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What “presence” means in a smart home
Presence has two different questions that are often confused:
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- Is anyone here? This is occupancy. A room sensor can answer it without knowing which person is present.
- Who is here, and where? This is identity. It requires a device or tag associated with a person, such as a phone, watch or BLE beacon.
GPS is mainly useful for a phone’s outdoor location. It is unnecessary for local home and room automations. Home Assistant’s documentation describes presence detection as telling the system “who is at home and where they are.” A practical installation separates anonymous occupancy from identity, then combines the results.
For example, a router tracker can indicate that a household member has returned to the network, while a mmWave sensor keeps the living-room lights on when that person is reading. A BLE beacon can identify which room the person entered. No single signal has to do all three jobs.
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Comparison of phone-free presence options
| Method | Identity or occupancy | Typical coverage | Detects a stationary person? | Local operation and privacy | Main requirements and weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Router or Wi-Fi connection tracking | Device identity; usually maps to a person | Whole home, where the device remains connected | No guarantee; depends on the device staying connected | Usually local through the router integration | Easy when supported; phones may sleep Wi-Fi or disconnect while idle |
| Ping reachability | Device identity | Whole local network | Only while the device responds | Local; no GPS or cloud location required | Needs a reachable device with a stable network identity; unsuitable as the only signal for sleeping phones |
| mmWave radar | Anonymous occupancy | Room or defined zone | Yes, including a seated person | Can be local, depending on the integration | Needs placement and calibration; cannot name the occupant |
| BLE beacon | Person or object identity | Room-level when receivers are well placed | Yes, if the beacon continues advertising | Local scanning is possible | The person must carry the beacon; coverage depends on receiver placement and beacon behavior |
| ESP32 Bluetooth proxy | Receives BLE identity signals | Extends coverage across rooms | Depends on the beacon | Can publish observations locally through MQTT or another integration | Requires powered ESP32 devices, configuration and careful placement |
| Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread or ESPHome sensor | Usually occupancy or motion; identity depends on the device design | Room or home, depending on the network | Depends on the sensor technology; ordinary motion sensors can time out | Designed for local operation | Needs the appropriate coordinator, border router or controller and compatible hardware |
| Wi-Fi sensing | Usually anonymous occupancy | Potentially broad Wi-Fi coverage | Implementation-dependent | May be local, but support varies | An emerging approach with less uniform product and Home Assistant support |
Router and Wi-Fi connection tracking
A router-based device tracker infers presence from whether a known device is connected to the fixed home network. Home Assistant supports router integrations that expose these observations as device trackers. This is normally the cheapest way to obtain a coarse home/away signal when your router is supported.
Where it works well
- Turning heating, security notifications or selected lights on when a device reconnects.
- Providing a fast confirmation that someone is somewhere in the home, without GPS or a cloud location service.
- Acting as one of several trackers assigned to a person in Home Assistant.
The sleep-and-disconnect problem
Phones are not reliable fixed beacons. To save power, a phone can turn off or suspend Wi-Fi while idle. The Home Assistant ping documentation also warns that a sleeping phone can appear unreachable, producing a false “away” result. Wi-Fi roaming, randomized network identifiers and a phone left on a charger with radios in a low-power state can create similar gaps.
Use router tracking as a quick local confirmation, not as the sole source of truth when an automation has consequences. Add a delay before declaring someone away, and require a second signal for actions such as disarming an alarm or shutting down the whole house.
Ping reachability
Ping checks whether an address responds on the local network. It avoids GPS, mobile location and cloud processing, and it is simple to understand: reachable means the device is probably present; unreachable means it may have left or gone to sleep.
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Ping is most useful for straightforward home/away logic around devices that remain reachable, such as a desktop or a network appliance. It becomes fragile when a phone changes address, uses a private network identity, sleeps its Wi-Fi radio or blocks ICMP responses. Give the tracked device a stable identity where your network permits it, and fuse the result with router, BLE or occupancy data.
mmWave radar: the strongest room-occupancy replacement for motion-only sensing
mmWave sensors analyze reflected radio energy to detect a person in a defined area. Unlike a conventional motion sensor, they can continue reporting occupancy while someone sits still. That makes them particularly effective for offices, bedrooms, reading areas and living rooms where a timeout based on movement would switch lights or climate control off too soon.
What mmWave can and cannot tell you
- It can answer “is someone occupying this room or zone?”
- It cannot, by itself, answer “which household member is present?”
- It needs sensible placement and calibration to avoid detecting movement through an unsuitable angle, nearby fans or other sources of interference.
Pair mmWave with an identity signal when automations differ by person. For example, use a BLE beacon to identify a resident and mmWave to confirm that the room is occupied before changing a scene. This avoids treating every detected person as the same household member.
Practical placement
- Choose the zone the sensor should represent, such as a desk area rather than an entire open-plan floor.
- Mount it according to the manufacturer’s recommended height and orientation.
- Define the detection region so adjacent rooms, hallways or moving curtains are not included unnecessarily.
- Watch the occupancy entity for several normal days, including periods when someone sits quietly, before creating automatic timeouts.
Bluetooth LE beacons for person identity
A BLE beacon is a small broadcaster carried by a person or attached to a key ring, watch or other item. Receivers detect its advertisements and Home Assistant can use the observations as connection-tracking data. BLE is a good fit when the automation needs a person or object identity at room level rather than only anonymous occupancy.
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Strengths and limitations
- Identity: a beacon assigned to a resident can distinguish that resident from another person.
- Low power: a small tag can run for a long time, depending on its advertising interval and battery.
- Human factor: the person must actually carry the beacon. A tag left on a charging dock cannot represent its owner.
