The XDA piece last week hit on something anyone running a smart home eventually figures out: the phone in your pocket already broadcasts a BLE identifier the moment you walk in the door. There is no extra hardware to buy. What you need is an app that will publish that signal to Home Assistant, MQTT, or Tasker so the lights and the thermostat can react.
We tested seven Android apps that turn a phone or a set of BLE beacons into a presence sensor. All of them run without a vendor cloud. Some also work as full automation engines once the presence event fires.
What to look for in a BLE presence app
- Room-level or house-level detection. Wi-Fi geofencing gets you house-level. BLE beacons scattered around the home get you room-level.
- Reporting protocol. MQTT is the near-universal path for Home Assistant. HTTP webhooks work but are noisier. Companion-app integrations often bypass MQTT entirely.
- Battery cost. Continuous scanning drains the sensing phone. Look for adaptive scan intervals or foreground-service controls.
- Whether it survives OEM battery killers. Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei all put aggressive limits on background scanning. Some apps handle this cleanly, some ask you to whitelist them manually.
- Local-only vs cloud path. If the app requires an account before it will report BLE, it is not a local presence solution.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Assistant | Companion app presence | Free, open-source | Native Home Assistant sensor entities |
| OwnTracks | MQTT-first location and presence | Free, open-source | Room resolution with BLE beacons |
| Tasker | Full automation with BLE triggers | Paid $3.49 | Any-condition scripting |
| Automate | Visual flow automation | Free, ads on complex flows | Drag-and-drop BLE nodes |
| MacroDroid | Beginner-friendly automation | Free with limits, $6.99 pro | Clear presence-trigger recipes |
| nRF Connect | Diagnose BLE beacons | Free with pro tier | Nordic’s scanner for debugging |
| BLE Radar | Passive BLE monitoring | Free with ads | Continuous beacon logs |
The seven apps
1. Home Assistant Companion, best-integrated presence sensor
The Home Assistant Android app exposes every sensor the phone has to your hub, including a BLE beacon monitor and a Bluetooth-based room presence detector. Once configured, each phone becomes a device_tracker entity. Combined with the Bermuda integration on the server side and a few ESP32 beacons, you get room-accurate presence with no extra Android software.
Where it falls short: you need Home Assistant running somewhere. Beacon setup requires MAC addresses and a bit of YAML.
Pricing: Free and open-source. Optional Nabu Casa cloud subscription $6.50 per month for remote access.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: The default pick when Home Assistant is already the hub.
2. OwnTracks, best MQTT-first presence
OwnTracks is a minimalist location-reporting app that publishes to MQTT. It supports iBeacon regions, so a battery beacon in the bedroom or the office reports enter and exit events that any MQTT broker can pick up. The app has no vendor cloud in the loop: your broker, your topics, your control.
Where it falls short: the setup is not GUI-friendly. You need to configure the broker URL, TLS certificate, and topic prefixes by hand. Background scan reliability depends heavily on your phone’s manufacturer.
Pricing: Free and open-source.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: Pick this when you want raw MQTT beacon events without a hub in the middle.
3. Tasker, best for full automation on the phone
Tasker is the veteran Android automation engine. Its BLE conditions fire when a specific device is near or has just left range, and you can wire that trigger into any other Tasker action: HTTP post, MQTT publish, notification, tone. It works well as the “on the phone” half of a presence system that publishes into Home Assistant or Node-RED.
Where it falls short: the learning curve is real. Tasker’s UI has aged, and its terminology takes an evening to internalise. Battery cost of continuous scanning can be high without careful trigger tuning.
Pricing: One-time purchase around $3.49.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: The power-user pick when the phone itself should decide what to do with a BLE event.
4. Automate, best for a visual flow
LlamaLab’s Automate covers similar ground to Tasker with a flowchart editor instead of a form-based one. Presence detection uses the Bluetooth Low Energy scanning block, and outputs feed into HTTP requests or MQTT publish nodes for the smart hub. The flow view makes it easier to reason about multi-condition presence rules.
Where it falls short: complex flows tip into a paid unlock. The BLE node is reliable but does not surface every advertisement type.
Pricing: Free with limits. Premium unlocks flows over 30 blocks, around $6 in-app.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: The pick for people who think in diagrams rather than scripts.
5. MacroDroid, best for a first automation app
MacroDroid is the friendliest of the automation apps. Presence-related macros are already in the template library, so wiring “when a specific BLE device is nearby, turn off notifications” takes minutes. The interface is closer to a settings screen than a scripting environment.
Where it falls short: the free tier caps you at five macros. BLE scanning options are shallower than in Tasker or Automate.
Pricing: Free with limits. Pro $6.99 one-time.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: The right starting point if this is your first automation app on Android.
6. nRF Connect for Mobile, best for beacon debugging
Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF Connect is not a presence engine on its own. It is the tool you keep in the drawer for when a beacon stops reporting. The app scans, records, and replays BLE advertisements, so you can see whether a stubborn presence sensor is actually broadcasting or has run out of coin cell.
Where it falls short: no automation. This is a diagnostic app, and a great one, but not the app you leave running as a presence sensor.
Pricing: Free.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: Install alongside whichever automation app you pick. It will save you a debugging session at some point.
7. BLE Radar, best passive monitor
BLE Radar sits between diagnostic and automation apps. It scans continuously and logs BLE advertisements, then exposes a shortcut and a Tasker plugin for other apps to pick up. It is useful when you want a lightweight sensing layer that other software can query.
Where it falls short: ads in the free tier. The interface is basic. There is no direct MQTT publish, so you always need a partner app.
Pricing: Free with ads. Optional donation removes them.
Download: Aptoide
Bottom line: A quiet passive sensor that other automation tools can call.
How to pick the right one
- If you already run Home Assistant, install the Home Assistant Companion app and stop there.
- If you want a broker-first pipeline, choose OwnTracks.
- If the phone should also decide what to do about the event, choose Tasker or Automate.
- If this is your first automation app, start with MacroDroid.
- Always keep nRF Connect on hand for when a beacon goes quiet.
FAQ
Do I need special hardware for BLE presence detection? No. Your phone already broadcasts a BLE identifier. For room-level accuracy you can add cheap ESP32 boards or coin-cell iBeacons that report to Home Assistant.
Which app has the lowest battery cost for continuous scanning? The Home Assistant Companion is the most tuned. OwnTracks is close. Tasker and Automate can be tuned but default settings are heavier.
Will BLE presence work on Samsung phones? Yes, but you must whitelist the sensing app in Samsung’s Device Care battery settings so background scanning is not throttled.
Can I detect specific rooms with just my phone? Not reliably. Room accuracy requires a few passive beacons scattered around the house. The phone is only enough for house-level in-or-out signals.
Is Home Assistant required? No. OwnTracks reports directly to any MQTT broker, and Tasker or Automate can trigger local phone-side actions without any hub.
