Modes can be a helpful part of the home automation experience. With modes, you can set your automations to behave differently during different modes. For example, you probably don't want your bathroom lights coming on at full blast in the middle of the night like you might during other times of the day.
In order to start using modes in your automations, you need to first create them in Settings > Modes.Your hub comes with four default modes (Day, Evening, Night, and Away), but you can remove them or add new ones here:
It's important to note that modes do nothing on their own; they are essentially just a hub-wide variable that apps can read or set.
To automate changing your modes (e.g., to turn on Evening mode at sunset every day), you will need to create an automation to do so. A new feature in platform version 2.4.0 and later allows you to use an integrated mode manager feature available directly on the Settings > Modes page (edit/pencil icon next to the mode name) to create basic automations to change modes. You may also use the built-in Mode Manager App or other apps such as Rule Machine or other automations.
(A selector at the bottom of this page lets you choose which option to use; selecting one option will disable the features or apps to which they correspond. "Other apps" disables the other options but is somewhat different in that moving the slider away from this option will not disable other apps you might be using to automate modes — apps besides any of the other listed options — as, unlike the other options, this could be a variety of apps the hub cannot predict.)
Using one of the above options, you can set modes to automatically change based on time of day, day of the week, presence, and more. You can also program modes to change at the press of a button.
Once your modes are set, you can use them to change the behavior of certain apps — for example, creating rules that have devices behaving one way while in the Day mode and in a completely different way during Away mode. You might also choose to simply disable certain automations while a specific mode is active. Options vary by app, but most apps provide some way to alter or restrict behavior based on mode.