Modes are advanced automations that run in the background and adjust many devices at once. Instead of building automations device by device, you turn on a Mode and Brilliant handles the rest, personalized to the devices and rooms in your home.
Brilliant Max includes two Modes at launch: Away Mode and Vacation Mode, with more coming soon.
Where you set up and use Modes
- Set up and edit on your phone. You configure and edit Modes in the Brilliant app.
- See and switch on a Control. On a Brilliant Control you can see which Mode is active and turn a Mode on or off.
One Mode at a time
Only one Mode can be active at once. If both Away and Vacation Mode try and run at the same time (i.e. home is empty for 18+ hours) Vacation mode will take priority.
If you manually turn on a Mode while another is active, Brilliant asks you to confirm switching the active Mode.
How a Mode starts and stops
A Mode can start and stop three ways, and you choose which to use:
- Geolocation: based on whether anyone is home. See the geolocation setup below.
- Schedule: pick the days of the week and the times it should start and end. A scheduled start runs about a minute after the set time (a 1:00 start runs around 1:01); this is fixed for now.
- Manual: turn it on or off from the app or a Control. At GA you cannot start a Mode with Alexa; that is planned for a later release.
You can use both a geolocation trigger and a schedule on the same Mode. They work as an either/or (the Mode runs when either one is met), not as an "and."
A few behaviors to know:
- Notifications. Everyone in the home with the Brilliant Mobile app gets a push notification when a Mode starts and when it ends.
- 60-second delay on manual start. When you start Away or Vacation Mode manually, a countdown begins (60 seconds by default, adjustable in the app) before its actions run, so you have time to leave. On a Control you see a banner that turns green when the Mode is active.
- PIN to turn off from a Control. Turning Away or Vacation Mode off from a Brilliant Control requires your Brilliant PIN. You get three tries; after that there is a one-minute wait before you can try again.
- Switching Modes. If you turn on a Mode while another is active, Brilliant asks you to confirm. The new Mode's settings take over from the one that was running.
When a Mode needs attention
If some of a Mode's actions cannot run (for example, a device was removed), the Mode still runs the valid actions and flags itself as "Needs attention," with the option to edit it. If none of its actions are valid, the Mode will not run and is flagged "Invalid Mode" until you fix it.
If a Mode uses a geolocation trigger but no one in the home has location permission turned on, it shows "Location access needed." You can still run that Mode manually, but it will not start and stop automatically until location access is turned back on.
Setting up Geolocation
Geolocation lets a Mode start when the home is empty and end when someone returns.
- Turn on location permission for the Brilliant app, set to "Always" with precise location. Without this, geolocation triggers will not work, and Brilliant will let you know.
- Set your home geofence: enter your home address to drop a pin on the map with a default radius.
- Adjust it if you like: move the pin, and expand or shrink the radius.
- Save it. You can come back and edit it any time.
You can set the location two ways: type an address in the search bar, or tap the location icon to use your current location. An invalid address shows an error. Brilliant needs Precise Location set to Always Allow. If you have denied location before, Brilliant walks you through turning it back on.
Geolocation works with one phone at minimum, but it is most accurate when everyone in the household has the Brilliant app on their phones with location on, so the home is only seen as empty when everyone is actually gone. Invite family members to your Home and have them install the app.
Personalized setup and editing
When you set up a Mode, Brilliant recommends a set of actions based on the devices and rooms you already have. Everything is editable:
- Remove a whole action (for example, "all lights off").
- Drill into an action and remove specific devices from it.
- Choose which triggers the Mode uses.
You edit a Mode on the Edit Mode screen, which holds its triggers, actions, sensors, and Start and End behavior.
- Triggers. A schedule trigger lets you pick a time of day (or sunrise/sunset), the days of the week, and whether it runs all year or on selected dates. A location trigger lets you set the geofence and how long someone must be away before it runs. You can remove a trigger entirely. A Mode with no trigger is fine, you just turn it on manually.
- Actions. You can adjust an action (for example, change lights to on, off, or set to a level), add or remove devices within an action, or remove the action. When you remove an action, an "Add Action" button appears, and it offers back only the actions you previously removed. Action choices depend on the device: lights can be set, turned on or off; thermostats can be set to heat, cool, or off; shades can open, close, or set to a level; locks lock or unlock; garage doors open or close; Brilliant Controls can play or stop the siren. "Restore settings" returns a Mode to its default actions. These actions match what is available in Scenes today.
If your home does not have a device an action needs, that action is turned off, with a tip explaining what to add and a link to add the device. When you add a device later that a Mode could use, Brilliant prompts you to add it: the suggestion changes to an "Add Action" option that writes the action into the Mode. The action shows as "Ready to Add" if the device is present, or "Device Needed" if it is not.
Controls Devices and Scenes
If you manually control a device that an active Mode is managing by directly controlling that device in Brilliant or through a Scene, the device will be updated and that device drops out of the Mode until the next time the Mode turns on.