In short
Homey already shows how long a zone has been active or inactive in the Devices overview (“Active 18 minutes ago”), but we cannot use that information in flows. I’d like Homey to record the moment a zone changes state and make the duration available as a flow condition and tag, in seconds.
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What we have today
Flows only offer “zone becomes active”, “zone becomes inactive”, “zone has been inactive for x minutes” and the condition “zone is active/inactive”. There is no way to check how long a zone has been active, and the inactive trigger only works in whole minutes.
What I’m asking for
A condition “zone has been active/inactive for more/less than x seconds”, a duration tag (in seconds) on the zone triggers, and active/inactive duration triggers that accept seconds. The basis is simple: Homey storing the timestamp of each zone state change.
Why it matters
Presence-based lighting needs to tell a deliberate action from a habit. If someone switches the light off a few seconds after entering a room, they don’t want light and the automation should back off. If they switch it off after being in the room for a while, they’re probably leaving, and the automation should simply work for the next person. That distinction is only possible if you know how long the zone has been occupied. The same goes for telling walking through from staying, delaying switch-off in rooms people leave briefly, and matching ventilation or heating to actual occupancy time.
Why workarounds aren’t enough
The community app Zone Activity adds a similar condition, but its developer notes that Homey doesn’t store a timestamp of the zone state change, so the duration has to be estimated from the sensors in the zone. HomeyScript runs into the same limitation and hides logic outside the flow editor. Tracking time yourself with variables or Chronograph adds extra state that has to stay in sync with the zone, which creates new points of failure. Homey already has the right information; it just isn’t exposed.
This keeps coming back
Similar questions have been asked since 2022, so far only solved with workarounds:
Zone in active for x time straight
Check if zone has been inactive for more than X minutes
How you can help
Ideas on the forum don’t automatically reach the Homey team, but support tickets do. If you’d like this too, please like this post, share your own use case below, and send a short feature request to Homey Support with a link to this topic. More requests make it more likely to land on the roadmap. I have submitted a detailed request myself.
Thanks!