- Coverage: walls, furniture and receiver position affect which room appears closest. Do not assume that one receiver gives reliable room boundaries.
BLE signal strength is a proximity clue, not a precise indoor coordinate. Use hysteresis or a short confirmation period when moving a person between rooms so one weak advertisement does not cause rapid room changes.
ESP32 Bluetooth proxies
An ESP32 Bluetooth proxy distributes BLE reception around the home. Each powered ESP32 scans for beacons and publishes observations to Home Assistant through MQTT or another supported integration. Multiple receivers can provide better room-level coverage than a single central scanner.
Deployment checklist
- Install a powered proxy in each area where room identity matters.
- Keep receivers separated enough that their signals are useful for comparison, but do not hide them behind metal cabinets or dense wiring.
- Give each proxy a stable name and record its physical room.
- Test the beacon while carried normally; a beacon in a pocket can behave differently from one on a shelf.
- Expect to adjust advertising intervals, receiver placement and room boundaries during calibration.
Proxies add hardware, power and configuration work. Their value is extending BLE coverage without installing a complete presence sensor in every room.
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Local protocols are useful when privacy and operation during an internet outage matter. Home Assistant’s local-control guidance states that Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread and ESPHome devices can continue working without internet access, provided the local controller and network remain available.
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Zigbee
A Zigbee network needs a coordinator. The coordinator is the USB radio adapter that creates and manages the Zigbee network. Home Assistant’s ZHA documentation recommends the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 when no coordinator is present. Battery motion or presence sensors can then report to Home Assistant through the local Zigbee network.
Z-Wave, Matter and Thread
These technologies have different radio hardware and network roles. Verify whether a product needs a Z-Wave controller, a Matter controller, a Thread border router or another hub before buying it. They can be strong choices for local control, but compatibility, range, mains repeaters and battery behavior vary by model.
ESPHome
ESPHome devices are programmable local sensors that can expose occupancy, motion or other measurements directly to Home Assistant. They are flexible, but you are responsible for the microcontroller, power supply, firmware configuration and physical enclosure.
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Wi-Fi sensing: promising, but still emerging
Wi-Fi sensing infers human presence from changes in ordinary Wi-Fi signals as people affect packet propagation. It can potentially cover larger areas without a dedicated sensor in every room. The Home Assistant community comparison describes it as an emerging approach and contrasts it with the more established use of mmWave.
Support is not uniform across products, firmware and Home Assistant integrations. Before relying on Wi-Fi sensing, confirm that the exact implementation exposes a supported entity, works locally if that is a requirement, and has documented behavior for stationary people. Treat it as an additional signal until its integration and firmware have proved dependable in your building.
Build a layered Home Assistant design
Home Assistant can combine multiple trackers, such as a phone and a router-based tracker, into one person presence state. The same model works with phone-free signals.
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- Define the decision. Decide whether each automation needs whole-home arrival, room occupancy, named-person identity or a combination.
- Choose a primary signal. Use router or ping tracking for inexpensive whole-home state, mmWave for room occupancy, or BLE for identity.
- Add a confirming signal. Combine a router tracker with a door, motion or mmWave sensor; combine a BLE beacon with room occupancy.
- Add the hardware and integration. In Home Assistant, use the relevant integration under the device and service setup area. For Zigbee, first connect a supported coordinator; for BLE, place scanners or ESP32 proxies where they can hear the beacon.
- Assign trackers to people. In the person configuration, associate each device tracker or beacon with the correct resident. Keep anonymous mmWave entities as room occupancy, not as a person identity.
- Set confidence rules. Require a sustained state or two agreeing signals before changing home/away or room presence.
- Test edge cases. Test a sleeping phone, a beacon left behind, a person sitting still, an internet outage and a receiver that is powered off.
Example automation logic
- Arrival: mark a resident home when the router tracker reconnects or their BLE beacon is detected, then wait for a local occupancy or door signal before triggering an arrival scene.
- Room lighting: turn lights on when mmWave reports occupancy and the relevant room is not already bright; turn them off only after a sustained clear state.
- Climate: use whole-home presence for broad heating setbacks, but use room occupancy to avoid conditioning an unused office.
- Security: require an identity tracker and a second local condition before disarming. Never treat a single sleeping or disconnected phone as proof that nobody is home.
Privacy, outage resilience and maintenance
Local presence detection keeps radio observations and automation decisions inside the home when the chosen integrations support local control. It also reduces dependence on a phone’s GPS permission and a vendor’s location cloud. Internet independence is not the same as independence from your local network: a failed coordinator, Wi-Fi access point, power supply or Home Assistant host can still stop automations.
Maintain the system by replacing beacon and sensor batteries, checking that ESP32 proxies remain powered, updating firmware deliberately and reviewing tracker history for false away or room changes. Keep a manual control path for lights, locks and alarms so a presence error does not become a safety problem.
Which option should you choose?
- Lowest effort whole-home signal: start with router connection tracking, then add a delay and a second signal to cover sleeping phones.
- Best room occupancy: choose mmWave, especially where people remain seated or still for long periods.
- Best person-aware room automation: carry BLE beacons and distribute receivers with ESP32 proxies or other scanners.
- Best outage and privacy foundation: use local Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread or ESPHome devices with the required controller hardware.
- Experimental broad-area sensing: evaluate Wi-Fi sensing only after confirming exact firmware and Home Assistant support.
The dependable alternative to phone GPS is therefore not a single replacement sensor. It is a local stack: a whole-home tracker for arrival, mmWave or another occupancy sensor for rooms, BLE when identity matters, and a resilient local protocol for the sensor network.
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