# Mobile presence using wifi only **URL:** \ **Category:** Apps & Clients\ **Created:** [August 27, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560 "2014-08-27T17:03:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mattalter](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/mattalter/32/12332_2.png) [@mattalter](https://community.smartthings.com/u/mattalter)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/1 "2014-08-27T17:03:41Z")
ST seems to use a combo of wifi and cell for location reporting. ST should consider only using wifi. I have used other zwave control software that allowed for getting the arp table from my router to determine what devices are connected or not. Way more reliable then what looks like ST is doing to determine location. Your geofence diameter should allow for a small location for us city users. ST team, please consider. Thanks Matt ---
**Author:** ![tslagle13](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/tslagle13/32/16380_2.png) [@tslagle13](https://community.smartthings.com/u/tslagle13)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/2 "2014-08-27T17:25:32Z")
> [@mattalter](#): > > Your geofence diameter should allow for a small location for us city users. You can edit the geofence in the app and make it quite small > [@mattalter](#): > > ST should consider only using wifi. I would love to see something like, if i am connected to this wifi I am home. ---
**Author:** ![mattalter](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/mattalter/32/12332_2.png) [@mattalter](https://community.smartthings.com/u/mattalter)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/3 "2014-08-27T17:41:24Z")
Geofence is not small enough for city users. ios app report 561 feet. Quite large for a city user in a condo. That’s the smallest I can make it. Needs to be around 50-100 feet. ---
**Author:** ![tslagle13](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/tslagle13/32/16380_2.png) [@tslagle13](https://community.smartthings.com/u/tslagle13)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/4 "2014-08-27T17:48:20Z")
561 feet isn’t small enough? If you made it 50-100 feet the you would leave and retunr to the geofence alllllll the time. It impractical. Accuracy is generally within 10 meters for GPS on iOS and Android. Tthats 32 feet roughly. Unless you were exactly in the center of your gofence and your geofence was setup to be exactly in the middle of your home its be impossible to be inside that geofence all the time. Unfortuantely if you live in the city you’re geofence will always be “to big” because it needs to be larger than 300 ft to be practical. This is where the “wifi presence” would work great. You can find posts on here about using ifttt for presence sensing. It is a hack job but it worked for a lot of people. I never tried it though ---
**Author:** ![mattalter](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/mattalter/32/12332_2.png) [@mattalter](https://community.smartthings.com/u/mattalter)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/5 "2014-08-27T17:50:14Z")
Care to share that post. Search does not come up with a ifttt for presence sensing hit. ---
**Author:** ![tslagle13](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/tslagle13/32/16380_2.png) [@tslagle13](https://community.smartthings.com/u/tslagle13)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/6 "2014-08-27T17:57:09Z")
This one one of the first results. Search “ifttt presence” > [@Made a Mobile Presence Solution That Works (Android/Root)](http://community.smartthings.com/t/made-a-mobile-presence-solution-that-works-android-root/1435): > > I have been bugging SmartThings for awhile about Mobile Presence. I go through a lot of devices, and I’ve noticed on some it works flawlessly, but on others it is absolutely horrible. I have no idea why, as they all work great with other geofencing apps that just use Google Play Services (same as ST), But, rather than keep complaining I decided to use those other apps that do work fine to fix the issue. This solution also utilizes WiFi presence as a backup method. This solution utilizes the following [Trigger](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jwsoft.nfcactionlauncher&hl=en "Trigger")[Tasker](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en "Tasker") Note: The only thign I am using Tasker for is to send a trigger SMS to IFTTTT because the method the Trigger app uses only compose sit, it doesn’t automatically send it. It may work differently on other phones. [IFTTT](https://ifttt.com "IFTTTT") Now arguably, this can actually all be done with just T… Its old so you’ll likely have to update somethings ---
**Author:** ![theedpope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@theedpope](https://community.smartthings.com/u/theedpope)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/7 "2014-08-27T18:29:06Z")
I have been using life 360 myself. But I would love to move to ST alone too reduce the need for additional applications ---
