GoveeLife Human Presence Sensor, mmWave Radar & PIR Wired Motion Sensor

A SENSE of security! The app notifications work well. I also connected it to alexa, and the automations work flawlessly. Anything you want to do when presence is detected or not detected, it will work. For example, I have it set to notify my phone with 2 notifications. One voice and one push notification. Alexa will say "MOTION DETECTED!". You can do anything, turn on a light doesn't have to be a govee product. Easy to install, I'd say its worth its price if you focus on alexa integration. Notifies me instantly, no delay. This does exactly what I needed it to and well. I may buy into the lights. Maybe an govee air filter too. The GoveeHome app notifies you when presence is detected and when there is absence. You can adjust the distance very accurately. There are settings to make it more accurate/sensitive. With one setting it can see through a plant for example. Although, when connecting to google home there is almost nothing it can do. I have tried every button, cannot create anything from it detecting motion. Only thing google home will do after adding it, is change from presence detected, to absence. No automation. If you jumped ahead, go back read what I say about Alexa. Good product.

This motion sensor was very easy to set up and use in the govee app. It would be better if it was more integrated with Google Home. Also the sensor does have a hard time catching all movement. There are some tracking issues but especially for the price is a very sensor and gets the job done. More integration with Google Home and more accurate tracking would be my only issues.

Imagine this: You walk into your cozy living room, and the lights gently brighten as if they’ve been expecting you. The GoveeLife Human Presence Sensor is the magic behind this seamless experience. Here’s why I’m genuinely impressed: Ultra-High Accuracy: This sensor isn’t just smart; it’s Sherlock-level smart. It combines radar and infrared technology to detect human movement and static presence with jaw-dropping precision. Whether you’re tiptoeing through the hallway or settling into your favorite reading nook, it’s got your back. Easy Integration: No tech headaches here. Connect the GoveeLife Presence Sensor to your Wi-Fi (it’s a friendly 2.4GHz connection) and watch it sync effortlessly with your smart home ecosystem. Alexa, Google Home—everyone’s invited to the automation party. Versatility: Picture this: You’re in the kitchen, hands full of groceries, and suddenly the lights come on. The sensor sensed you, even when you didn’t have a free hand to flip a switch. Plus, it’s not just for indoors—use it in the garage, the home office, or wherever you need that extra layer of awareness. Multi-Person Detection: Unlike those basic motion sensors that get flustered when more than one person moves around, the GoveeLife Sensor stays cool. It identifies multiple family members or colleagues, making it ideal for busy households or bustling offices. Sleek Design: It’s like the James Bond of sensors—compact, unobtrusive, and effortlessly stylish. Mount it discreetly on walls or place it strategically. Your guests won’t even know it’s there, but your smart home will thank you. In summary, the GoveeLife Human Presence Sensor isn’t just a gadget; it’s a silent guardian, a watchful companion. Elevate your home security game and embrace the future of automation. 🏠🔒

Product descriptions includes images saying that the device has a USB charging port… this is a lie. The device has no battery power whatsoever and must be powered by an attached USB A cable. This makes it useless for the purpose I had in mind, but I still tried to find use for it elsewhere. A problem a lot of people will have with this sensor is that it can only control other Govee devices and that’s it. However, I knew this going into things, so wasn’t too let down there. Next problem I encountered is that controlling the lights in the room with this sensor with Google (presumable Alexa as well) seems to break all functionality of the sensor controlling the lights. I set up the sensor in the app so that presence and absence were doing what I wanted, tested it a half a dozen times, but after telling Google to change the color of the lights, the presence sensor stopped doing anything to control them (although it does still tell me in the Govee app that it is detecting presence). It does seem to detect motion accurately, and can even tell you approximate distances when a presence is detected, which is cool, and the only reason it’s not getting a 1 star. However, in the end, none of that presence sensing capability even matters if the device can’t be installed far away from a USB port or outlet and if it fails to even control Govee devices after being controlled by a third party service like Google.

