Multiple geofences

I’d really like to be able to setup multiple geofences for a single location.

Specifically around my house I’d like the current small fence for recognizing if I’m home. I’d also like to setup a wider geofence that would control if my nest thermostats are in away mode or not. (Change Hello, Home to nearby or something)

I don’t think this is currently possible.

Don’t think so! We will be more than happy if one geofence worked on our phones in a predicted manner!

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It’s not something thats possible right now using the built in geofence capability

You’d have to have two hubs at your house to get two geofences I believe. Not worth the cost.

If you are using Android, you could control your Things or execute Phrases based on custom geofences using Tasker + AutoLocation + SharpTools.

I’ve had pretty good luck using the geofencing capability in IFTTT. It integrates well with ST. IFTTT will permit multiple geofences.

IFTTT? Huh! I have only ine recipe for I am home which I created today via iOS location and life360 to notify me when I am home. I can home at 5:01PM which ST notified at the dot and well exactly at 6:49 PM, IFTTT says that I have entered an area! That thing is freaking joke with its lag and latency!

But it was a shared recipe from somebody. So, I can’t bad mouth them totally.

IFTTT is an excellent integration tool but it is not built to support “real time” tasks; this is hardly surprising given what they charge people to use it (nothing).

Whilst it is often very quick, you always need to bear in mind a latency of up to fifteen minutes when considering it as a solution component.

To be fair… It did post an entry in life360 that I reached home at 5:01 PM. It’s that I got notified at 6:49 PM.

I noticed there is a device ideas forum. Why is there no developer idea forum? The software is just as important!

You could actually do this within ST. It’s fairly complex though.

  1. Create a geofence close to the house.
  2. Create another location (hub-less) with a larger geofence.
  3. Create a cloud to cloud app from outer app to the inner.
  4. Put logic in the outer app that sends a present/not present notification to the inner app.
  5. Put logic in the inner app that when there is presence in the outer, but not the inner, then do some things.

Like I said, until apps from difference locations can talk to each other, this is the way you can do it in ST. You could also use this method to set up picketting for something like it when you are on your way home and want a cascading action list; i.e. leave work: start hot-tub, 10 miles out: turn on AC, 1 mile out: open garage and turn on the lights.

I want to vote for multiple geofences too. I also want a “getting into the general vicinity of home” type of recognition that can kick on the HVAC system. I would like to avoid additional integration points outside of ST because, quite frankly, I think it makes some of this seemingly simple stuff way too complicated. Did I automate that in Harmony? Hue? IFTTT? SmartThings? Did I do something on a different platform than ST that is screwing up the reliability in my ST automations? When you start having triggers and firing mechanisms on all kinds of other platforms, things get confusing.

Hello twack,

I found this thread as I faced exactly the same challenge. I was reading your description on the possible solution. However, I am not quite sure what you mean with a “cloud to cloud app” in “3. Create a cloud to cloud app from outer app to the inner”. Could you please give me a hint on how to create such an app?

Thanks