**Author:** ![mattjfrank](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/mattjfrank/32/100696_2.png) [@mattjfrank](https://community.smartthings.com/u/mattjfrank)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/8 "2014-08-27T22:33:51Z")
+1 ST needs to be able to detect a wifi device connected to your home to trigger presence, this would give people another option. I ended up purchasing Presence devices because both Android and iOS were not accurate or fast enough. ---
**Author:** ![chrisb](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/chrisb/32/264_2.png) [@chrisb](https://community.smartthings.com/u/chrisb)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/9 "2014-08-28T00:40:41Z")
I _think_ you can do this with Life360. Using that with IFTTT should work. ---
**Author:** ![geko](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/geko/32/34862_2.png) [@geko](https://community.smartthings.com/u/geko)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/10 "2014-08-28T00:57:31Z")
> [@tslagle13](#): > > Accuracy is generally within 10 meters for GPS on iOS and Android. With iBeacon you could get 2-3 m resolution. That’s enough to figure out what room you’re in. If the ST app supported iBeacons that would solve most presence problems. ---
**Author:** ![chrisb](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/chrisb/32/264_2.png) [@chrisb](https://community.smartthings.com/u/chrisb)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/11 "2014-08-28T12:26:34Z")
Maybe it’s cause I’m an old fart, but generally speaking, when I get home my cellphone gets dropped on the counter along with my keys and other items that I carry with me when going out. At times when I’m home I’ll have my phone on me (like on a days I expect calls, or when I’m reading a book or playing a game), but more often than not I’m not carrying my phone around the house with me. So having this level of resolution (iBeacon I mean) seems meaningless, to me. Now obviously this would still be fine to saying if I’m inside my home or not, regardless of if I’m upstairs and the phone is downstairs. But on the flip side of things, is the iBeacon range _large enough_ that it would register me as home before I entered the house? Right now with my presence sensor in my car I _usually_ start to see the garage door open when one or two lots from my house. Sometimes it just trigger until I’m in my driveway, but that’s rare. When would iBeacon report that I’m home and open my garage? ---
**Author:** ![geko](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/geko/32/34862_2.png) [@geko](https://community.smartthings.com/u/geko)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/12 "2014-08-28T15:14:37Z")
With proper tuning it can tell whether your car is in the garage or outside in the driveway. > **[iBeacon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBeacon)** > > iBeacon is a protocol developed by Apple and introduced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in 2013. > Various vendors have since made iBeacon-compatible hardware transmitters – typically called beacons – a class of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices that broadcast their identifier to nearby portable electronic devices. The technology enables smartphones, tablets and other devices to perform actions when in proximity to an iBeacon. > iBeacon is based on Bluetooth low energy proximity sen... ---
**Author:** ![johndc7](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/johndc7/32/128820_2.png) [@johndc7](https://community.smartthings.com/u/johndc7)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/mobile-presence-using-wifi-only/4560/13 "2017-10-21T15:50:25Z")
> [@tslagle13](#): > > ST should consider only using wifi. > [@tslagle13](#): > > I would love to see something like, if i am connected to this wifi I am home. I actually just finished something like this. If you want to check it out here’s the link (It is android only). > [@\[OBSOLETE\] Improved Mobile Presence (Android only)](https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-improved-mobile-presence-android-only/102492): > > Improved Mobile Presence This project is a mobile presence system with additional features and improved speed / reliability. I started working on this after having many frustrations with the built in mobile presence system and battery issues with the arrival sensor. I am open to any ideas or suggestions and check this thread often so let me know what you think. slight_smileChanges currently in beta Locations now have Wifi and Bluetooth triggers (Geofencing option coming soon) Triggers have the following options: a. Negative: Inverts the trigger (Ex. Wifi is not HomeWifi or Bluetooth device is not connected.) b. Requirement: If requirement is checked, the trigger is required for location to be active but does not place you in that location by its self. Power source changes now updat…