It does not wait for 30 days of history. If a weekday has not been recorded yet, it borrows
the closest match and tells you which. A slightly wrong pattern beats an unlit house.
**Switching it on**
- Manually, with a start button that can run until a time you choose — the next 08:00 by
default, for an evening out.
- By planning holidays in advance. Enter “1 July to 10 July” months ahead and it switches
itself on and off. Times of day are optional; without them, whole days are covered.
- From a Flow, including _start until a given date and time_, so it can hang off a geofence
or a door lock in an Advanced Flow.
Come home early and press stop, and it stays off for that holiday rather than switching
itself back on a minute later.
**Built for real installations**
Filter several hundred devices by name, type or zone, and select whole types or whole zones
in one click. A _Data basis_ panel shows exactly what has been recorded — a calendar of the
last 30 days, coverage per weekday, and the daily rhythm of your household — and names any
selected device that has recorded nothing at all, which is usually one ticked by mistake.
**Privacy**
Everything stays on your Homey. The app operates no server and sends nothing anywhere.
Records older than 30 days are deleted automatically. Removing the app removes its data.
**Requirements**
Homey Pro, firmware 12.9.0 or newer. Homey Pro only. Available in English, German, French,
Italian and Spanish, with a user manual in each language linked from the app settings.
**Please note**
This app is a deterrent aid, not a security or alarm system. It does not detect, prevent or
report burglary, and it depends on your Homey, your devices and your power supply. Do not
rely on it as your only precaution when leaving a property unattended, and do not reduce any
other security measure or insurance cover because of it.
**Links**
- App Store:
- Test version: [Absence Simulator | Homey](https://homey.app/a/ch.ojenni.absencesimulator/test/)
- Support: [ojenni@gmail.com](mailto:ojenni@gmail.com)
Bug reports and feedback in this topic are welcome. If something is not being recorded,
please open the app settings and quote what the _Data basis_ panel says — it reports what
the recorder is watching and how many changes it has seen, which usually identifies the
problem straight away.
---
### Author:  [@SingKT](https://community.homey.app/u/SingKT)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2026, 8:20am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/2 "2026-08-01T08:20:37Z")
Sounds realy cool.
Think you can add an option to read the stats of the last 30 days from the selected devices?
And as an extra goody add an option to define a shedule or adjust it for each selected device in case the last 30 days won‘t represent the next days. Was thinking of winter, the times from december might be a bit different from januar.
---
### Author:  [@Oliver\_Jenni](https://community.homey.app/u/Oliver_Jenni)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/3 "2026-08-01T09:18:37Z")
Thanks for the feedback.
The app is keeping track of rolling 30 days - what you requested. It was not clearly mentioned in the text. I’ll update the explanation once the app has been approved by Athom.
Regarding the second request to add a shedule for each device: The moment you hand-write when each device switches, you’ve built a timer. Being unlike a timer is the app’s entire argument. A schedule editor would let people quietly rebuild the exact pattern the app exists to replace.
---
### Author:  [@SingKT](https://community.homey.app/u/SingKT)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/4 "2026-08-02T13:22:16Z")
Have a look at the app **Anwesenheitssimulator** It reads the last 50 records of selected devices and can display the schedule. What‘s missing is a chance to adjust the schedule. For example the blinds should open at 8 plus minus 15 min. You record the opening at different times and then add or subtract your global? random time which might be more random than I intended. Or take the time around x-mas. Mid Jan. one might have different lights on, at other schedules. To have the app(s) replay x-mas lighting is not what I want.
I include the way Anwesenheitssimulator displays a devices schedule.
---
### Author:  [@JMDPC](https://community.homey.app/u/JMDPC)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/5 "2026-08-05T23:58:09Z")
What am I doing wrong nothing is being recorded
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### Author:  [@4x4\_Pete](https://community.homey.app/u/4x4_Pete)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 10:08am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/6 "2026-08-06T10:08:25Z")
Shouldn’t that thing be better called “Presence Simulator”? 😉
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### Author:  [@smarthomesven](https://community.homey.app/u/smarthomesven)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/7 "2026-08-06T12:56:13Z")
That one already exists:
> **[Presence Simulator | Homey](https://homey.app/en-us/app/com.simulator.presence/Presence-Simulator/)**
>
> Simulate presence by automatically replaying your lighting patterns from a week ago
---
### Author:  [@Carole\_C](https://community.homey.app/u/Carole_C)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/8 "2026-08-06T15:51:08Z")
What are the difference between these 2 app?
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### Author:  [@Oliver\_Jenni](https://community.homey.app/u/Oliver_Jenni)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 11:11am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/9 "2026-08-10T11:11:20Z")
To be honest, I do not know. I built this application to resolve all my own needs and feature requests, and I was willing to share it with the public. However, Homey rejected it because they prefer not to have two applications in their store doing similar things.
So, I am keeping it here and will develop it further for my own use and for anyone else who wants it. I maintain it so I can add features within hours rather than depending on others. If others use it, I am more than happy to integrate their requests. But as mentioned, it was ultimately rejected simply because another app already exists in the same space.
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### Author:  [@4x4\_Pete](https://community.homey.app/u/4x4_Pete)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 11:55am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-absence-simulator-replay-your-homes-real-activity-while-you-are-away/157794/10 "2026-08-10T11:55:15Z")
Call it Absence Obfuscator 😅