Presence simulation: make your home look lived-in
Randomly switch lights, shutters and devices while you're away, so an empty house looks occupied, all from local scenes you fully control.
An empty home is an easy target. The single most effective, low-cost deterrent against burglary is making the house look occupied while you're away.
With Gladys Assistant you build presence simulation from scenes: lights and shutters that turn on and off at believable times, even at random, running locally on your own machine, free and open-source.
Why an empty home is a target
Burglars look for homes that are clearly unoccupied. The classic tells are easy to spot:
- Lights that stay off every single evening while you're on holiday.
- Shutters or blinds that never move for days on end.
- No sign of life: no TV glow, no changing patterns, nothing.
- A predictable, dark, static house, exactly what an opportunist is hoping for.
Presence simulation removes those tells by recreating the small, irregular signs that someone is home.
What presence simulation can do
You decide how lived-in your home should look, with simple scenes you fully control:
Turn lights on and off in different rooms at varying, believable times in the evening, not on an obvious fixed schedule.
Open and close motorized shutters in the morning and evening so the outside of the house behaves as if someone's there.
Trigger scenes relative to local sunset and sunrise, so the simulation tracks the seasons automatically.
Switch on a TV, a smart speaker or a lamp behind the curtains to add a convincing glow and sound of life.
Add randomness to timing and which rooms light up, so the pattern never looks automated from the street.
Tie the whole thing to a 'house empty' state, so simulation runs only when nobody is actually home.
How to build presence simulation in Gladys
There's no single button for it, you assemble it from scenes, which is exactly what makes it flexible:
- Create a 'house empty' condition based on presence (phones off the network, or a manual 'away' switch).
- Build a scene that turns a light on, waits a random delay, then turns it off, and repeats across a few rooms.
- Schedule scenes to run in the evening, relative to sunset, only while the house is empty.
- Add shutters opening in the morning and closing at night to complete the illusion.
- Everything runs locally on your machine and keeps working even if your internet drops.
Your rules, your timing, your home, with no schedule living in someone else's cloud.
Local, private, and free to run
Because Gladys runs on your own machine, your presence simulation keeps working without the internet, and nobody outside your home knows your schedule or when you're away.
The Gladys core is free and open-source, so presence simulation costs nothing beyond the devices you already own. It pairs perfectly with a DIY alarm: simulation deters, the alarm reacts.
Go further
Combine presence simulation with the rest of your local smart home:
The natural companion: simulation deters, a local alarm detects and alerts.
The building blocks: triggers, conditions, actions and randomness.
Let AI make your automations smarter and more natural over time.
The bigger picture: a private, local smart home built on open standards.
Frequently asked questions
What is presence simulation?
Presence simulation makes an empty home look occupied by automatically turning lights, shutters and other devices on and off at believable times. It's one of the cheapest, most effective deterrents against burglary while you're away.
Does Gladys have a presence simulation feature?
Gladys doesn't have a single dedicated button, you build presence simulation from scenes. That's what makes it powerful: you control exactly which devices act, when, and how randomly, instead of a fixed canned mode.
How do I make the simulation look realistic?
Use random delays and vary which rooms light up, trigger scenes relative to sunset, and move shutters in the morning and evening. Irregular, sunset-aware patterns look far more convincing than a fixed daily schedule.
Does presence simulation work without internet?
Yes. Gladys runs locally, so your scenes keep firing even if your internet connection drops, and your schedule never leaves your home.
Can I run simulation only when I'm away?
Yes. Tie your scenes to a 'house empty' state, based on phone presence on the network or a manual 'away' switch, so the simulation runs only when nobody is actually home.
Does it cost anything?
No. The Gladys core is free and open-source, and presence simulation uses devices you already own, so there's nothing extra to pay.
Make your home look lived-in while you're away
Gladys is free, open-source and local-first. Build presence simulation from scenes, free and open-source, with your schedule kept private.