How to add presence without using Bluetooth trackers

Presence detection is one of the most useful automations you can build. Knowing who’s home lets you control heating, lighting, security, and notifications intelligently. But Bluetooth trackers like AirTags or Tile have significant drawbacks: they drain battery, require people to carry them, and add yet another device to manage.

Good news: you can build reliable presence detection using devices you likely already have or should be buying anyway.

Network-Based Detection

The most practical approach for most people is tracking devices on your WiFi network. This works because smartphones constantly broadcast probe requests looking for known networks, which your router or access points can capture.

For Home Assistant, the router-based integration is the simplest starting point. Most ASUS, TP-Link, and eero routers expose connected devices through their APIs. Check your router’s integration options before buying anything. If you have a Ubiquiti setup, the unifi-protect ecosystem gives you reliable device tracking out of the box.

The tradeoffs here are worth understanding. Network detection misses people who disable WiFi or use only cellular. It can be slow to detect arrivals (sometimes 5-15 minute delays) and occasionally marks devices as away when they’re still home but sleeping. For a local smart home, you can improve reliability by combining network detection with ping diagnostics using something like the shelly-plus-1 or shelly-plus-2pm to monitor network activity.

Smart plug power monitoring offers another angle. Devices like the eve-energy or tp-link-kasa-kp125m can detect when a phone starts charging, which often correlates with someone arriving home. This works best as a supplementary signal, not a primary method.

Motion and Occupancy Sensors

Motion sensors are the workhorses of presence detection and have the advantage of detecting actual human activity rather than just device presence.

Philips Hue motion sensors work well if you’re already in the Hue ecosystem. They’re small, battery-efficient, and integrate directly with both Home Assistant and HomeKit. Pair them with philips-hue-br30-white-color bulbs for automated lighting that confirms presence.

For broader sensor options, Aqara devices like the aqara-motion-sensor-p2 or aqara-fp1e (presence sensor) offer Matter support and work with Home Assistant, HomeKit, and Hubitat. The FP1e detects micro-movements even when someone is sitting still—useful for knowing a room is occupied.

Frient sensors like the frient-motion-sensor-pro and frient-entry-sensor-2-pro integrate well with Z-Wave networks on Hubitat and can feed presence data to Home Assistant via the Hubitat integration.

The key insight: motion sensor presence is room-level, not person-level. You know someone is in the house, but not specifically who. For person-level detection, combine motion with other signals or use multiple sensors in high-traffic areas.

Smart Thermostats and Climate-Based Presence

Your thermostat already knows if someone’s home—most modern thermostats detect occupancy through temperature swings and schedule patterns. The ecobee-premium has remote sensors that can track room occupancy. The tado-smart-thermostat-x offers similar geofencing capabilities that work locally.

For Hubitat users, the honeywell-t9 integrates well and supports multiple sensors for room-level presence detection.

The limitation: climate-based detection is slow (often 30+ minutes to detect absence) and can’t distinguish between different household members. But it’s zero-effort once configured and doesn’t require carrying anything.

Combining Signals for Reliability

No single method is perfect. The local smart home community has converged on combining multiple signals for reliable presence detection.

A practical approach: use network detection as your primary “home/away” signal, supplement with motion sensors in key areas (entryway, living room), and add thermostat signals as a fallback. Home Assistant’s Bayesian sensor can combine these probability-weighted inputs into a single occupancy state.

For households with multiple people, you need per-person detection. Network detection can identify individual devices by MAC address, though this is less reliable than Bluetooth. Motion sensors alone can’t distinguish between family members, so most people accept “someone is home” automation rather than per-person triggers unless they need it specifically.

Related products

Local-first picks from our catalog that fit this topic:

• Apollo MSR-2 — presence-sensor
• Apollo MTR-1 Multi-Target Radar — presence-sensor
• Aqara Presence Sensor FP1E — presence-sensor

Quick Verdict

Network detection is the best starting point—it’s free if your router supports it, requires no extra hardware, and covers the whole house. Supplement with a motion sensor at your main entry to catch arrivals that network detection might miss. Bluetooth trackers are overkill for most households and add maintenance overhead you don’t need.

For Home Assistant users, start with the router integration and add a philips-hue-motion-sensor or aqara-motion-sensor-p2 at your front door. For Hubitat, pair a frient-motion-sensor-pro with your existing Z-Wave network. HomeKit users can use eve-motion combined with thermostat presence data from an ecobee-premium.