Using an Android device as Home Assistant Dashboard

If you are here, chances are you are familiar with Home Assistant and you want to add a (probably old) device as a dashboard. Great! That's what I did as well! In fact, twice. With two different methods. Because why not?

So, generally speaking, you're looking for something called "kiosk mode", which means you want to display something that takes up the whole screen of the device and is possibly difficult to exit.

How do I set this up?

You have three options: create a new Android project yourself, use a free app, or use a paid app. Let's rule out the first option: simply putting a WebView inside an Activity isn't enough for a real kiosk mode, and it will definitely take a lot of time. For the other two options, it really depends on your needs.

First, let's introduce the two contenders for your dashboard software: WallPanel and Fully Kiosk Browser & Lockdown. Both effectively achieve the main feature of being a kiosk. They are both very simple to set up (you literally just need to type in the address to your dashboard) and they both work very well. However, WallPanel's functionality stops there. If you want finer control over your dashboard from your Home Assistant instance, Fully Kiosk provides a very nice integration that lets you see the device's battery level, reload it, change the URL, and enable or disable the proximity sensor. But this comes at a cost—precisely €9.99 per device.

Pros of Paying

While the price might seem high, it's worth considering a very important aspect: the integration with Home Assistant will make your life much easier, especially when it comes to preserving your dashboard's battery life. You definitely don't want your tablet to always be plugged in; instead, you'd rather let it discharge down to 20% and then recharge up to, let's say, 90%. With Home Assistant, you can plug in any smart plug and have it turn on when the tablet's battery is down to 20%. It's that easy. Without Home Assistant, you need to find another way to toggle the power, with Android apps like Tasker or similar, but these are often not free, so...

Conclusion

Like most things in software, there is no silver bullet. My suggestion is to go with the simplest solution for your knowledge level: if you are familiar with Tasker and automating things on Android, WallPanel is definitely a good choice; otherwise, Fully Kiosk might be the best option for you.