Smart Locks and Apple Watch with Geofencing

[VforVelveta]

I’m looking into getting a Homekit smart lock and, when they’re finally released, garage door opener. From what I understand, if you set up an automation to open/unlock the doors when arriving home, your iPhone will still require authentication to run it when arriving home.

My question then is, since the Apple Watch is authenticated so long as its being worn, will this allow the automation to be run without having to authenticate every time? Because having to do so seems to take out a lot of the point of automation if I have to authenticate every time I want to run it. Would be much better to just have the garage door open and my door unlock as soon as I pull into the driveway.

 

[robnbill]

If you are using an iPhone 7/7+ an alert pops up when you are within the geofence. You 3D press the button and the door will open. No authentication.

I'll try my Apple Watch next time and see if that works. For me it's easy to press the button without having to unlock the IPhone.

 

[vondo]

The worse problem with this is that LOCKING the door triggers (unless they have fixed it) the same behavior. So you can't set things to be secure and lock up when you leave the house.

I get around this by setting a 4 minute timeout on my Schlage Sense lock. It automatically locks 4 minutes after it is unlocked.

 

[VforVelveta]

If you are using an iPhone 7/7+ an alert pops up when you are within the geofence. You 3D press the button and the door will open. No authentication.

I'll try my Apple Watch next time and see if that works. For me it's easy to press the button without having to unlock the IPhone.

I guess having to interact with the phone at all kinda defeats the purpose for me, authentication required or not, especially in regards to the garage door opener. It’s easier for me to just push the button on my sun visor than have to reach into my pocket and pull out my phone if I want the garage door open after pulling into the driveway.

Definitely let me know about what effect the Apple Watch has though, would be great if it made the whole process more automatic.

 

[robnbill]

I guess having to interact with the phone at all kinda defeats the purpose for me, authentication required or not, especially in regards to the garage door opener. It’s easier for me to just push the button on my sun visor than have to reach into my pocket and pull out my phone if I want the garage door open after pulling into the driveway.

Definitely let me know about what effect the Apple Watch has though, would be great if it made the whole process more automatic.

This might work:
Set up a HK automation: when the garage door opens unlock the door.
The idea being when you do what you suggested - press the button on your sun visor in your car it will unlock the door.
I just that up and I'll try it later today.
We installed the Chamberlain MyQ HomeKit gateway - it replaced the MyQ Internet gateway.
The new MyQ gateway is now HomeKit.

 

[BrettStah]

The watch will ask you if you want to run the automation. Tap "Run" and it runs. If your phone's screen is active then the watch won't get the notification prompt, but your phone will, and you can tap Run on it.

You can also use Siri to control an accessory, using the watch or phone. I have an automation I named "Open up", and it opens my garage door and unlocks my Schlage Sense deadbolt that is in the connecting door between the house and garage. And I have one I called "Lock up", which locks the deadbolt and closes the garage door.

You could have the deadbolt open when the garage door opens, but I don't want someone who happens to open my garage door to instantly get the deadbolt unlocked.

 

[robnbill]

This might work:
Set up a HK automation: when the garage door opens unlock the door.
The idea being when you do what you suggested - press the button on your sun visor in your car it will unlock the door.
I just that up and I'll try it later today.
We installed the Chamberlain MyQ HomeKit gateway - it replaced the MyQ Internet gateway.
The new MyQ gateway is now HomeKit.

Used the "button" in my car to open the garage door - as it normally would anyhow. Now - HK recognized the door has been opened and unlocks the door in the garage to the house - due to the automation I set up.

"Run Automation" also pops up on the phone - and - once I authenticate - it will run - opening the garage and the connecting door.

Didn't see it pop up on the watch. However, in the post above me - @BretStah - explains the reason why. When I'm coming back from my walk today I'll make sure the phone screen is not active and I'll see what happens.

As to the MyQ setup - it works very well - and the transition from my old MyQ internet gateway to the new MyQ HK gateway was flawless. The app could have been a little more clear.

One note - The Schalge Sense locks work very well. However, at times they are slow to respond or have become unreachable. "Power cycling" (if that's the right term) - i.e., disconnecting the battery and re-connecting makes them very quick to respond and they stay reachable. Running latest firmware 4.25 in them. Still think they may ave a bug.

 

[BrettStah]

The worse problem with this is that LOCKING the door triggers (unless they have fixed it) the same behavior. So you can't set things to be secure and lock up when you leave the house.

I get around this by setting a 4 minute timeout on my Schlage Sense lock. It automatically locks 4 minutes after it is unlocked.

I'm running the latest iOS 11 betas (on my iPhone and AppleTV), and I successfully set up two different automations to close my garage door. No issues, no confirmation prompts, etc.

One automation closed the door when the motion sensor in my bedroom is triggered (it's an ecobee remote sensor), and the second one closed the door when the Schlage deadbolt is locked.

 

[ScottC7]

The watch will ask you if you want to run the automation. Tap "Run" and it runs. If your phone's screen is active then the watch won't get the notification prompt, but your phone will, and you can tap Run on it...

I just set up an automation to open my garage door when my iPhone enters the geofence. However, I've noticed some very peculiar behavior related to the running of this automation.

• If my iPhone X (running latest iOS) screen is not active and not connected to my car's CarPlay system (wired connection), my Apple Watch will get the notification prompt. I can respond to it on the Watch (very easy to do) and the automation will correctly run.
  
  
• But, if my iPhone is connected to CarPlay, even with an inactive iPhone screen, the Watch will not get the notification prompt. Under these circumstances, the only way to run the automation is to unlock the iPhone and then respond to the automation prompt that is on the iPhone.

Has anyone else noticed this same behavior? Im hoping it gets fixed soon.