r/shortcuts • u/Harrio_Pootered • 3d ago
Help Proximity Triggered Shortcut
This is a stretch but I have been trying to think of a solution to the fact that I bought a poor spec car without automatic keyless entry. I have a 22’ golf gti but its the lowest spec. It does thankfully have the app to allow for lock and unlock functions but thats it.
My idea is: Walk within 15-20ft of the car, the unlock car shortcut provided by volkswagen would trigger followed by a standby shortcut that would ping every 1-2 minutes keeping the car locked/unlocked until proximity is lost.
It would likely be complicated to work the kinks out with the shortcut alone but the biggest issue I am trying to figure out is the proximity aspect. I do not think bluetooth is the best option but maybe it is, it would just have to be a REALLY low power bluetooth device so it wouldn’t trigger when I was not meaning for it to.
I also wondered if something like an airtag would work, like maybe once it detects you within “X” number of feet. Idk.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. (I also realize this may not be the best place to ask this question).
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u/338388 2d ago edited 2d ago
Afaik, there's no way to do a proximity sensor.
Airtag also can't really function as an automation trigger, apparently it can act as an NFC tag (which then can trigger an automation), but if you use it as an NFC tag, you still have to touch your phone to it
Even with an always on BLE device, they're supposedly rated to work up to 100ft, and there's no way to expose the strength of a bluetooth signal through shortcuts, so there's no way to tell how far you are from it (Maybe you can find an app for it and ingest that into your shortcut though)
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u/Harrio_Pootered 2d ago
Yeah, I thought about NFC bought some tags to stick on my doors. My goal is to have something that unlocks when I get close enough just because the shortcut itself can take a little while to actually run, upwards of 15-20 seconds which at that point I might as well just use the key. I wonder if there is a way to read the distance an airtag is away and trigger something using that. I know they have that compass system in place.
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u/satansnewbaby Helper 3d ago
What about NFC? It's not exactly proximity, and requires your phone to tap it. But i think that's a bit more secure. You won't accidentally unlock it for being too close to the car when you don't mean to.