Home/Away turn off/on based on phone and home

[gvillo]

Hi, I just noticed an issue with the Nest or Google Home app that doesn't allow you to turn off home/away just for one phone in one home. I will explain the use case:
My brother and my parents lives next to each other (literally, one house next to each other), and both have Nest devices (thermostats) and access to both homes but they want to keep the home/away feature just for their own home. Right now it's not possible to just disable my brother's home/away feature on my parent's home and vice versa.

If we can make it work in that way we have an issue if my parents leaves the home and my brother is still at home, it will never set to Away in my parents home.

Any ideas how to request this feature/fix to Nest or Google Home app?

[MelbaDT]

Hey gvillo, 

Thanks for reaching out and for the detailed description of your concern. I have some questions to better understand your concern. 

Are all these thermostats set up using the same email address? Also, is your brother's thermostat on the same home/structure on his Google Home or Nest app as your parents'? If unsure, you could refer to this link: https://bit.ly/38rtzDT

I would recommend that you check this link to know more about changing Home/Away Assist settings on your Nest devices: https://bit.ly/3oLCmaw

Best, 

Melba

[gvillo]

Different homes in apps, but one home is next to each other (literally), 2 homes, 1 thermostat on each home (different accounts). But if my brother enables presence in his Nest app, it's enabling it for my dad's home, so if my dad leaves the house, it never sets to away, because my brother can't turn off presence for my dad's home (he lives next to my dad)

Also I am curious if I have to enable presence in Google Home or Nest, because we can't enable it in both apps in the same time. What's the Google recommendation about that?

[MelbaDT]

Hey there, 

Sorry for the delay. I understand that the thermostats are on two separate physical homes, how about on the Nest app? Are they set up on same homes/structure or on separate ones? Check the link I've provided above to know more about different homes/structures on your Nest app. 

Also, presence sensing can only be enabled in the Google Home app. If you opt to use the Nest app instead, you need to turn on Home/Away Assist instead. And yes, I'm afraid you can only enable one at a time. 

Best, 

Melba

[gvillo]

Yes, they are set up in different homes in nest and google home app. The issue is Nest app is enabling presence for all homes at the same time (as a global configuration) and you cannot disable it just for a specific home. That's the missing feature that I am reporting

[MelbaDT · Accepted solution]

Hey gvillo, 

Sorry for the delay here and thanks for clarifying — I also understand how you feel. Rest assured that we're always working on ways to improve. We'll take this as feedback and pass it along to our team. 

Keep an eye out on this Community page or follow our social channels for news and updates. 

Best, 

Melba

[MelbaDT]

Hi, 

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within the day. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the community.

Best, 

Melba