Geofence Explained for Android App

This guide will teach you more about how to:

 

• Set up your Geofencing with Vera on Android

 

How does the geofence work?

Geofencing sets a virtual boundary around your home using the GPS built into your mobile device. Nowadays, every smartphone has a built-in GPS sensor. All you have to do is either mark your home’s location in VeraMobile app, so it can trigger devices and scenes to automatically do an action, or stop doing an existing action when you enter or leave the area. - E.g., Change House Modes to Away/Home, lock or unlock the doors, turn off or on the heat.
 

Getting started

You can easily activate Geofence by pressing "Geofencing" in the Vera menu, and then enabling the "Geofencing active" option.


 

Create your Geofence

Vera must know the location of your Home in order to use the Geofence as the trigger for Home modes or other devices.



To define a new location, follow these steps:
 

1. Enable the "Geofencing active" option
2. Press "+ Add new geofence"
3. Select your location by pressing down anywhere on the map
4. When asked if you want to add geofence in the current location, click yes
5. Fill in the geofence name and the radius size (default is 100 meters)
6. Press "Save"

 

Geofence advanced settings

The Geofence advanced settings allow you to:
 

• Enable/disable Geofencing
• Set house mode to Home when at least one Vera user is at home
• Set house mode to Away when no Vera user is at home

 

General considerations and recommended settings

 

• Make sure every device in your home is logged in with its own Vera account; if the device will permanently stay in the location (ie. a tablet), make sure you go to Settings -> Geofence -> Advanced Settings and "Disable Geofencing for this device". Geofence will not trigger if it detects persons/devices that are still in the location
• Make sure you are not logged in with the same username on multiple devices
• If the Geofence trigger is not reliable and does not trigger every time, try to increase the radius of the Geofence.from the 100m default to 250m or more
• To improve Geofence accuracy, the Wifi should be enabled at all times

Android Advice:
 

• For an Android 5.x or higher, location services can be enabled by going to the Settings app, selecting Location, and turning the switch to On; Pressing the Mode option will let you choose one of three options (High accuracy, Battery saving, and Device only)
• For an Android 6, you may be required to set up location permissions per-app basis; if this wasn’t done the first time the app was launched, you can adjust it later by going to the Apps menu, scrolling down till you see the mobile app, selecting it, and under Permissions, moving the Location switch to On