Tapo Geofencing and Location-Based Automations

You can now automate your home based on your phone’s location. It's now possible to have your lights turned on whenever you arrive home or to automatically save energy by turning your devices off when you leave home.

 

• Your Phone can be used as a location trigger in automations.
• Multiple Phones and Locations can be used for automation.
• Customizable Zone for detecting location.
• Optional Enhanced Location Can Greatly Improve Location Accuracy'

 

To enable Geofencing, you can either follow the process given in the Tapo app or you can find the options and permissions under:

 

Me > Tapo Lab > Geofencing

 

Increase Detection Accuracy with Enhanced Location Detection

Enabling the Enchance Location detection allows the Tapo app to detect your device’s location with higher accuracy and frequency. This option can be found under:

 

Me > Tapo Lab > Geofencing > Enhanced Location

 

Accuracy: The accuracy of detection determines how precise your location is. If you have ever seen a dot on a map a little ways away from where you are, this means that the app is likely not using your detailed location. Increasing the accuracy will help in situations where your device is reporting an incorrect location.

 

Frequency: The frequency will change how often your device reports its location to the Tapo app. If you find that your automations do not fire on time or you are using the feature to detect areas that are close together, decreasing the time between updates may improve your experience.

 

It is also recommended that you enable “Use Precise Location” from within your phone’s permissions for the Tapo App. This will help ensure that the location your phone reports to the Tapo app is accurate.

 

Automating Your Home with Location-Based Triggers (Geofencing)

Effective Radius:  The effective radius setting allows you to customize how large your selected detection is. It can be set to as low as 328 feet, all the way to 1.2 miles. 

Tip: Increasing the Effective Radius can help improve the margin of error. Doing this gives your phone’s location more opportunities to trigger your automations.

Increasing the location size can also help ensure your phone reports accurate location information. This can prevent your phone from accidentally triggering “When You Leave” automations.

 

Common Questions About GeoFencing:

 

Is it possible to use multiple devices’ locations to create Smart Actions?

Yes, Geofencing Smart Actions can be triggered by each phone or tablet arriving/leaving the associated location, however it is not currently possible to manage or edit the Geolocation Triggers from another device.

 

The Smart Action must be configured on the device whose location will trigger the automation. When viewing or editing the automation on another device, you will see a note that Geofencing is not enabled. This only concerns this situation and will be given even if you have enabled the feature on the device.

 

 

What should I do if my automations are no longer being triggered?

If this is the case, the first thing that should be done beyond checking and verifying your automation options is to check your phone’s permissions related to the Tapo App. The permissions granted to the app may have changed. Ensure the Tapo App is still permitted to access your device’s location.

 

 

Why Do I Need to Grant the  “Allow All The Time” Location Permission to the Tapo App?

This setting helps to make sure that your location is updated, even while you are not using the app. Without the permission, changes in your location would not be updated until you next open the app.

 

 

Will using the Geofencing Feature Compromise my Security?

You can use Tapo’s Geolocation with Confidence! We care about your data security and privacy. Tapo will not keep track of your geographic location but will only send basic notification information to execute your Smart Actions when you arrive or leave home.

We will not store any events you report nor share them with any third parties.

 

 

Learn More about the other Features Added to the Tapo 2.0 Smart Action Platform