¶ How to Set Up Mobile Presence Sensing
With the Hubitat mobile app, you can easily add devices so any household member leaving or arriving home can trigger automations with mobile presence detection.
If you opt-in, the Hubitat mobile app uses your phone’s location to figure out when you’ve crossed over a virtual perimeter around your home, referred to as a geofence. You can designate center and size of the geofence area when setting up presence sensing in the mobile app.
NOTE: The Hubitat mobile app doesn’t track where you are or where you’ve been. Data for presence sensing and geofence is only used to determine when you come home or when you leave.
For presence sensing to work properly, you’ll need to make sure that:
- You’ve enabled the geofence option in the Hubitat mobile app.
- You’ve set location permissions for the Hubitat Mobile app to Always Allow.
- Everyone in your household you want to participate in presence sensing has the Hubitat mobile app installed and configured on their own phones.
¶ Install the Hubitat Mobile app on iOS
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Install the Hubitat Elevation mobile app on the iPhone you want to have presence detection capabilities and when prompted, choose the selection Allow While Using App. You will be prompted again later to change the setting to Always Allow so presence sensing will function properly, but initially iOS only permits the selection of Allow While Using App.
- NOTE: Presence detection is optional. If you don't want presence detection, you can disable it in the Hubitat mobile app and still use the other functions of the app.
- NOTE: Presence detection is optional. If you don't want presence detection, you can disable it in the Hubitat mobile app and still use the other functions of the app.
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If this is the first time using the mobile app and your first interaction with your new hub, select New Hub Owner to create an account, otherwise choose Existing Hub Owner and login.
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Login with your my.hubitat.com Admin User credentials. If you don't want your Admin account used on a guest user's phone, you can follow the instructions to add a guest account to your hub and log the user into the app with their own Guest User credentials.
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Select the hub for which you want the user to participate in presence detection.
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If this is the first time the app has been used on this iPhone to login with an account linked to your hub, then you will not see the name of the phone listed. Press the Create New Device button.
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The first time the app is used on your iPhone, you will be prompted to allow Motion and Fitness Activity. This is only required for presence sensing to function if you have the option Send presence only while in motion enabled in the Hubitat mobile app settings.
- NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular iPhone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to iOS Motion and Fitness Activity, presence sensing on this iPhone will not work. The purpose of this enhancement option is to allow an iPhone that drops off the network and then comes back on, to only send geolocation data when the phone is in motion, thus preventing unintended activation of automations that are based on presence sensing triggers.
- NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular iPhone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to iOS Motion and Fitness Activity, presence sensing on this iPhone will not work. The purpose of this enhancement option is to allow an iPhone that drops off the network and then comes back on, to only send geolocation data when the phone is in motion, thus preventing unintended activation of automations that are based on presence sensing triggers.
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The name of the phone will appear in the Devices list on the hub you connected to with the Hubitat Elevation mobile app. It will also now appear in the app as an existing mobile device each time you login to the mobile app and connect it to the same hub.
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When prompted, change the iOS privacy option to Always Allow. This will ensure the iPhone can use Geolocation data for presence sensing even when the Hubitat mobile app is not running.
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Presence sensing can be disabled or enabled at any time by toggling the Enable GeoFence settings option in the Hubitat mobile app.
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Arrival or departure of the mobile phone creates an event. To use these events for presence detection, add the phone name from the Devices list to a Basic Rule, Rule Machine rule, Mode Manager, or other app that can use presence to create an automation.
¶ Install the Hubitat Mobile app on Android
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Install the Hubitat Elevation mobile app on the Android phone you want to have presence detection capabilities, and when prompted choose the link Allow in settings.
- NOTE: Presence detection is optional. If you don't want presence detection, you can disable it in the Hubitat mobile app and still use the other functions of the app.
- NOTE: Presence detection is optional. If you don't want presence detection, you can disable it in the Hubitat mobile app and still use the other functions of the app.
-
If this is the first time using the mobile app and your first interaction with your new hub, select New Hub Owner to create an account, otherwise choose Existing Hub Owner and login.
