--- title: Your phone's Bluetooth chip is already a presence sensor... description: Modern phones rotate their Bluetooth MAC address every few minutes via Resolvable Private Addresses (RPA), which breaks traditional Bluetooth-based presence... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Your phone's Bluetooth chip is already a presence sensor — Home Assistant just needs the right key | daily.dev og:description: Modern phones rotate their Bluetooth MAC address every few minutes via Resolvable Private Addresses (RPA), which breaks traditional Bluetooth-based presence... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PSstNl64W.png og:image:alt: Your phone's Bluetooth chip is already a presence sensor — Home Assistant just needs the right key og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Your phone's Bluetooth chip is already a presence sensor — Home Assistant just needs the right key **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Modern phones rotate their Bluetooth MAC address every few minutes via Resolvable Private Addresses (RPA), which breaks traditional Bluetooth-based presence detection in Home Assistant. The solution is capturing the phone's Identity Resolving Key (IRK) — a one-time process using an ESP32 flashed with IRK Capture firmware — and feeding it into Home Assistant's Private BLE Device integration. This lets Home Assistant track the phone regardless of address rotation. For Android, enabling the BLE transmitter sensor in the Home Assistant Companion app (turning the phone into an iBeacon) may be necessary. Once configured, the Bermuda HACS integration enables room-level trilateration using Bluetooth proxies. The main limitation is detection lag of up to 15 minutes for away state, making it unsuitable for instant-reaction automations but adequate for thermostat-style automations. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I get Home Assistant to reliably detect my phone's presence using Bluetooth? Capture the phone's Identity Resolving Key (IRK), which resolves its constantly rotating Bluetooth address back to the same device, then feed it into Home Assistant's Private BLE Device integration. For iPhones, the IRK can be pulled from Keychain Access on a Mac; for Android, tools like an ESP32 flashed with IRK Capture firmware or the ESPHome integration's IRK Capture menu can extract it, though pairing can be unreliable. _Anyone wiring up phone-based presence detection can compare Home Assistant integration approaches on daily.dev._ ### Why does my phone keep dropping off Bluetooth presence detection in Home Assistant? Modern phones use a Resolvable Private Address (RPA) instead of a fixed Bluetooth MAC address, rotating it every few minutes to prevent tracking by advertisers or Bluetooth beacons. This privacy feature breaks detection systems that rely on matching a static MAC address, making the phone appear to disappear even though it is still broadcasting nearby. _Developers debugging flaky Bluetooth-based automations can dig into RPA behavior via daily.dev._ ### How accurate is using a phone as a presence sensor compared to a dedicated PIR or mmWave sensor? It works but with a noticeable delay: reporting the away state can take more than 15 minutes with no way to tune that lag, making it unsuitable for automations needing instant reaction, though fine for things like adjusting a thermostat. Paired with Bermuda BLE Trilateration and Bluetooth proxies, it also enables room-level tracking without extra hardware. _Smart home builders weighing sensor tradeoffs can track real-world presence detection experiences on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What Your Bluetooth Devices Reveal About You](https://daily.dev/posts/what-your-bluetooth-devices-reveal-about-you-sihwb4kat) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [iPhone notifications in Home Assistant with ANCS](https://daily.dev/posts/iphone-notifications-in-home-assistant-with-ancs-p2fbb3wrv) · /dev/io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#tech-news](https://daily.dev/tags/tech-news), [#bluetooth](https://daily.dev/tags/bluetooth) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Your phone's Bluetooth chip is already a presence sensor — Home Assistant just needs the right key","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w"},"datePublished":"2026-08-01T14:02:32.761Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T18:30:02.629Z","description":"Modern phones rotate their Bluetooth MAC address every few minutes via Resolvable Private Addresses (RPA), which breaks traditional Bluetooth-based presence...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/15f2724d6ae2587c2d82325fafa24c69?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/15f2724d6ae2587c2d82325fafa24c69?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"tech-news,bluetooth","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Your phone's Bluetooth chip is already a presence sensor — Home Assistant just needs the right key"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-phone-s-bluetooth-chip-is-already-a-presence-sensor-home-assistant-just-needs-the-right-key-psstnl64w#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I get Home Assistant to reliably detect my phone's presence using Bluetooth?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Capture the phone's Identity Resolving Key (IRK), which resolves its constantly rotating Bluetooth address back to the same device, then feed it into Home Assistant's Private BLE Device integration. For iPhones, the IRK can be pulled from Keychain Access on a Mac; for Android, tools like an ESP32 flashed with IRK Capture firmware or the ESPHome integration's IRK Capture menu can extract it, though pairing can be unreliable. Anyone wiring up phone-based presence detection can compare Home Assistant integration approaches on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does my phone keep dropping off Bluetooth presence detection in Home Assistant?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Modern phones use a Resolvable Private Address (RPA) instead of a fixed Bluetooth MAC address, rotating it every few minutes to prevent tracking by advertisers or Bluetooth beacons. This privacy feature breaks detection systems that rely on matching a static MAC address, making the phone appear to disappear even though it is still broadcasting nearby. Developers debugging flaky Bluetooth-based automations can dig into RPA behavior via daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How accurate is using a phone as a presence sensor compared to a dedicated PIR or mmWave sensor?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It works but with a noticeable delay: reporting the away state can take more than 15 minutes with no way to tune that lag, making it unsuitable for automations needing instant reaction, though fine for things like adjusting a thermostat. Paired with Bermuda BLE Trilateration and Bluetooth proxies, it also enables room-level tracking without extra hardware. Smart home builders weighing sensor tradeoffs can track real-world presence detection experiences on daily.dev."}}]} ```