Canary can use your phone’s location to automatically switch between Away, Home, and Privacy modes when you arrive or leave your home.
Location services use a combination of technologies:
- Cellular signal
- Wi-Fi
- GPS
For the best experience, all three features should be enabled.
Enable auto-mode switching
Once you’ve enabled location services, you’ll need to enable auto-mode switching in the Canary app:
- Open the Canary app.
- Swipe down on the Home Screen.
- Tap Devices.
- Tap Modes.
- Tap the switch next to Auto-mode switching. When enabled, the switch will be green.
Enable location services
During setup, the Canary app asked your permission to use your location.
If you originally declined permission to use your location, or made any other changes to your phone’s settings, you may need to enable location services for the Canary app in your iPhone or Android device settings.
iOS
If you have an iPhone, you can enable location services in the Settings app:
- Tap Settings
- Tap Privacy
- Tap Location services
- Tap Canary
- Tap Always
Android
If you have an Android device, you can enable location services in your phone settings:
- Navigate to your phone’s Settings
- Tap Location
- At the top of the screen, move the slider on
- Tap Mode
- Tap High accuracy
If you’re using Android 6.0 or newer, you’ll also need to enable permissions for phone for the Canary app:
- Navigate to your phone settings
- Tap Apps
- Tap Canary
- Tap Permissions
- Toggle phone on
Manually switching modes
If you don’t want to enable auto mode switching, you can switch modes by tapping on the mode icon on the Home Screen.
You can still manually switch between modes with auto mode switching enabled. The mode will next update when one member arrives home, or all members leave home.
What if there are multiple members?
As long as a single member is home, Canary will remain in Home/Privacy mode.
What if my phone is off?
Your phone needs to be on and connected to the internet to recognize when you leave and arrive home
Why won't Canary detect when I am Home or Away?
If you encounter any issues with auto-mode switching, visit Why won't Canary detect when I am Home or Away?
What is my geofence radius?
A geofence is a virtual perimeter around a geographic area (e.g. your devices defined location within the Canary app). Canary currently uses a 50 meter radius around your location to determine if you are Home or Away.
Adjusting the size of your geofence to ‘large’ can help with troubleshooting Home and Away detection. This is essentially editing the perimeter around your location that is used to know when location members are home or away. The default Small size (150 meters) is most accurate, increasing the size to Medium (300 meters) or Large (450 meters) can help with troubleshooting Home or Away detection.