-
Login with your my.hubitat.com Admin User credentials. If you don't want your Admin account used on a guest user's phone, you can follow the instructions to add a guest account to your hub and log the user into the app with their own Guest User credentials.
-
Select the hub for which you want the user to participate in presence detection.
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If this is the first time the app has been used on this Android phone to login with an account linked to your hub, then you will not see the name of the phone listed. Press the Create New Device button.
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The first time the app is used on your Android phone, you will need to allow Physical activity. This is only required for presence sensing to function if you have the option Send presence only while in motion, enabled in the Hubitat mobile app settings.
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NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular Android phone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to Android Physical activity, then presence sensing on this Android phone will not work. The purpose of this enhancement option is to allow an Android phone that drops off the network and then comes back on, to only send geolocation data when the phone is in motion, thus preventing unintended activation of automations that are based on presence sensing triggers.
- The name of the phone will appear in the Devices list on the hub you connected to with the Hubitat Elevation mobile app. It will also now appear in the app as an existing mobile device each time you login to the mobile app and connect it to the same hub.
-
Presence sensing can be disabled or enabled at any time by toggling the Enable GeoFence settings option in the Hubitat mobile app.
-
Arrival or departure of the mobile phone creates an event. To use these events for presence detection, add the phone name from the Devices list to a Basic Rule, Rule Machine rule, Mode Manager, or other app that can use presence to create an automation.
¶ Advanced Presence Options
¶ Advanced options for iOS
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Send presence only while in motion The purpose of this enhancement option is to allow an iPhone that drops off the network and then comes back on, to only send geolocation data when the phone is in motion, thus preventing unintended activation of automations that are based on presence sensing triggers. The first time the app is used on your iPhone, you will be prompted to allow Motion and Fitness Activity. This is only required for presence sensing to function if you have the option Send presence only while in motion enabled in the Hubitat mobile app settings.
- NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular iPhone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to iOS Motion and Fitness Activity, presence sensing on this iPhone will not work.
- NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular iPhone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to iOS Motion and Fitness Activity, presence sensing on this iPhone will not work.
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Validate location on network change This option will trigger the geofence to re-register when the iPhone changes WiFi networks.
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Delay exit Use this feature to set the delay in minutes until the app will send an event update indicating the iPhone has departed the geofence area.
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High Accuracy Presence This option is only available for iOS devices. When enabled, this feature can increase the accuracy of presence detection for iOS devices, but it comes at a cost to battery consumption. Increased battery savings will be realized when this option is left disabled.
¶ Advanced options for Android
-
Send presence only while in motion The purpose of this enhancement option is to allow an Android phone that drops off the network and then comes back on, to only send geolocation data when the phone is in motion, thus preventing unintended activation of automations that are based on presence sensing triggers. The first time the app is used on your Android phone, you will need to allow Physical activity. This is only required for presence sensing to function if you have the option Send presence only while in motion, enabled in the Hubitat mobile app settings.
- NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular Android phone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to Android Physical activity, presence sensing on this Android phone will not work.
- NOTE: If the Send presence only while in motion Advanced settings option is enabled for a particular Android phone, but the Hubitat mobile app is not granted access to Android Physical activity, presence sensing on this Android phone will not work.
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Validate location on network change This option will trigger the geofence to re-register when the phone changes WiFi networks.
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Delay exit Use this feature to set the delay in minutes until the app will send an event update indicating the phone has departed the geofenced area.
¶ Adjusting the Geofence area
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Tap the Geofence icon at the bottom of the app.
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Moving the slider will allow you to change the size of the geofenced area (represented by the thin blue circle surrounding the pin at the center).
- NOTE: The blue dot is the current location of the phone. If you do not see the blue dot on the map, tap the location icon at the top right of the app to re-center.
- NOTE: The blue dot is the current location of the phone. If you do not see the blue dot on the map, tap the location icon at the top right of the app to re-center.
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You can force a different geofence area by tap, hold and drag of the pin at the center of the blue geolocation area.
