Using iPhone as Presence sensor

[JDRoberts]

@joelw135

@marktheknife

ou could look into using iBeacons, some of which have a much smaller detection radius, if you wanted to trigger certain actions based on the presence/absence of your phone.

Is there a suggested brand of iBeacons that work well with SmartThings?

No Ibeacons work directly with SmartThings, because they are Bluetooth devices. But you can use the beacons with a phone or tablet and then use that information to update a virtual presence sensor. So it’s not as straightforward as just using phone presence or the zigbee arrival sensor, but it can be done. See the following:

FAQ: The Many Ways of Detecting Presence (2020)

Presence, regardless of the device you use, is one of those features that works great for some people, not at all for other people, and is randomly flaky for still others. It’s very much affected by local conditions. So some people will find that phone presence works much better than the SmartThings-branded presence sensor. Other people will find the reverse. Still other people, myself included, find that they have to use a combination of two devices in order to get reliable presence indication. So if this feature tends to work differently for different people, where do you start? 1. Using a Smart Phone as a Presence Indicator [image] Well, since most people who have SmartThings have a smart phone, it’s worth starting there. This method has changed significantly in the change fro…