Just caught up with all of this (quite a dramatical soap opera! )
I have chosen to run LineageOS / live a Google-free life and Iām not going to bash the HA devs for my choices, but itās clear that this App isnāt for me.
For me, Iām after the geolocation tracking, so Iām off to find which of the numerous other trackers donāt use Google (for example, just at random, OwnTracks uses Google).
If anyone can offer a short list of non-Google opensource location tracking apps, perhaps list them hereā¦ Who knows, that might even help improve this situationā¦
Just here to give an alternate point of view. I am one of the majority user mentioned by @balloob who runs an Android phone. For me, HA is all about convenience and automation. Not privacy / open source etc. I already use the chromecast, google home assistant, gmail, google photos, google drive etc. Google definitely knows more about me than I do myself. I even depend on google location tracking to know where i was at a given date.
Having said that, Googleās MACHINE (NOT INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE) processes all these data to gather information about my interests / need which is then used to advertise their clientās products. These information is stored on their servers to make a better match. Win win for both. I get a lot of free services in exchange for letting them know what i like and dislike.
Iām not trying to bash those who value their private data more than me. Iām just pointing out that there are more people like me. Just that weāre less vocal about it. All these information sharing with google makes my life easier.
From a developerās stand point, it makes sense to cater for the larger user base.
Now if I may, I dont really understand why some of you worry so much about exposing data to google? What do you think google will do with it?
I have a setup using Tasker as kind of described in this thread. I have Tasker automated to update my location based on changes to my cell tower or WiFi connect/disconnect events which is generally enough for HA to know if I am in any of my set locations i.e. Home or work etc.
If you donāt need real time tracking all the time then this is a good option with no third party services needed if your already on a Google free phone, just the phoneās GPS. It also has a minimal impact on phone battery compared to some other app solutions as Tasker seems very efficient when setup to only trigger on certain events.
Ah, interesting, Iād not considered that approach.
As far as I can tell (without even installing it ), this is using Google services, so might not work on my phone - not even sure how to install it without the Play Store (I get most things via F-Droid)
But, more importantly, Iāll have a look at this type of approach - not necessarily tracking my specific location per-se, but whether Iām āhereā or ānot hereā
For me, this works in some scenarios, for example when everyone has left home, but maybe not in other cases (like when weāre nearly home? Maybe it can work that wayā¦).
Tasker can also track things like āis my phone connected to my carās bluetoothā. Or even āis my navigation application active on my phoneā by watching for the notification. You could use that information to then tell tasker to track location more frequently then usual to be able to provide an estimated ETA.
Thatās actually what I do. In fact back before I used HA, I used to use tasker to read the āestimated time to homeā value out of the google maps navigation notification any time it was active. Then I would call the Nest āset ETAā API to let it know that.
Since then Iāve moved all that logic to HA to get it off of my phone (since it was getting kind of ridiculous lol) and changed it so Tasker just fires this intent any time I need to speed up location tracking to ensure I can get an accurate ETA.
Now obviously youāre not interested in Google Maps or Nest given what youāre trying to do here. But still Iām sure similar behavior could be replicated with the navigation app of your choice and whatever logic you have running for handling ETA.
Ah, ok, so if the phoneās in the car (connected to BT), AND Iāve just left work, then I should be heading homeā¦
I have been using Open Street Map, which has itās own tracker, which appears to be ideal, so itās just whether I can get these two Apps to play nicely.
I feel Iāve hijacked the original intent of this thread, so maybe I need to take this elsewhereā¦
In case anyone here missed it you can now install the minimal flavor of the android app that does not require google services. Keep in mind things like location tracking and notifications will not work as those depend on google services. You can grab the APK from the actions tab on the github repo, just select the latest commit and download the minimal version.
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