There are different ways to do this in the official smart things mobile app, but neither is obvious or intuitive. They do both work well though. See the following topics, they should help. Or as others have said you can just use one of the third-party created rule engines.
Brief explanation of the different methods:
This could all change in the future, but as of March 2015 there are a few functionality differences between Shortcut Groups and Hello Home Actions I thought it would be helpful to document. Please add more if you know of them.
All of the following apply to features of the standard mobile app, not custom code.
Trigger after inaction on motion sensor: Available through SG, not available in HHA
Turn off after a specified number of minutes available in SG, not HHA
Trigger a light from a motion sensor you can do this in both, but they have different names. In a shortcut group, it is “turn on when there is motion.” In HHA, it is “turn on when things start happening” and for the HHA, it is only available if you are also changing the mode. The advantage of using in an HHA is that you can…
Detailed explanation of how to set up a light group:
SHORTCUT GROUPS WERE REPLACED IN THE SEPTEMBER 2015 VERSION OF THE MOBILE APP BY “SMART LIGHTS,” AN EVEN MORE POWERFUL AND MUCH MORE INTUITIVE WAY OF SETTING UP LIGHTING RULES.
I will leave this post up for a few more weeks to give everyone time to transition over to the new mobile app. But pretty much everything below this line will no longer apply once you do you have the new mobile app version.
Instead, see the “How to Group Lights” article in the community-created wiki.
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Group_Lights_Together
Further discussion of some quirks if you do this through hello home actions rather than through a shortcut group:
Weird. I have hello home actions that I’ve been using for months that do have a motion sensor trigger events of different device classes, but don’t change the mode. Maybe I had them set up to change the mode when I first started and then removed that event?
There are lots of reasons why you would want to do this without changing the mode.
For example, I have the deadbolt unlock and the light turn on when I’m letting the dog in from the yard. Can’t do it with shortcut groups, because the door and the light can’t go in the same group. But I’m not changing the mode. I was home, I am home, I’m just briefly opening the door to the backyard.
I tried to set a test phrase up by starting with the mode change, which did let me use “when things start to happen,” and then after it was saved unchec…
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