Device Tracker, when using multiple devices? how is location determined?

Like in topic? how does it work?
for instance, i have multiple smartphones and multiple tablets, all logged in with same gmail acount?
if i enable google maps sharing location , its enabled on all devices…
so how does tracking work? how is priority handled? because all devices are not on same location

thnx

Do you use device tracking as trackers or did you put all devices into a person entity? If it is the latter, than the last updated location of all devices will be shown. In my experience this works fine.

hi,

yeah, bundled it with a person entity

testing some out at this moment
life360, looks good
google maps… it worked first time, now it doest update anymore, strange
gonna test also owntracks & traccar

most important is the one with less battery impactn in that case , life360 wasnt good, i had driving/moving enabled though, now turned it off

In my experience it’s the opposite. I’ve had to go back to using groups.

At 4am my lights all suddenly turn on because there’s been a few seconds dropout on the WiFi even though the GPS trackers are all still showing us as being home.

Ah yes well I don’t use wifi trackers as I use iphones. They tend to drop wifi connection in standby to preserve battery. Though there is an option to set a timeout as to when it should say no longer home for when you are on wifi networks. Something like “consider_home: 10 min”.

The criteria for which devices take preference is pretty clearly documented isn’t it? (In the device_tracker docs)

Well, now enabled both Google maps and life360, both are based on location… My person entity is now located “home” , but I am not home… Seems my tablet on the wall is taking the lead…

So first test is not reliable :frowning:

You probably don’t want devices that don’t go away in your person definition…

I didn’t add that device in the person entity… It’s because I am also logged on on the tablet with same account… So it’s only one entity… So back to my first question… :wink:

Multiple devices ,logged in same Gmail account, HA is showing just 1 entity… So who takes the lead

You may be interested in my Composite Device Tracker custom integration. I personally use it with Life360 and Google Maps Location Sharing. In my case both apps are on the same phone, but I’ve recently added a new config option – require_movement – that can help if you have multiple phones and don’t always bring them all with you.

1 Like

BTW, for your original question, I think you have to ask Google. HA’s Google Maps Location Sharing integration, as I understand it, effectively looks to Google like opening Google Maps.

Thnx for the info