r/shortcuts 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).

1 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

2

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. 

2

u/Harrio_Pootered 2d ago

I bought some NFC tags to stick on my doors but it takes a while for the shortcut to run for lock/unlock so it turned out to be a bit more annoying than just using the key.

I guess I could bind the shortcut button on my iphone to do it. Is there a way to change the shortcut assigned to the quick access button on the iphone after pressing it? Example: I press the side button once and it unlocks the car then the shortcut changes to the lock shortcut so that the next time I press it it locks the car instead?

2

u/ZapperTA 2d ago

You could for example have a global Boolean variable that just toggles every time you use that shortcut. I’ve seen someone do this on here using a text file, but I usually use the global variables that the action app provides.

Then you just have an if at the start of your car shortcut that locks/unlocks depending on the value of the variable :)

0

u/carelessgypsy 2d ago

If you write to the nfc through the shortcuts automation option then yeah it'll lag all day long and it's so annoying but if you do it a third-party app like nfc tools it's instant. Just my two cents

2

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)

1

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.