I am somewhat new to ST, so I can’t compare to what it was a few years ago, only to what we are experiencing today. Based on our experience, and reading the community forums here and elsewhere, it seems we are not alone on this problem. I don’t have a Samsung Keyfob Presence Sensor, as it seemed redundant to purchase one, so I can’t speak from personal usage. However, I have read many reviews from around the web, where people complain about the battery and the location not being reported correctly. So, maybe that is hit or miss as well. I just wouldn’t want to spend money on two devices that might not work properly, or work just as good as what I already have. Adding another fob to my keychain isn’t ideal either, and if there is no improvement compared to our phones (which should work consistently), doesn’t seem like the best option.
Presence is just tricky. Several different methods will work great for one household, another household will try four or five different methods and have difficulty with all of them. There are just many different local conditions that can factor in ( including type of phone and phone settings).
@marktheknife , I never had battery issues with the SmartThings branded presence sensor, but I had pretty much every other kind of problem with it due to local interference.
Eventually I ended up using a two device method, the phone and an I Beacon, and I now have presence which works well for what I need it to do. But it took literally three or four months and a lot of experimentation to get it working reliably. That time was worth it to me because I am quadriparetic and needed hands-free response for when I arrived home. Other people have to make their own decisions on how much time they want to spend tinkering with presence options. And of course some people will find that it works great out of the box.
More information in the FAQ:
I am almost to the point of trying one of these as a test for a while, but one hesitation is (besides it not working any better than our phones) that while I take my phone with me every time I leave the house, I don’t always take my keys, and this is where I would keep it. For example, if we both leave to visit family, we take our phones, but only one car, thus one set of keys. We have a lot of routines based on everyone gone.
I may just stick it out (not really any great alternative options) and hope that using the phone as a presence sensor keeps getting better.
I wonder how Nest does it. We have to of those and we use our phones as presence sensors for Eco mode. I have not seen it get stuck or not change properly. Now, it’s not instant, but that is by design.
Long story short, I personally feel (even though I am not a developer, just an end user) that there is room for improvement here, and hopefully that it is truly being looked into and worked on. As it stands, I am constantly checking something that should be automated.
Remember there are many different ways to use the phone as a presence sensor, you don’t have to just use the SmartThings mobile app. A lot of people find the free life 360 service is more accurate for presence, and there’s an official integration for that.
And if nest is working, you could use the nest IFTTT channel and have it switching mode turn on a virtual presence sensor in SmartThings. The only question is how much additional lag might be added. But you could try it and see.
Again, see the presence FAQ for more details on these options.
Thanks. I realize there are other ways, apps, devices, integrations and such, but ideally, the most popular and wildly used, I assume for the average consumer, is using their phone. I believe it even walks you though this when setting up the hub (could be wrong here). This was one of the main reasons I purchased ST to start with. I am not sure how reliable other hubs are with this, such as Wink. With that, it should just be a bit more reliable. Hopefully that will improve.
Are you using IOS or Android?
You are probably correct!
When you consider the many variables (cell coverage, GPS availability/strength, network latency, the particular phone in use – which vary widely, IMHO), it is good to have alternatives. YMMV 
After playing around with this when I first got started with SmartThings, I realized it didn’t work all that well at the time. Since I had no critical use for “arrival,” I gave up. I’m not interested in my door unlocking as I approach home, for example.
Perhaps I’ll try it again to see if it has improved. Maybe turning some lights on at night when I get home…
We both use iOS, iPhone 6s Plus. We use the arrival and departure to trigger I’m Back and Goodbye which also triggers the SM to home and away. We also have certain lights come on when we get home, and when goodbye is triggered, we have it so everything turns off. When the presence sensor isn’t working properly, the alarm doesn’t arm/disarm, lights don’t turn on and all of our plugs, fans and lights do not turn off. I do not use it to lock and unlock a door…to me, I am not comfortable with that currently.
Yeah I guess not everyone has issues with the presence sensor battery, I know we were discussing that recently in another thread. Though I’m pretty sure I’ve read before that others besides me think the battery life sucks too.
The salient point for @SquattingHen is that the zigbee presence sensor works very differently than phone presence, and may work well with his particular setup. But if you don’t want to add a keyfob to your key ring (I don’t blame you), then that’s probably the end of that.
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