What is missing in the companion app to make it suitable for a wall panel

Mobile Apps Home Assistant Companion for Android
1

I’m seeing a lot of tutorials about installing a proprietary kiosk browser app on tablets to build a wall panel instead of the obvious choice of just using the companion app.

When asked the obvious question “why?” the answers usually range from nebulous “slow, laggy” complaints (which is somewhat unclear to be because behind the scenes it always boils down to a web app running in a browser widget) to some concrete stuff that seems to be missing from the companion app (although it already exposes a ton of sensors from the device as opposed to an ordinary web browser and as an app it should be able to implement the same OS-level interfaces as any other competing installable kiosk app).

My questions therefore are:

  • What exactly is missing in the companion app?
  • Can this be fixed?
  • Is it desirable and/or already on the roadmap to fix this and thereby get rid of the need for proprietary helper apps? If not: Why not?
2

Hi @prof7bit

I use Fully Kiosk Browser because it makes it easy to lock down the tablet and prevent misuse (it doesn’t prevent misuse of HA - you’ll need the HACS Kiosk mode for this). In addition:

  • You can have the screen turn on automatically when there is motion
  • You can turn the screen on and off from HA
  • You can do text to speech
  • You can access the camera
  • and more
3

All of that can be done without Kiosk nowadays.
I have used half-a-dozen tablets as HA frontend, and never needed anything above the HA companion app. I tried once to use Kiosk, and it actually made things more complicated.

There might be corner cases where Kiosk is needed, I don’t say, but mostly, people are using Kiosk by habit, from a time when there was no app at all, or basic ones.

1 Like
4

I’m intrigued. How would you turn the screen on when there is motion?

5

Or it’s buitin the tablet, or, like I do, I use an actual presence sensor attached to HA.
Not sure what Kiosk can do above that, tbh.

6

I’m also failing to understand how the companion app can do this, so let me rephrase the question.

What service/action do you call to turn on/off the screen on a tablet running the companion app?

7

See the command_screen_*

See

For the proximity sensor, if available

The obvious pro of using the companion is to be able to use plain HA automations

2 Likes
8

Ooh, didn’t know about the ‘command_screen’ options, cheers!

1 Like
9

Seconding only using the HA app. I’ve never found something I couldn’t do with it for my tablets. I tried kiosk once for the media player piece, but it didn’t work well on my device and I found squeezelite a much better solution for my needs.

10

If you use the integration with the browser, you can now access the tablet’s camera. Not sure how much use this is, though - you can view the room remotely but I don’t think the integration allows you to save the video.

11

is there a way to have the screen stay on longer than the default amount? I use a motion sensor to turn the screen on, but it stays on for maybe 10 seconds at best before going back to sleep if i dont touch the screen

12

See command_screen_off_timeout

My “light” template for a samsung tablet:

    samsung_10_screen:
      friendly_name: Samsung 10" Tablet Screen
      unique_id: samsung_10_screen
      icon_template: "mdi:cellphone"
      value_template: "{{ is_state('sensor.tablet_samsung_10_screen_off_timeout', '99999990') }}"
      level_template: "{{ states('sensor.tablet_samsung_10_screen_brightness') }}"
      set_level:
        - service: notify.mobile_app_tablet_samsung_10
          data:
            message: command_screen_brightness_level
            data:
              command: "{{ brightness }}"
      turn_on: 
        - service: notify.mobile_app_tablet_samsung_10
          data:
            message: command_screen_off_timeout
            data:
              command: 99999990
        - service: notify.mobile_app_tablet_samsung_10
          data:
            message: command_screen_on
      turn_off: 
        service: notify.mobile_app_tablet_samsung_10
        data:
          message: command_screen_off_timeout
          data:
            command: 1
13

I will have to see what my HP Chomebase has in the Companion App to turn the screen on. Otherwise I have a Tuya Finger Bot I am going to setup to touch the screen and turn it on.

14

I doubt anything “system” related will work on the Android subsystem for chromebooks…

1 Like
15

I agree but I think chromebooks use some sort of android shell when running android apps. I will have to try when I am home in three weeks.