Geo-fencing home/away mode needed

Geo-fencing home/away mode needed

Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-01-02 15:50:00 - last edited 2024-10-09 18:58:37
Model: Tapo C420S2  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.2.15

The main feature missing from Tapo cameras and the Tapo app is geofencing. Geofencing allows the system to automatically set home and away modes whenever your smartphone leaves the premises or returns. To me, this is what defines a smart camera system, so that the homeowner does not need to pull out their phone, open the app and tap a button every time. Coming from Arlo cameras, this is an expected function. The same with Eufy cameras that factor all smartphones registered to the app in a household. This is based on GPS built into smartphones, not the camera, so can be easily added to the Tapo app. Sadly, the Tapo app even prevents iPhone Shortcuts and IFTTT from creating our own geofencing actions. This seems like a major drawback for such a promising camera system.

 

UPDATE 10/9/24: As noted by @Deefy, download Tapo app v3.7.106 or newer. 

 

Go to Tapo Lab under your user name. Turn Geofencing on. Go to Smart Actions + Automation. Create a new Automation using Arrive/Leave as a trigger with your phone. Create a condition for your camera, based on privacy on or privacy off. 

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#1
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20 Reply
Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-01-15 09:14:59
I totally agree Geofencing Away/Home is a must. and must be very easy to implement Of course that it only activates when "all" subscribed users is away
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#2
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-03-25 21:56:05

  @AJK747 I agree 100% ! How is it still missing? This is so a must-have feature. Especially that otherwise the app and products are very neat ! 

 

Please. Wake up TP-Link !

 

Thanks 🙏

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#3
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-06-25 15:10:02

  @AJK747 I completely agree. I only own a C100 which I just acquired yesterday and spent a lot of time trying set this up in the app and trying to find a Third-Party workaround. It's silly because it looks as though the Tapo has everything set up to implement this feature easily. They already have geofencing settings in the app which can trigger shortcuts. The only issue for me is, the only shortcut you can set for a C100 is turning on/off privacy mode.
 

Now, I'm very much a novice when it comes to software development, but as I stated above, this should be an extremely simple feature to implement in theory. Home and Away mode are essentially just shortcuts nested in the Cameras menu. Including these as either Automation actions or actual Shortcuts in the Smart menu will allow Home and Away modes to be triggered by Tapo's geofencing and/or third-party applications.

Alternatively (and probably more work), change the API so these modes can be toggled by IFTTT or other third-parties directly. I already suggested Home and Away camera mode actions to IFTTT, although simply including Home and Away in the actual Tapo Shortcuts menu should achieve the same result without any extra work from third-parties. Because third-parties already have the ability to trigger Tapo Shortcuts, the user could simply create a Shorcut in the Tapo app that toggles Home or Away mode, and that Shortcut should appear in the list that third-party automation apps already point to from the user's Tapo account.

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#4
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 17:36:05

  @AJK747 Yes, this would be ideal.

I have a few Tapo 310's around and would love for them to enter AWAY MODE when I leave and HOME MODE when I return. And using the mobile phone location setting could do this automatically. 

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#5
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 17:38:05

  @WHLjR 

 

Since then, this feature has been released and it's working like a charm ☺️

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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 17:45:00

  @Deefty Great to hear!

I cannot find how to do this. Could you be so kind as to steer me in the right direction?

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#7
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 18:05:21 - last edited 2024-10-09 18:13:40

  @Deefty 

 

Can you explain your comment? Tapo annouced geofencing would be released, however, it only works for lights and switches. It does not work with cameras. There is no direct trigger available and no mention how to make it work with cameras. Importantly, if the cameras are on a schedule, there does not appear to be a way to create a smart action to arm and disarm them through geofencing, and return back to the schedule. This is how geofencing works with other brands. IFTTT and Apple Shortcuts do not help with Tapo cameras either. If you achieved geofencing in some way, please explain the steps that you used. 

 

Tapo developers need to address this issue with cameras through a tutorial or clarification about their earlier promise. People keep repeating it exists without ever using it. Surely, Tapo will provide directions for such an important feature, but they have not done so.

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#8
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 18:13:13
It's working for me. Look at my screenshots for the walkthrough. https://imgur.com/a/sKS2aXz /!\ make sure Tapo has the permission for 'location'. It was reason why it was not working for me in the first place :-)
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 18:21:56 - last edited 2024-10-09 18:25:30

  @Deefty 

 

Thank you! This looks promising and was not part of the original 2.0 release. I just updated the app to v3.7.106 released last week and now see they added camera conditions that did not exist before. This is still labeled as beta, so must be an ongoing work in progress. Glad they are following through.

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#10
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Re:Geo-fencing home/away mode needed
2024-10-09 18:55:53

  @AJK747 Fantasic - got it, thank you.
What I would like to do is simply toggle Notifications on/off depending if I am home or not. Does not seem to be an option. Thoughts?

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#11
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