I know I can have it set up so triggers happen through both life360 or ST presence.
What are the differences? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using one or the other?
I am realizing that currently my children will need access to the ST app to control lights. Is there a way to limit what they have access to? For instance, I dont want them to have access to the door lock control.
To grant control to just certain functions, instead of installing the SmartThings App on their mobiles, I recommend donation-ware SmartTiles (up to 5 unique dashboards, run in any browser, each with just the Things you put on them, currently free: Disclosure; I’m a co-developer).
For whatever reason, Life360 is reportedly more reliable for picking up presence than then SmartThings App. That alone may influence your decision. There is, however, a 500 meter (or feet?, I forget), minimum zone range, so it triggers, technically, late on leaving and early on arrival. I wouldn’t recommend it for unlocking the door automatically, but perhaps is safe for disarming various alarms, turning up the heat, etc…
I don’t know if the other Life360 features are worth their fees … well, actually, I think if I were parent I would use place tracking for school and friends, etc. until a certain age, though there are competitive products available.
Yeah we are just using the free app for now on life360. I have noticed the circumference of identity is fairly large on 360 which makes it difficult in my situation to not activate when im on a few side roads by the house. Sometimes im on those roads but not headed home. Right now I just have life360 set to handle the lights.
So with SmartTiles, which I am using, I would just create a new dashboard and give it to the kids? Is there/planned an android app? I would def donate if that were the case.
Also, the only way to get the kids showing up as a ST presence is to have the app installed?
Thanks for the help.
Correct. Each of the 5 (per Location) SmartTiles dashboards gets a unique URL and Access Token. The kids won’t be able to access the other dashboards without their tokens unless they have your password.
No “Android App” is necessary as SmartTiles is fully compatible with common Android browsers. Chrome (and perhaps others) let you “pin the page / shortcut to desktop” which makes it full screen and look just like an “App”. Both SmartThings (unless you log off explicitly each time!) and SmartTiles do not require login or PIN (currently) once the phone passcode is entered. Please email: Support@SmartTiles.click for any assistance you may want.
That’s the only way to get “SmartThings Mobile Presence”. There are ways to use SharpTools or custom scripts on your router to trigger custom “virtual” presence device instances.
Having tried several options I stick with Life360. As mentioned above, one problem is the large radius. I “overcome” this using Tasker on the android. When Life360 tells ST I am within my home circle, ST triggers a Tasker profile to get current Lat/Lon and calculates (actally a php program does) the distance in feet to home. If th distance is less than, say, 100’, trigger “I’m Home” events. Works great except… Tasker takes an eternity to compute the lat/lon. I’m usually in the door with coat and shoes off before Tasker completes.
Are you using Life360 because you had issues with the ST Presence?
I have issues with ST mobile presence and stopped using it. Is Life 360 a solution?
Also, to the question on presence for children, ST has a presences sensor which can be used. I do not have experience my own.
Yeah, that will probably be the way I end up going with that, maybe for all of us if GPS by its self doesnt work properly.
I have definitely had better results with Life360 as well. The ST Mobile Presence was completely unreliable, and Life360 generally triggers when I am in my driveway. I know this because when my wife and I are in the car together, she always gets the “arrive” notification through Life360 when I pull up in the driveway.
Yea, I’m a life 360 fan as well. One used to be able to adjust the geo radius on the mobile app, maybe it’s still there if you login to the web interface.
Maybe once every two months I’ve had to tab through the app to unstick someone, but I’ve been happy with it overall.
The presence events it provides changes several of my modes.
I have some questions on Life 360 and hopeful this thread could be of some assistance. Once I have installed the Life360 app can Can I now delete the smarthings presence sensors?
If I add my wife on Life 360 will I be able to see her location on Life360? She will not like that, namely that I could track her. Does anyone know?
How do I add my wife to Life 360 and how do I get her to show up on ST. Link to another thread that has these details?
Yes you can see each other, however that can be disabled in the Life360 App. Once you have Life360 listed as a presence in ST you will want to remove the other.
@chowder007 or anyone else
I found the ST native presence location feature absolutely sucks. In my case I had the ST presence be the trigger to turn off/on Smart Home Monitor. Because it rarely detected the location of both are phones, it would trigger false intrusion alarms constantly as it would not recognize us returning home.
I installed the Life 360 app on mine an my wife’s phone, but my wife does not like the fact that it essentially shows her constant location. I don’t really care to see where she is throughout the day rather WOULD like to know when she is inside the “geofence” around the house as it would then communicate to ST.
However, when we tried setting my wifes “Location Service” setting to off on Life 360. It seemed to lock her last known location which at the time was are house. As a result, ST would think she never left the house and constantly showed her as present even if she left the house for work. In other words, it seems like you if you turn off “my sharing location” on Life 360, it essnetially renders the location feature on ST useless.
I was hopeful if you turned this off, it would still recongnize when someone entered or left the geofence area, thereby still being able to interface with ST in terns of indicating whether somone was “Home” or “Away”
Anyone have any ideas?
This is really odd to me. For my wife and I using our phone to detect works flawlessly. I suspect it may dependent on the phone you are using. This is really the only thing I can think of that explains why it works for some and not other. Both my wife and I have what would be considered premium android devices. I am curious what kind of phones you and your wife have?
The only other option which by all account works superbly is the arrival sensor by samsung for ST.