FWIW, my thinking is, if I’m going to use GPSLogger in addition to Google Maps, I’d only be doing so in order to get faster updates when approaching home, that sort of thing. Life360, that I’m replacing, used to be able to update (HA) as often as every 10 seconds when the device was on the move.
So, my approach is, I’d like to get updates every 10 seconds (to match Life360) when I’m moving at least 3 mph (aka, walking.) 3 mph is 1.34 m/s, or 13.4 meters per 10 sec. I therefore set the distance filter at about half that, hence 5 meters. This keeps it from having to send updates when the phone isn’t really moving, but will as soon as it starts moving more than about 1.1 mph.
As far as accuracy filter, I’ve just been using 30 meters for Life360 & Google Maps for a long time, and it seems to have worked reasonably well for me.
I like your thinking there… Going to change my phone and my wife’s to your settings based on your explanation and see how it goes, track the number of messages, etc.
All (most) of my automations are based on either HA Zones OR the Person’s state, which I map to a Zone, Away if stationary and not a specific Zone, or Driving if Away and “in motion” over a specific speed.
The last is normally for notifications like “You are driving, your battery is at X% and not plugged in. PLUG IT IN!”
Life 360 had one more important thing for me. I was able to check children’s mobile phone wifi state and battery percentage and state. GPSlogger is very limited in this, HA app can do this. BUT!
After years of using HA i discovered one horrible thing about HA. It has almost NO user/rights management!! Only thing i can set admin/user type of user. And… that’s all!!
But this is very dangerous. I need to install HA app on children’s phones but there is no way (really not?) how to disable controls/entities for some users. Is is ok my child see temperature in their room but it is NOT ok really NOT ok my child can see (and show to strange people) camera, control heating, remote control lock!! and other dangorous actions.
I think we need to vote for some HA improvement, i see two ways:
#1 - improve user management and rights #2 - create some “tracking” mode in HA app for example for children, in this mode HA will only report entities (position, battery - entities enabled in config)
I think #2 is much easier to implement. What do you think about this idea? Should we create this feature request? Or both?
GPSLogger (the app) can report battery level and whether or not it is charging, although you are right, it cannot report wifi state. GPSLogger (the HA integration) can only report battery level. But, I’m currently running a modified integration that not only adds the battery_charging attribute, but also a last_seen attribute (just like Life360 did, and Google Maps does.) A last_seen attribute is crucial when combining multiple trackers for a single device (e.g., via my composite integration.) I plan to submit a PR to add these capabilities to the GPSLogger HA integration.
EDIT:
BTW, a last_seen attribute can also prevent out of order reception of messages from the GPSLogger app that can otherwise cause your location to “go backwards” without your knowledge. I’ve only been running this integration for a short time and I’ve already seen this happen. The mods I plan to make (actually, already have, I mean plan to submit) skip updates where last_seen goes backward (like the Life360 integration did, and the Google Maps integration does.)
UPDATE:
I submitted a PR, but they wouldn’t let me add attributes. They only want new data made available by separate entities, which won’t do, at least for last_seen. I closed the PR.
I plan on making a custom version of the HA GPSLogger integration.
Of course #2 is easy to manage, but… Easy to implement? On both worlds?
The #1 option is a MUST.
I have an iPhone testing/triying a reduced presentation of HA customized to only one special dashboard… BUT, the user can return to a wide HA presentation and move things [EDIT: That’s not completelly true. The user can only access the dashboards that are not marked as Admin Only]… No really good.
The Life360 integration may not be completely dead after all. I have it working again. If anyone would like to try it, the custom integration is available in this repo:
https://github.com/pnbruckner/ha-life360
Beta version 0.5.0b5 is the latest. Documentation can be found here:
I did. I use Forgot password link, then type same password and it let me sign in after that. Also, it’s 2 factor verification now and they should send you a one time pass code to your phone
I did have that experience a while ago, but honestly, I can’t remember the exact circumstances. I often switch between Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. I think I had the issue on one, but not the other, but I can’t reproduce the problem anymore.
Please note that using the “access type & token” method is only necessary if you have a verified phone number on your Life360 account, and it may only be applicable to US-based accounts. If you can still use a username (emal address or phone number) with a password to log into Life360, then you can use the “username & password” method in the HA integration.
And, if you do have a verified phone number, and want to change back to the username/password method (and constantly be nagged by Life360 to verify a phone number ), you can use their password reset link
@JasonMeudt is correct. This integration does not create devices, just device_tracker and binary_sensor entities. There is one binary sensor per registered account, and one tracker per seen Member. Also, it can take time to retrieve the lists of Circles & Members from the server, which must be done before tracker entities can be created for the Members. Check the log for WARNING messages to see the progress of that process.
Once created, you’ll see the number of entities on the Life360 integration page:
I am adding messages about the need to retrieve lists of Circles & Members, which can take a while, to the config flow…
), you can use their password reset link