Vodafone adds 'Who's Home' alerts to Ultra Hub routers

Vodafone has launched a new broadband feature called Who's Home that alerts customers when family members or housemates arrive or leave home.

The tool uses Wi-Fi connections to trigger phone-based notifications, offering households a way to check who's in without relying on cameras or additional sensors.

For now, Who's Home is limited to customers using Vodafone's Ultra Hub routers on Pro 3 broadband plans, although wider availability is expected.

Vodafone Who's Home

Who's Home is a new broadband feature built into Vodafone's Ultra Hub routers that sends alerts when registered household members appear to arrive or leave, based on their smartphones connecting to the home Wi-Fi network.

Customers set it up through the Vodafone Broadband app, where each person is linked to a specific device. When that phone connects to, or drops off, the Wi-Fi, the app treats it as a signal that someone has come or gone and sends a notification.

In terms of privacy, Vodafone says household members must opt in before they can be detected. When a device is added, the person receives a text message inviting them to join, with the option to opt out at any time and regular reminders to confirm consent.

Who's Home is available at no extra cost to customers on Vodafone's Pro 3 broadband plans using an Ultra Hub router. Vodafone says support for additional routers will be added over time.

Vodafone commented, "Beyond instant notifications, account holders can check the Who's Home dashboard at any time to see who's currently 'at home' or 'out', offering a reassuring snapshot of household activity.

"Whether it's knowing a child has got home from school or checking in on loved ones, Who's Home brings smart, simple security to Vodafone broadband households."

Useful feature or superfluous extra?

For families with children, Who's Home is likely to be the most obvious use case. It could offer reassurance that an older child or teenager has arrived home safely, without relying on cameras or constant check-ins.

However, Ofcom's research on children's media use and device ownership shows that while most teenagers carry smartphones, younger children are far less likely to have their own devices.

That limits how useful the feature is for families with primary-age children, and raises broader questions about whether tools like this further normalise the expectation that children need a personal smartphone to be "trackable".

For shared households, it's also unclear whether Wi-Fi alerts are meaningfully easier than simply messaging someone to ask if they're home.

Ofcom's Online Nation research shows that messaging apps are already used by the vast majority of UK adults, suggesting low-friction alternatives are already widely available - and may feel less intrusive for some households.

That raises a question of comfort. While Vodafone positions the feature as opt-in, presence-based monitoring may still feel uncomfortable in situations where opting in feels expected rather than genuinely optional.

This may be particularly relevant in family or shared living settings, where social pressure can play a role regardless of how the feature is framed.

For older relatives, Who's Home could still have some appeal, particularly where family members share access to the Vodafone Broadband app.

However, Age UK research suggests older people are among the least confident smartphone users, which could limit how reliably phone-dependent features like this work in practice.

Who's Home appears useful on the surface.

But its real-world value will depend heavily on household dynamics, device habits and consent - and whether it solves a problem that isn't already handled more simply.

Smart router trends

Vodafone's Who's Home taps into a broader push from broadband providers to add more smart features into home routers, even if most, so far, don't focus on presence detection.

Recent hardware upgrades, such as EE's rollout of Wi-Fi 7-compatible Smart Hubs, point to a wider shift towards more capable, app-controlled routers - something Choose has tracked closely in its ongoing router comparisons and Wi-Fi technology coverage.

Other providers also bundle software tools into their router ecosystems - including traffic management, security features and device-specific parental controls - as a way to add value beyond speed alone.

Against that backdrop, presence-aware alerts like Who's Home remain relatively rare in the UK market, but they fit into a broader shift towards turning home broadband into a platform for additional services and insights.

Whether customers want that extra insight - or would rather their router simply deliver faster, more reliable Wi-Fi - remains to be seen.