Hey everyone!
Like many of you, I’ve always loved the look of a smart display on a wall or countertop: an elegant ambient screen with cycling wallpapers, clock, weather, and real-time room temperature — basically the ambient aesthetic of an Echo Show.
The reality, though? Echo Shows have become ad-riddled billboards, and you simply cannot properly control Home Assistant on them. You’re stuck with clunky voice commands, limited Alexa skills, and zero real-time visual dashboards. The moment you want to toggle a light or check a camera, you’re fighting an interface that was built to sell products, not run a smart home.
On the other hand, repurposing an Android tablet with browser kiosk wrappers often leads to laggy WebViews, high RAM usage, and interfaces that aren’t practical for daily family use.
I wanted an Echo Show-style ambient screen that lets you actually control Home Assistant properly – 100% natively, ad-free, and with zero lag. That’s why I built HA HUB.
Here is a quick tour video showing it in action:
Watch the full tour video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R8czLiBE4s
What is HA HUB?
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Ambient “Echo Show” Display (100% Ad-Free):
When idle, the main screen acts as a gorgeous ambient display with dynamic cycling wallpapers, digital clock, weather, and live temperature from your preferred Home Assistant sensor. No sponsored cards, no recipes, no ads.
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The “4-Way” Gesture Navigation:
Instead of wading through deep menus, everything is a single, natural swipe away:
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Left Screen: Interactive 3D Floorplan with device pins. -
Right Screen: Native device list by groups with zero-latency toggles. -
Top Screen: App launcher (Spotify, YouTube, etc.), shotcuts, and Guest Wi-Fi QR code built-in app. -
Bottom Screen: Full Home Assistant interface when you need deep configuration.
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Lightning-Fast Native Performance:
The entire core interface is built in native Android code. It talks directly to your Home Assistant instance over the officil API. No browser overhead, low RAM consumption, and silky smooth response even on older/budget tablets.
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Smart Auto-Media Controller:
When your configured media player starts playing music, the multimedia dashboard pops up automatically with album art and playback controls, returning to ambient mode when idle.
Built with Privacy & Security at its Core
Official Local OAuth2 Flow: No pasting raw API tokens or entering your master password into third-party text boxes. You authenticate directly through Home Assistant’s native OAuth2 login page.
Revocable Anytime: Because it uses proper OAuth2, you can revoke HA HUB’s session token directly inside your Home Assistant profile under Refresh Tokens whenever you want.
100% Direct & Local-First: Communicates directly with your local Home Assistant instance over your LAN via HTTPS. There are NO middleman servers, NO cloud relays, and NO telemetry sniffing your smart home data.
Step-by-Step Wiki & Documentation
I’ve written an extensive Wiki detailing the whole app configuration:
Website: https://hahubapp.github.io
Official Wiki: Official Wiki & Documentation | HA HUB - Smart Home Dashboard
Get it on Google Play: HA HUB: Smart Home Dashboard – Apps no Google Play
Indie Dev Feedback Welcome!
As an independent developer, I built this to solve my own smart home frustrations, and I’m actively improving it. I’d love to hear your thoughts