Hi,
my mobile (hidden in dungarees) should alert loud when approaching the washer.
I checked Shortcuts, Pushcut, Toolbox Pro, LCP. iBeacon recognition works and I get notifications. However, I found no solution to play a loud alarm without user interaction. Shortcuts can set volume, however it’s required to tap on it’s notification to actually start the shortcut.
I’d be happy about any hint.
Thanks & BR
Bernhard
You could create an automation that is triggered by the iBeacon, then set volume to high and start timer (a short one, so that it’s triggered quickly, like 1 second).
Sounds good. Do you know which app(s) allow to run such an automation without user interaction?
I thought iBeacons could only ever trigger notifications; but those notifications can be actionable and trigger other action when the app supports it (Pushcut, Launch Center Pro, etc.)?
Your thinking is correct. Are you aware of any actionable app playing a loud, audible alarm without user interaction?
Shortcut requires the user to tap on the notification, thus it’s unusable by me.
Shortcuts does not require user interaction to play a loud noise. It is the trigger method that determines the need for confirmation/interaction, and in this case I believe you are using a trigger method that always requires confirmation.
Flipping it around, I would think you could have put an RFID tag on your phone and then have that trigger a physical alarm. Same principle as in shops for stopping theft.
You can also get things like the nut, which is a bidirectional tracker. You can keep it on you to make sure that you don’t leave the phone behind, but there is also a feature to play a sound on the phone when you press a button on the nut so that you can find the phone. You could have a nut or similar device next to the on button on your washing machine,
What do you mean “which app”? You go into the Shortcuts app, select “Automation”, then “Create Personal Automation” based on an NFC tag, and under “Do” add a timer for 2 seconds, uncheck “Ask before running” and that should do the trick, no?
EDIT: Maybe set volume to 80% or so as well before setting the timer
NFC tags are not the same thing as iBeacons.
Hi sylumer, thanks for your valuable hints! “The nut” sounds promising.
That gives me the idea to use any pairable Bluetooth device. Shortcuts can trigger an automation when connecting to paired devices (but not to beacons). Are you aware of a simple, long running Bluetooth device capable of pairing with multiple mobiles?
From what I read about NFC tags their range won’t be sufficient for my use case.
Well my headphones can pair with a couple of devices simultaneously, but that wouldn’t help unless you were wearing the headphones at the time. Input devices always have to direct to a single recipient, so it would only ever be output devices. Note also that Bluetooth can have quite a range on it. It isn’t something you can pare down the range on like an iBeacon, though because it is radio, many of the same sorts of things will interfere with the range.
I can think of some scenarios where the approach you have outlined might result in unwanted triggers even if you did have the ideal solution. As the lowest tech approach, could you put a note on your washing machine to remind you that you should first find where your phone is before you load stuff into the machine for washing.
A step on from that to help you locate it is that if you have an Apple Watch you can ping your phone from that and have it make a sound (I’d say loud’ish at best rather than loud though). If you have a more interactive device, you could use the Find My service to trigger a loud noise on your phone.
My bad. Learned something new (again!), thanks for the info.
My solution looks like this:
In Pushcut I added a “Local Trigger” when arriving at the beacon.
Under “Local Trigger / Background” (somewhat hidden in the headline) I added the URL
http://delock-5072.fritz.box/cm?cmnd=Power%20On to switch the power socket on.
“Beacon Locator” on Android is doing exactly what I need for my use case: play the ringtone and access an URL. However, the Play Store version is unmaintained and can’t access plain http-addresses on API level 28 (Android 8) and higher. The reason is a missing “usesCleartextTraffic” permission in the manifest. The source code is available on https://github.com/vitas/beaconloc