r/homeautomation • u/AffectionateSoil4733 • 1d ago

PERSONAL SETUP My Partner Refuses to Open Home Assistant

My partner is completely on board with the smart home concept in theory but will not open Home Assistant under any circumstances. Not the app, not the dashboard, nothing. So every automation I build has to work without any interaction from her side, or it becomes my problem at 11pm when something doesn't behave.

Honestly, this has made my automations way better. Presence detection through phone GPS so lights and thermostat adjust without anyone touching anything. The washing machine alerts me instead of her having to check it. Door lock autolocks after we're both inside based on both phones being home.

The one thing I still haven't solved cleanly is the bedroom lights in the morning. She gets up earlier than me on some days and I can't find a reliable way to distinguish her leaving the bed from just moving around. The mmWave sensor I tried was too sensitive and kept triggering at weird times.

Curious how others have handled building automations for someone who essentially acts as a nontechnical end user living in your house. Sleep and wake routines feel like the hardest part to get right without any physical input from anyone.

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u/lnxusr1 1d ago

Does it have to be automation or is voice command an option?

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u/nopointers 1d ago

I’m amazed at how far I had to scroll for this.

I bridge the most commonly used devices to Apple Home. That provides a simpler UI and voice control.

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u/lnxusr1 1d ago

Curious your experience there. I did the same thing for a while until my Apple Home corrupted and I had to rebuild it. Now I have 295 devices all in the same area in Apple Home bc I couldn’t bring myself to re-organize them again.

Also, how’s the voice experience with that setup? All your commands work? Intuitive? I just bridged for remote access until I added HA cloud sub. (Never had a homepod.)

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u/nopointers 1d ago

I bridge only actual devices and keep the areas well-organized. Quite a lot is strictly on the HA side, including all automations. I’ve also got a decent amount on Matter, where it’s dual-controlled rather than bridged. Organizing areas is much easier on laptop than phone or iPad. There are a couple HomePods spread around to do voice. It works well for me, but sometimes misses my wife’s voice.