Zanzito - A lightweight bridge between your Android device and your MQTT/home automation system

Archive Zanzito for Android
164

There was a short period of time when the app entry in the Play Store mentioned that it was no longer being developed. I guess for many this seemed to be a reason to look for an alternative. It’s definitely still being developed because the app has been completely rewritten and is currently undergoing beta testing.

And why doesn’t Zanzito have its own component? It’s specifically mentioned as being an Owntracks replacement on the Owntracks component page, so why doesn’t it have a component? I haven’t tried it, maybe it’s great, but I feel as far as apps go, this is expensive.

165

For me, Owntracks was pretty horribly inaccurate when I was testing it out. When I loaded Zanzito, it works spot on and fast.

I also love the features I get with Zanzito in relation to sending messages/pictures/alarms/texts over MQTT. I tied my home alarm system into sending me an alarm on my phone via Zanzito, which I can’t miss because it is an alarm and not another simple notification.

This is a HUGE question for me as well. I would like to see a more updated UI and more usability options with the notifications that come through.

166

It has the ability to mimic the owntracks mqtt topics, simply by checking a box in the preferences.

1 Like
167

Thanks for the information!

I use the HTTP version of reporting, but Owntracks works great for me. I’ve also tried GPSLogger, but I didn’t like it very much.

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I guess I simply don’t understand why Zanzito is considered a “drop in” replacement. Sure, if you just want GPS tracking, then fine… But open source for me is at least as important because getting away from closed source / cloud was one of the reasons to start the home automation experience.

Anyway, I didn’t know the Owntracks app was temporarily listed as no longer in development. That explains at least part of it… Though I do think the Owntracks component page deserves to be updated since it’s still under development.

I’ll stick with Owntracks which seems to work fine for me. Thanks for the info. :smile:

169

My testing was done with the Owntracks app only, without Home Assistant at all. MQTT works just as well as HTTP, so the issue wasn’t with the reporting. The Owntracks app would put me 8 miles away, and then back home again within a minute.

170

I haven’t experienced that myself, but yeah, that would be unusable!

I agree, but they may not do that until version 2.0 is out of beta, because in order to use the new version, you’ll need to be part of the beta program. Although technically, it is still in development, even if you’re not participating in the beta test of version 2.0.

171

Is the FIND integration only useable if you are using the cloud server?
I am running my own local FIND server on my pi and the FIND integration does not appear to be working

172

I’m using the “Say MQTT Texts” feature. It seems that no matter what TTS engine I select in Android’s settings, that Zanzito speaks at a higher pitch. I’ve seen this on 2 phones. Anyone know if there’s a way to make Zanzito observe my TTS settings?

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I have not your problem, will give you my config when back home (but its basic)

174

@MrMep - Is Zanzito still actively supported? I tried the support forum on your site, but it’s sorta quiet over there. I’m still having the issue with Zanzito increasing the pitch over my settings in Android when using “say MQTT Texts”.

175

I just set this up as I was getting constant zone enter/leave notifications. Here’s how I did it.

For zone enter:

    - service: mqtt.publish
      data_template:
        topic: "zanzito/homeassistant/set_prefs"
        payload: >-
          {
            "location_high_precision": false
          }

For zone leave:

    - service: mqtt.publish
      data_template:
        topic: "zanzito/homeassistant/set_prefs"
        payload: >-
          {
            "location_high_precision": true
          }

Not sure how well it’s working yet, but worth a shot. Otherwise Zanzito works great (bought the full license) for me entering/leaving zones; it’s just when I idle at home (although I suspect it’s an indoors/outdoors scenario) I get a lot of transition notifications but when I’m driving to work or back home, works like a champ.

2 Likes
176

Just a follow-up here. This seems to have quieted down the false positive zone transitions for me a fair bit (I still got two since I implemented this) so I’m going to take this a step further and adapt @oakbrad script here:

To see if I can filter out the data some more. I know I can use OwnTracks emulation but I’d prefer not to as I see it as a step backwards (in that, I know I can get this working…)

I may have to break out my device_tracker bits into separate items (ie; ping, gps, etc) as I want to leverage Node-Red here too but first to get things stable (seems to have become a problem for me with 0.67+ in that zone transitioning is very sensitive/touchy…)

177

@chrisw how is that script working? I’m having similar issues and need to come up with something.

178

I was able to adapt it - check my script here; working great for me (plenty of views but not sure if anyone has tried it since I posted it…)

1 Like
179

Thanks. Will check it out this weekend

180

Will you share your automation please?

181

Owntracks hasn’t worked that well to me. Location sending was pretty random, it tended to “disappear” from notifications in phones with not a lot of resources, and it was clear that the main app was for iPhone, and Android was more like a last thought.

Zanzito works flawlessly, it’s very low on resources, and it also has a lot of very useful features. It would be wonderful if it was open source, though, I would still pay for it.

182

Look at the Scripts section for Zanzito GPS Filter - I have the automation there.

183

Has anyone been able to get current_foreground_app working, looking at the mqtt data it only ever sends Zanzito if im in the app, in any other app an empty string is sent