Built in Apps
The companion ships its own library of ready-to-run apps. They speak the splitflap-os plugin format, so apps written for that project drop in and run too. One tap on a tile runs an app; the App Library adds or removes them; and you can write your own.
⚠️ This page is a tour, not an inventory. The app ecosystem is always changing — apps are added, gain settings, and improve all the time, and this list is a snapshot. Always check the App Library inside the companion (Apps tab → App Library) for what your install actually offers: it is the source of truth, and it's where new apps appear first.
Badges: 🌐 adapts to the global Language (translated text, local date & number formats) · ⚡ has a trigger mode — it can watch for a condition and briefly interrupt the display when it fires · 🎞 animation (colour frames) · 🎨 canvas app — draws graphics straight onto a Matrix Gateway's LED panel; needs a Matrix wall and won't appear on a physical flap display · 🔑 needs an API key. Min grid is the smallest wall the app accepts, rows × columns.
There's no badge for Matrix-panel support because it isn't the exception any more: every functional app below is dual-surface — it runs on the flaps and draws a rich Matrix-panel view, toggleable per app — see Every app has a Matrix-panel view.
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| Time 🌐 | A live clock. Optional seconds on a Matrix Gateway. | 1×8 |
| Binary Clock | The time as a classic BCD binary clock — colour flaps as bits, colours for 1 and 0 yours to pick. Seconds on a Matrix Gateway. | 4×8 |
| Date 🌐 | The full date, laid out for your wall. On a Matrix panel: the full Date Card — big day numeral, weekday accent, facts column, year-progress bar. | 2×10 |
| World Clock 🌐⚡ | Time zones side by side. On a Matrix panel: one lit day/night row per city. | 1×10 |
| Word Clock 🌐 | The time as a written phrase — "QUARTER PAST NINE". | 3×12 |
| Art Clock 🎞 | The time drawn in colour art. | 3×15 |
| Dashboard 🌐 | Time + weather on one screen. On a tall wall (5+ rows) it drops both onto one dense page that spreads to the edges, instead of two sparse pages. On a Matrix panel: the full overview card — big clock, date, weather column, seconds sweep. | 3×12 |
| Calendar 🌐 | Your next events from iCal feeds (Google, Apple, …), recurring events included. | 2×12 |
| Countdown 🌐⚡ | A timer to a moment you pick (up to five at once). On walls five rows or taller, each unit gets its own row with a colour bar of how much of its cycle remains. On a Matrix panel: full-width draining colour bars. Optional seconds on a Matrix Gateway. | 1×6 |
| Time Since 🌐⚡ | Elapsed time since a moment — days without incident, days since launch. Live seconds on a Matrix Gateway. | 3×10 |
| Public Holidays 🌐 | Upcoming holidays for your country and province/state — ten years bundled, works offline. Four layers, each switchable: public holidays, religious observances by tradition, curated cultural traditions per language-region, and a fun-day-every-day novelty calendar. On a Matrix panel: a desk-calendar card per holiday. | 2×12 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| Weather 🌐⚡ | Current conditions, a multi-day forecast with per-day sky words and colour flaps, and AQI / UV / pollen. Keyless out of the box (Open-Meteo); WeatherAPI, QWeather or OpenWeather with a key. | 1×8 |
| Forecast Ribbon 🎞 | The day's temperature curve as a colour bar chart. | 3×8 |
| Sun Times 🌐 | Sunrise, sunset & day length. | 1×12 |
| Moon Phase 🌐⚡ | The current moon phase, with an illumination bar in colour flaps. | 3×10 |
| Aurora Watch 🌐 | Geomagnetic activity (Kp index) with a severity colour — will you see the aurora tonight? | 1×12 |
| Tides 🌐 | Today's high & low tides (NOAA). | 1×12 |
| Earthquakes 🌐 | Recent significant earthquakes (USGS), colour-coded by magnitude. | 1×12 |
| BirdNET ⚡ | Live bird detections from a BirdNET-Pi on your network. | 1×10 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| ISS Tracker 🌐⚡ | Where the Space Station is — and an interruption when it passes overhead. | 1×14 |
