Best way for Homey to know when I'm home

Thx.

I just went through the settings on my IPad. Looks like they have now added a turn off feature for “private addressing”

I might do a re-test at some point to see if it makes any difference.

I rent out the space upstairs at my place. To check to see if a tenant is home ive tried using Smart Presence as I didn’t want bother them in having to install the Homey app etc etc . Most don’t even know what homey is…

I found it was easier to just statically assign the IP of their phone on the router and use Smart Presence to monitor that IP particular address…

Some tenants I’ve had in the past have had android phones, others have had IOS…

As time has gone by I’ve encountered more and more “user has left” false triggers by all of them when they have actually been physically at home,…

I’ve set delays over 15 minutes in Smart Presence but it still happens. I’ve also checked the router status. No different IP were assigned at the time. To me it seemed like their phones were going into a sleep mode…

That being said though, Smart Presence has been unreliable for me (a lot of false triggers) , even with Android phones. If big delay times need to be added in the settings then it just makes the whole thing very laggy and not as useable …

Asking all guests in the property to go change the WiFi settings in their phone also adds some complexity…

I haven’t used Smart Presence for some time though, maybe things have improved…

What iOS version do you use? Some user have big problems after updating to iOS 15.

I use iOS 15 so that probably explains my problems then.

I had problems with phones turning Wifi off and on for extended periods while charging. So wifi tracking will not work for every one, even if you manage to fix IP addresses.

BTW. Tracking tenants movements without their explicit approval is illegal in most parts of the world.

Not all our family members have the Homey app, but we have Apple Homekit. I’ve created a virtual device per family member in Homey (a fan: running if home, stopped if away). Since we all have iPhones, the homekit automation can set the fans running or stopped based on Apple Homekit’s own “when person leaves/comes home”-triggers. Works very well. (Useage: For example the temperature in the kids bedrooms are now less warm (we live in a cold area) when they are not at home. Some work to set it all up, but it will save us some money in the long run.)

I use the geofence with smartpresence combined.
Give your smartphones a fixed ip on your router, and the first that detects you are away or home changes your status. Works almost all the time :grin:

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That’s quite a clever work around if not wanting to rely on having the Homey App.

Geolocation is a good thing, but do not use it as the only solution for presence detection.
Good presence detection based on at least two sensors.

There are some physical points where you can also check the identity or presence:
1, alarm system: If You are the house, that means nobody will be at home until they disarm; the house could go to “economy/sentry mode.”
2, entry points of the house could check the identity in different ways: direct events like an NFC reader, visual identity (not for open the lock but after the unlocking, which is also a proof of validity), or geolocation (after unlocking)

Also, a good idea to have an NFC tag reader near the key box; you can read the NFC tag on arrival and departure.

So use two parallel methods and check the identity in the entry points; in this case, you don’t need to monitor the state continuously.

I have tried Homey geofencing and gps location with disappointing results. So far, the most reliable way to set my home presence is to use voice commands for Google Home together with a Homey flows. It’s the only solution that works well for me, so far.

I use the same setup, a little bit simplified. One virtual switch “iemand thuis”/“somebody at home”. HomeKit sets this on or off depending on “first person at home”/“last person left home”. In homey I have only one user. 1 flow to set user “at home” and one flow to set user “away” triggered by virtual device “on” / “off”. From there you can use default homey functionality for presence. Works almost without any problem for years for a 4 member family all on iOS devices.

@Henrik111, after a few days with iOS 15, I can say for myself that the Homey Build-In solution still works without any problems. I also do not need any further workarounds.

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Homeys own build in geofence doesn’t work for any accounts but admin. I’ve tried using the Netgear app and MAC address “comes online” for arriving and “goes offline” for leaving…so many false arrives home that it can’t be used either. Same problem with Smart presence. Going to figure out webhooks using Macrodroid

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Can’t confirm this. With my wife, the detection works just as reliably as with me (iOS, Account: User).

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Have to assume it something to do with iOS then as we are all on Android, 2 phones current version and 2 slightly older. Of the 2 current version both have all permissions set the same way, Homey app can see location all the time etc. The only difference between the 2 is my Homey account is admin and my wife’s is user, mine works hers doesn’t. It is very frustrating and has been this way ever since I got Homey, so has been persistent through many builds of Homey and several Homey app versions and we’ve both changed our phones.
I have tried using the netgear app and both reserved IP and MAC address settings and, presumably because we have a long property, and the phones have to roam across APs, this causes uses to keep getting “arrived”. Same problem with the Smart Presence app. We have a very annoying situation where we have to use an ISP that do not let you use a 3rd party router so our WiFi is the AP but not the router and I’m not convinced that the ISP router is good, BT, not least because Tado have long pointed out a problem with BT DNS.
Anyway, a 3rd party app, macrodroid, with geofencing and webhook triggers is something I need to figure out.
Thanks for your reply

Since two days ago, Homey has registered that I left home and came back on two occasions. It does not work every time but it is at least a step forward. Does anyone know what distance is required from the house?

I don’t know the geofencing distance, sorry.

Just downloaded iOS 15 last night … gonna see how it goes today…

From my experience around 200meters if walking on foot., if driving allow for 700meters… I know this as my alarm system sends me a notification each day whenever it auto arms (when I leave the house) , and when it auto disarms, (when I arrive home)…

I have tested a little more now by adding a push notification when I leave and come home. Just as you describe, I usually get a notification when I am about 200 meters from home when I walk. But when I leave home by car, it has happened several times that it is not registered that I left home even though I have been away all day. Very strange.

Homeys Geofencing for IOS users is currently broken since the recent IOS 15 release… check some of the other threads to see what’s happening …

There’s been no acknowledgement or communication from Athom so no idea when it will be fixed .