This sensor is a bit hit or miss if I am being honest, but it still gets the job done for what I needed. I bought it to turn regular light bulbs into smart lights that respond to whether someone is in the room. The idea is it detects human presence rather than just motion, so it should keep lights on while you are sitting still and not just when you are walking around. In practice, it works more like a motion sensor than a true presence detector. If I am sitting still at my desk for a while, sometimes it decides nobody is there and triggers whatever automation I have set up. That is a little annoying when you are working and the lights suddenly change because the sensor lost track of you. It is not perfect and I had to adjust my expectations. That said, it does work for basic automation. When I walk into a room, it detects me immediately and triggers the lights. When I leave, it eventually figures that out and turns things off. For simple use cases like lighting up a hallway or bathroom when someone enters, it handles that fine. The detection is quick and reliable for actual movement. Setup through the Govee app was easy enough. It connected to my wifi without issues and integrating it with my other smart home devices was straightforward. You can set up routines and automations based on the sensor output. I have it linked to smart bulbs so certain rooms light up automatically when occupied. Convenient when it works correctly. The range and sensitivity are adjustable in the app, which helps dial in the performance for your specific space. I played around with the settings and got it working better than the default configuration. It took some trial and error but eventually I found a sweet spot that reduced false negatives. For the price, it is a reasonable way to add presence detection to your smart home without spending a fortune. Just know that it is not flawless. If you need bulletproof detection for critical automations, you might want something higher end. But if you want an affordable way to make your dumb lights a little smarter and can tolerate occasional quirks, this gets the job done. I am satisfied enough to keep using it.

Great presence sensor. Works but you have to set it just right. Lot of trial and error since govee changed the app. If you are looking for a setup video you will not find it. GOVEE PLEASE do a video on setup, luckily for me I had time and patience. For One ...set absence to 30 seconds and presence for immediate Also on go to short cuts panel and set auto run for both on and off they must be separate (who knew right) you have to do this or it will not work (my opinion) set up absence as off and presence as on for all lights ITS THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER that looks like a sandwich. Seriously I just clicked it and it's so convoluted and silly. But I bet it's best for dummies IDK. Also if the setup is on the wall set detection for at least 20ft to pick up all motion. Set the physical sensor 5.9 feet off of the floor I also set absence reporting time to 5 minutes which helps with immediate light on for some reason

Let me preface this by saying the sensor itself works superbly, within its companion app. It was dead on accurate regarding whether the area is occupied and how far away they are. The problem arises in getting the data from the sensor. I tried setting this up with Home Assistant, and the initial setup is painless and straightforward. When you add the sensor to HA, you apply to get an API key which is used in the integration, which is as far as I got. Apparently GoVee servers are well overloaded. I never managed to connect to HA, kept getting an error, "API busy, try again later". I gave up after several hours of this. If you do a basic Google search you will find everyone has to reduce the polling rate to once per minute or once per 2 minutes to get the integration to work at all. This is where my question lies, who is this for? I assume there is not a special server just for HA so Amazon/Apple/Google/Smart Things setups will see similar latency. I don't know about you but I don't want to wait up to 2 minutes for my lights to turn on.

I had experimented with some ESP32 mmWave occupancy sensors and they sucked. They did work well but there were constant false detections even with the sensitivity settings very low. So I bought this product on a leap of faith because I needed an occupancy sensor that works. As a stand alone product, this thing is outstanding! I’m blown away at the accuracy and at how it does not false detect neither motion nor occupancy. You can use the free Govee app to test it and change settings. Two thumbs up on that. Now for the next step. I saw the reviews that said it doesn’t work with HA and also the sellers listing says the same. That’s not completely true. It does not work with HA via WiFi but it can and does work via Bluetooth as long as it’s within range of Bluetooth on your HA system. I have several ESP32’s acting as Bluetooth nodes via WiFi so I added another one near this device and it works flawlessly. HA detects it as a new “Govee Bluetooth” device and adds the relevant entities automatically. I’ve only been using it for a day in HA but so far it’s 100% rock solid! I am glad that I tried this product and can’t wait for WiFi integration with HA.