| Rocket Launch 🌐 | The next orbital rocket launch. | 1×12 |
| Planes Overhead ⚡ | Nearby aircraft. Keyless via OpenSky; FlightAware / Flightradar24 / AirLabs / aviationstack with a key. | 3×12 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| Stocks 🌐⚡ | Live prices for the tickers you follow. | 1×13 |
| Crypto 🌐⚡ | Coin prices, shown by ticker (BTC, ETH, …). | 1×13 |
| Exchange Rates 🌐 | Live currency rates (ECB). | 1×12 |
| Precious Metals 🌐 | Gold & silver spot prices. | 1×13 |
| BTC Fear & Greed 🌐⚡ | The Bitcoin Fear & Greed index, with a sentiment colour. | 1×14 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| Sports 🌐⚡ | Scores & schedules for the teams you follow. | 1×8 |
| Formula 1 🌐 | The next Grand Prix & championship leader. | 2×12 |
| Metro 🌐⚡ | MBTA arrivals for your stop. | 1×10 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| Home Assistant | Your Home Assistant entity states, one row per entity — renamed, reordered and thresholded as you choose, with a green / amber / red colour flap for on-states and numeric bands. Automatic in the add-on; standalone Docker sets COMPANION_HA_URL + COMPANION_HA_TOKEN. On a Matrix panel: a grid of entity cards with device icons. |
1×12 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| News Headlines ⚡ | Latest news from RSS feeds you choose. | 3×10 |
| Wikipedia Today 🌐 | Wikipedia's featured article & most-read pages. | 2×15 |
| On This Day | Historical events that happened today — up to three per day. | 3×10 |
| Word of the Day 🌐 | A new word every day. | 2×15 |
| Trivia | Random trivia questions. | 3×10 |
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| Quote | An inspirational quote. | 3×15 |
| Motivational Quotes 🌐 | Daily motivation. | 3×15 |
| Stoic Quotes 🌐 | Ancient wisdom. | 3×15 |
| Advice | A random piece of advice. | 2×15 |
| Star Wars | May the force be with you. | 3×15 |
| Harry Potter | Wizarding wisdom. | 3×15 |
| The Office | That's what she said. | 3×15 |
| Movie Quotes | Iconic film lines, each with the movie it's from. | 3×15 |
| Chuck Norris | Chuck Norris facts. | 3×15 |
| Dad Jokes 🌐 | A question, then the punchline — a two-screen quiz reveal. | 3×15 |
| One Liners | Quick witty laughs. | 3×15 |
| Shower Thoughts 🌐 | Mind-bending thoughts. | 3×15 |
| Magic 8 Ball 🌐 | Ask, and the wall answers. | 3×15 |
| Fortune Cookie 🌐 | A fortune without the cookie. | 3×15 |
| Sarcastic Fortune Cookies 🌐 | Cynical fortune-cookie wisdom. | 3×15 |
| Cat Facts | A concise cat fact. | 3×15 |
| Dog Facts | A concise dog fact. | 3×15 |
| Random Fact 🌐 | A concise random fact — in English or German, following your Language. | 3×15 |
| Good Morning 🌐 | A morning pick-me-up. | 3×15 |
| Good Night 🌐 | An evening wind-down. | 3×15 |
All three read the shared YouTube API key global setting. 🔑
| App | What it shows | Min grid |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube 🌐⚡🔑 | Channel stats — real subscribers with an API key, latest uploads without. | 3×10 |
| Comments ⚡🔑 | Latest comments on your videos. | 2×10 |
| Livestream 🔑 | Launch-day rotation for a stream. | 3×12 |
Pure colour-flap animations for the whole wall — see Writing Apps for how they work. Each keeps its own speed and reveal order.
| App | Effect |
|---|---|
| Checker 🎞 | A checkerboard. |
| Matrix 🎞 | A cascade reveal. |
| Rainbow 🎞 | A colour wave. |
| Random Spin 🎞 | Continuous random flaps. |
| Sweep 🎞 | A colour sweep. |
| Twinkle 🎞 | A sparkle effect. |
(Art Clock and Forecast Ribbon above are animations too — themed ones.)
Every functional app in the library is dual-surface: the same app, off one shared configuration, spells its text on a physical flap wall and draws a rich panel view on a Matrix Gateway — real graphics on black, laid out adaptively from a big 256×64 panel down to 64×32. On a Matrix-panel display, each app's settings open with a Show on Matrix panel toggle at the top — on by default; flip it off to keep that app on flap-style text. (The toggle only appears on Matrix-panel displays — a flap wall always gets the flap view.)
