Presence Sensing Not Working with 2 Phones

[MarcC79]

My wife and I have identical Pixel 7 phones and have Google Home set up the same for turning our Nest cams on and off.

We use Presence Setting, however it will only recognize the presence or absence of one of the phones. Again, everything on the two phones' Home apps are set up the same.

In the Presence Sensing settings, under "Your location", whichever phone it isn't being sensed by Home gives the option: "You're using this feature on a different phone. You can switch to this Pixel 7." If we tap to make the switch, then Home now solely recognizes that phone, and the previously recognized phone now offers up the "you can switch" option.

On each of our phones, the Presence sensing/"Other phones" section duly lists the other's phone.

Presence sensing is simply sensing only one of our phones' locations, when it should be monitoring both.

[fwdlink]

Are you by chance sharing the same Google account on both phones or by chance have your account loaded on your wife's phone?  If you are, that could explain the swap to the other device and vice-versa as it can only handle one device per account.  I have my account and then invited my wife to Google Home and both phones show separately.  However, ironically presence sensing for her phone, also a Pixel 7 is totally hit and miss, works only when it wants, however for my phone a Pixel 7 Pro it generally works quite well.  So even with your challenge, it still doesn't work too well.

[Princesss]

Hey everyone, 

Thanks for posting in the Community.

I agree with you @fwdlink, thanks for your tip.

@MarcC79, aside from checking that, you might also want to check this:

If you opt-in, the Home app will use your phone's location to figure out when you've crossed over your geofence, a virtual perimeter around your home that you designate when setting up a feature that uses presence sensing for the first time.

Your geofence crossings, combined with sensors on devices in your home, can determine when to start your Home & Away Routines. This data also helps improve and personalize your Nest connected home experience. Learn more in the Nest Privacy FAQs.

For the geofence to enable presence sensing to work properly, you'll need to make sure that:

• You've set up Home and Away Routines in the Home app
• You've enabled your phone in presence sensing settings in the Home app
• You've set location permissions for the Home App on your phone to Always on
• Everyone in your household has enabled their phones in presence sensing settings in the Home app on their own phones

In your Home app's history, you'll see an indication for every time you entered or left the geofence area. Remember that presence sensing is distinct from the location History feature of your Google Account, and neither feature impacts the other one.

The Home app doesn't track where you are or where you've been beyond tracking whether or not you are inside your home's geofence. Data used for presence sensing and geofence is only used to determine when you come home or when you leave. This data is used for the purposes for which you give permission, and is explained in more detail in the Nest Privacy FAQs.

Presence sensing works best if every member of your household enables their individual phones in presence sensing settings in the Home app. If some members of your household don't use these settings, your devices may not sense that person as being home, even when they are, and your Routines may not work like you expect them to.

For example, if you're the only person in your household whose phone is enabled in presence sensing, and your home doesn't use any other devices for presence sensing, when you leave, the Away Routine will start and turn off the lights in your home. The other members of your household still at home would need to turn the lights back on or manually start your Home Routine.

Turn presence sensing on or off

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Settings .
3. In the "Home features" section, tap Presence sensing.
4. Tap the switch next to Allow this home to use phone locations to turn it on or off.

You can also turn off just an individual phone from being used for presence sensing.

If you turn off sharing phone locations for a home or just your phone in the presence sensing settings, features that use presence sensing such as Only ring when home or Home & Away Routines may no longer work.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Princess

[MarcC79]

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, despite having done everything mentioned here, presence sensing still rarely works.

There are only two phones in the house, no other sensing devices, and I've gone through their settings to ensure that everything is set as stated.

Even having been gone from home for thirty minutes, Home will not have detected that we are away and executed the Away routines--I have to manually activate it. It sometimes detects our return, but that has taken as long as ten minutes to realize we're home and execute the "at home" routines to turn the cameras off.

(While it should have no effect, we live in a cellular network "dead zone" and rely on our WiFi network for all internet when home. Upon leaving our residence we do get back into cellular coverage areas.)

[Princesss]

Hello folks,

Thanks for all the additional details.

Let's perform a complete reset on your Google Nest speakers and see if this would make any changes to its behavior. 

• Factory reset Google Nest or Home speakers or displays

Let me know how it goes.

Best,

Princess

[MarcC79]

It's a good suggestion and I checked into it. Unfortunately my wife and I are each logged into our own account on Home.

[lafreniereluc]

My wife and I are also having this issue but with our nest Yale lock. It was working for both of us fine and a few weeks ago, keeps thinking we're away. It will keep locking the door. 

Seperate accounts. No new phones. Everything was working for a long time until recently. I'm suspecting an update problem or something of the sort. 

[Mike9112]

I am also having a similar issues with 2 different phones, 2 different accounts.  But presence sense will only work on 1 phone at a time.  This is affecting a hub max and learning thermostat.

[fwdlink]

I now too am also having this issue, only my phone which is the main account holder is working properly, the other phone is ignored, even taking it out and back in as an family member to the main account, including resetting presence sensing on that device, no dice. Something clearly broken. I'm on the home preview on both devices/accounts.

[Mike9112]

Oh, I can get one phone working at a time.  But not both phones at the same time.