Shelly has detailed its upcoming Presence Gen4 sensor, a mmWave-based device designed to detect occupancy more accurately than traditional motion sensors, including when occupants remain largely still. The device is part of Shelly’s wider Gen4 range, which is positioned around broader protocol support, including Matter for integration with platforms such as Apple Home.

Unlike PIR-based sensors that rely on movement, Presence Gen4 uses mmWave radar to continuously track presence within a space. Shelly states the sensor can monitor areas of up to 42 sq m, while supporting up to 10 configurable detection zones. However, we’ve yet to confirm if these 10 separate zones are exposed separately in Apple Home, or other platforms for that matter. It’s also capable of tracking multiple occupants, with support for up to six people simultaneously, which may be useful in larger or shared spaces such as living rooms or offices. 

A built-in visualisation tool in the Shelly app provides a live map of detected presence within the monitored area. This allows users to define and refine zones for more granular automations, for example triggering lighting only in specific parts of a room, rather than treating the entire space as a single zone.

In terms of connectivity, the Presence Gen4 includes Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 LE, and Zigbee 3.0, alongside Matter over Wi-Fi support. This combination should allow it to integrate with a wide range of ecosystems, including Apple Home via Matter, although as with other Matter devices, functionality within Apple Home will depend on how the device category is exposed. Matter over WiFi is also a less popular option with many advanced users, due to the generally larger power draw compared to Matter over Thread devices. As this device uses a USB-C cable and adaptor, that’s a non-issue of course, but it does then mean it’s tied to locations near to outlets, alongside condensing with a visible, dangling cable.

The sensor also incorporates a basic ambient light sensor with multiple thresholds, including dark, twilight, and bright states. This enables combined presence and lighting-based automations, such as activating lights only when a room is both occupied and below a certain brightness level.

Additional configuration options include adjustable sensitivity, transmission power, and filtering designed to ignore low-level movement, such as that caused by pets or robot vacuums. These controls are intended to reduce false positives, which can be an issue with more sensitive presence detection technologies.

Power is supplied via USB-C at 5V, and the device can be configured through Shelly’s app, its cloud platform, or via a local web interface. As with other Shelly devices, local control is supported, which may appeal to users looking to avoid reliance on cloud services.

While pricing and availability have not yet been confirmed, the Presence Gen4 appears to be positioned as a more advanced alternative to standard motion sensors, but still has to contend with offerings from Aqara, Switchbot, and others.