Around the beginning of 2018, Smartthings began requiring mobile phones have a cellular connection in order to install/use the Smartthings presence app (thing). This was an attempt to solve some sort of issue users had with presence detection. Does anyone know if Smartthings has any intention to re-introduce the wifi-only presence ability? Or is it gone forever?
Both my “phone” and my wife’s are used as “wifi only” devices. We have mobile hotspots which are free for the first 500mb of data - it’s limited, but does all we need it to do. I wanted Smartthings to simplify routine tasks, not create new ways to spend money.
Smartthings removal of the wif-only presence option has crippled my Smarthings system. Where the system “just worked” before, perfectly I might add, it’s now always in the wrong mode (since all changes must be done manually) and doing all the wrong things. So now I have a choice of paying for cellular service (which isn’t going to happen) or using some other option which has lots of cons (like another thing dangling on our keychains, or changing my router’s firmware so I can then learn to write scripts, etc).
Would it really have been so difficult for Smartthings to add some kind of “wifi on/off” switch to the presence app, rather than remove the use of wifi entirely?
So is wifi-only presence gone forever?