Since the ST app's presence detection is so bad

#1

I’ve attempted to write a piston that alerts me if a phone has been offline for more than a day. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be working correctly. What am I doing wrong?

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#2

try this

if time happens daily at 12:23pm
   and
   lastactive is before addDays($now, -1)
   send SMS
end if
every hour at :00 past the hour
   if presence sensor 1's $status is not 'INACTIVE'
      set variable lastActive = $now
   end if
end every
#3

Hey, that’s much simpler. I still think there might be an issue with properly detecting the $status, but I’ll let you know shortly.

Thanks.

#4

yeah, that wouldnt be surprising.

#5

Do you use Life360?
I find it more reliable the the ST presence.
I then use Life360 to do a comparison check for me.
Here it is in case you do use Life360 and you want to use it.

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#6

I’m using Life360 for that exact reason… Really struggle with the ST presence. Is this piston comparing Life360 with ST presence or is it validating Life360 status? I sometimes have issues with Life360 and looking for a logic so I pick up when things have gone wrong so I can manually check-in and force an update from Life360…

#7

Its comparing Life360 against ST phone presence. If the phone is away but Life360 is present it sends me a notification. Just gives me an idea if a phone has gone awol.

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#8

This is exactly what I do. I just then assign the condition to a global user variable

#9

I’m really trying to avoid that, as I really don’t want to have to install another app. If I do, I’ll just use Tasker.

#10

Life360 is good, zero maintenance required. Give it a try before you go with tasker. IMO
Once you add it in ST apps, it automatically adds the presence detection and minus one or 2 little hickups in 6 months it’ functions very well!

#11

I just added a new friend and I can’t get life360 to see it in smartthings. I’ve closed and reopened both apps. Any ideas?

#12

Did you add the thing to the ST app?

#13

Just wanted to thank you guys for being a google result since we already know and love Life360 and have been fighting issues with the SmartThings app’s location updates. This should work swimmingly.