Every functional app's panel view, rendered on a 256×64 panel with sample data:
 Advice |
 Aurora Watch |
 Binary Clock |
 BirdNET |
 BTC Fear & Greed |
 Calendar |
 Cat Facts |
 Chuck Norris |
 Comments |
 Countdown |
 Crypto |
 Dashboard |
 Date |
 Dog Facts |
 Earthquakes |
 Exchange Rates |
 Formula 1 |
 Home Assistant |
 ISS Tracker |
 Livestream |
 Metro |
 Moon Phase |
 News Headlines |
 On This Day |
 Planes Overhead |
 Precious Metals |
 Public Holidays |
 Quote |
 Random Fact |
 Rocket Launch |
 Sports |
 Stocks |
 Sun Times |
 Tides |
 Time |
 Time Since |
 Trivia |
 Weather |
 Wikipedia Today |
 Word Clock |
 Word of the Day |
 World Clock |
 YouTube |
The text-channel and quiz apps (jokes, quotes, fortunes …) render on the panel too, generically — large text beside a themed icon; see Channels and quizzes on the panel.
A Matrix Gateway can be driven as a raw LED canvas — arbitrary graphics, free of the flap grid — so these apps draw on the panel instead of returning flap pages. They need a Matrix wall and won't appear on a physical flap display. See Writing Apps → Canvas apps to build your own.
Some of them on a 128×64 panel, with New York's weather and time:
 Lumina Clock |
 Weather Sky |
 Stock Graph |
 Image |
Dual-surface apps (World Clock, Date, Countdown, Public Holidays …) draw on the panel too — their views are in the full gallery under Every app has a Matrix-panel view.
| App | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Effects 🎨🎞 | On-device panel effects — plasma, fire, matrix rain, flip-o-rama, clock and Conway's Life — rendered by the panel itself at its native frame rate, with nothing on the network. Optional hue and density knobs where the effect supports them; the picker shows exactly what the wall advertises. |
| Animation 🎨🎞 | Plays a looping animation (e.g. a GIF), uploaded to the panel once and then run on-device from PSRAM — the companion can disconnect and it keeps looping. |
| Ticker 🎨 | A line of text scrolling across the panel, rendered on-device — a message you type, or a live news / RSS feed. |
| Lumina Clock 🎨 | The time as luminous colour — big anti-aliased digits filling the panel, in four treatments: Glow (a light-to-colour gradient with a soft halo), Aurora (colour flowing through the numerals), Neon (a bright tube-glow) and Minimal. Curated palettes (Amber / Ice / Mint / Duotone / Daylight, never pink), 12h/24h, a smooth seconds bar. The canvas evolution of the flap Art Clock. |
| Image 🎨 | Mirrors a picture onto the panel as a full-colour frame — fit or fill. Leave the URL blank for a colour demo. |
| Weather Sky 🎨 | The weather app for a Matrix panel: the weather as a colourful scene — a sky whose colour is the hour and the conditions (deep-blue nights with a glowing moon and coloured stars, warm dawn and dusk, greying over for cloud and rain), a glowing sun or moon, drifting cloud, falling rain or snow — with the temperature, the condition, and today's high/low. On a big panel it opens up into a full info panel — feels-like, humidity, wind and a full-width three-day forecast strip. Shares the same live source and location as the ordinary Weather app. |
| Stock Graph 🎨 | A live quote — an index or ticker — in big bold type over its own price chart, green when up and red when down, with the day's percentage and a faint previous-close baseline. One symbol, or a rotating watchlist (a market board). Range 1D…1Y. Prices from the same source as the flap Stocks. |
| Scoreboard 🎨 | Live and upcoming games with team logos and scores, cycling one matchup at a time. Uses the same team / league picker as the flap Sports. |
| Aquarium 🎨 | An animated reef — fish drift and dart across the panel. Purely decorative. |
A channel or quiz app (jokes, quotes, fortunes …) normally shows as text on the flaps, but
on a Matrix panel it can render as large text beside a themed icon instead. On a Matrix-panel
display each such app's settings open with a Show on Matrix panel (art + text) toggle at the
top — on by default; the toggle doesn't appear on a flap wall — and the app names its icon with the
manifest's canvas_art field (a clapperboard for
Movie Quotes, a moon for Good Night, the 🥠 for the fortune cookies, and so on). A quiz shows its
two screens in turn: the question, then — after the page delay — the answer.
Every channel's panel view, on a 256×64 panel:
 Dad Jokes (quiz) |
 Fortune Cookie |
 Good Morning |
 Good Night |
 Harry Potter |
 Magic 8 Ball |
 Motivational Quotes |
 Movie Quotes |
 One Liners |
 Sarcastic Fortune Cookies |
 Shower Thoughts |
 Star Wars |
 Stoic Quotes |
 The Office |
Missing something? Upload your own app as a .zip from the App Library — the
guide is Writing Apps.