Is there a way to use Snapchat to track my device so I can trigger automations using my location on Snapchat? Like triggering away mode on alarmo and stuffs. Life360 works well but it seems easier this way to limit who can access my door using both their Snapchat location, and an nfc card. So if someone else gets the card in an unauthorized manner and tries to use it without the owner of the card there it just won’t work, and I don’t have to get the person to install a third party app on their phone to make this work. For some reason everyone has Snapchat, (don’t understand why you need another text messaging/calling/video chatting app) so it makes allowing access easier because If I’m talking to them on Snapchat and their location is available to home assistant using an integration, that makes everything way easier.
Do you use the HA app at all? You can use that for your device location.
Right but that’s just my phone. I still have to manually ask people to download and install and configure an app if I want to use geo fencing to restrict other people’s access. Because while Snapchat is on their phone and I can use it to see their current location, home Assistant is not and neither is life360. This is to make nfc tags not open my door if someone is not home. Because they don’t have the app and won’t want to install it, or anything else, this is my solution to using Geo fencing without asking someone to install an app to allow it. I see something related to Snapchat called snapmap or something on here but I don’t think that’s what I’m trying to do.
Ok but that would require an access password / key / api etc from them which still means doing something with their phone / device.
Ok but if the location is available on Snapchat to me without that, right now, because Snapchat tracks everyone’s location and shows you, then shouldn’t I just need api access…
Like right now without them doing anything or their password or anything their location is by default shared with me. So If I can call that data somehow can’t I just get the location?
Seems kinda invasive… Not sure they would allow that (in an API). I don’t share my snapchat location because I don’t see why others need to know where I am, but that’s just me.
Right but I’m not asking about moral implications of being able to see something someone already shared with me, because I don’t see a problem with that. I’m asking how I can get that data they are already Sharing with me and use it to actually do something useful. I fail to see the moral dilemma tbh. Not wasting battery power seems like a plus anyway. And is why they won’t Install anything, and a legitimate concern.
That’s fine.
Hmm. I’m gonna go through the projects on github related to Snapchat and see if somehow I can install it and use it to query location. Doesn’t look like anything actually does that. That sucks.
I’ve found Google Maps location sharing works best for those types of people. There’s an integration for that, they don’t have to install another app (who doesn’t already have google maps installed?) Get them to share their location through Google Maps, and use your google account in the Google Maps integration
The docs for this integration has you set up a seperate google account just for it, but that’s unnecessary imo. Just have it log into your google account using an app specific password. That way it will pull in anyone who shares their location with you.
i actually tried that and it worked okay briefly and then stopped working randomly. its just very unreliable and needs me to get another token or whatever every few days. i stopped using it because of this. however that would be fantastic if it worked properly.