People tracker?

[flequi19]

What people tracker (mobile) do you recommend? since I can’t find one that works well. The HA one works very badly for me in particular!

Thanks in advance

[CO_4X4 (Colorado Four Wheeler)]

I don’t use the HA people tracker much, mostly because my wife doesn’t have HA on her phone and doesn’t want it. I use HomeKit’s geolocation capabilities along with iCloud v3 integration to get an idea of where people are.

No method is likely to be 100%, but for my needs this has worked well. Of course, I use the Apple ecosystem so I have this as an option but if you don’t then a different solution would be needed.

[exx]

Depends on what your goals are, but if it’s as simple as home/away, you could use a wifi device tracker.

[CO_4X4 (Colorado Four Wheeler)]

@exx

you could use a wifi device tracker

I tried that for a hot minute and realized that it was too difficult to track phones and watches using Apples privacy mode where MAC addresses change and throws off DHCP, which throws off wifi detection. We can turn those off but we like having them for the other 99.5% of our activity

[exx]

Sounds like an apple problem, not a home assistant problem.

[CO_4X4 (Colorado Four Wheeler)]

It’s a solution problem if you happen to use apple devices.

[DigiH]

@CO_4X4

It’s a solution problem if you happen to use apple devices.

Not a problem at all with local Bluetooth tracking

Local Bluetooth presence/device tracking for Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad with security relevant unlocked property

Hi all, I wanted to inform you about our newly implemented feature with the recent release of Theengs Gateway to allow for fast local Bluetooth presence/device tracking for Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad, with additional unlocked property, to allow for security relevant automations, like opening gates, garage doors or even unlocking door locks etc., to only run if an authorised user is arriving back home, without the fear that these automations would also run in case the devices got lost or stole…

[CO_4X4 (Colorado Four Wheeler)]

@flequi19

What people tracker (mobile) do you recommend?

I responded with what I use. This was the question, I answered it.

@DigiH

Not a problem at all with local Bluetooth tracking

Absolutely true, it’s a second alternative presented in this thread about methods to track people. I did this one too and dealt with battery drain on the BT/E devices that I was tracking, but YMMV. Full disclosure, I used Room Assistant and this was a constant issue anyway and probably one of the reasons that project is collecting dust now.

[DigiH]

@CO_4X4

I did this one too and dealt with battery drain on the BT/E devices that I was tracking, but YMMV. Full disclosure, I used Room Assistant and this was a constant issue anyway and probably one of the reasons that project is collecting dust now.

I cannot comment on any battery drain with Room Assistant, but our implementation of the Home/Away presence for Apple devices in Theengs Gateway (Add-on) was only released after making sure it doesn’t have such a detrimental effect on battery life. It uses the BLE messages all Apple devices send out anyway to communicate and keep in touch with each other. So even if not use our, or any other similar, implementation, the devices still send these messages; so why not pick them up in a useful way at the same time

[flequi19]

which one do you recommend? (for android)

[exx]

It literally has nothing to do with phones. It’s network.

[exx]

You can couch it any way you want. If it works with one device and not the other, it’s a problem with the device that doesn’t work. This is yet one more of hundreds of ways that Apple does things their own way just to trick less savvy users into becoming locked into an inferior ecosystem. From the way they handle messages, to the way they handle networks, everything they do is designed to make your life more difficult if you want to interact with anything other than another apple product.

Enjoy your digital prison.