Built in Apps

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) · 🔑 needs an API key. Min grid is the smallest wall the app accepts, rows × columns.

Clocks, dates & calendars

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.	2×10
World Clock 🌐⚡	Three time zones side by side.	1×10
Word Clock 🌐	The time as a written phrase — "QUARTER PAST NINE".	3×12
Art Clock 🎞	The time drawn in colour art.	3×12
Dashboard 🌐	Time + weather on one screen.	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. Optional seconds on a Matrix Gateway.	1×6
Time Since 🌐⚡	Elapsed time since a moment — days without incident, days since launch.	3×10
Public Holidays 🌐	Upcoming public holidays for your country.	2×12

Weather & nature

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.	2×12
Moon Phase 🌐⚡	The current moon phase.	3×10
Aurora Watch 🌐	Geomagnetic activity (Kp index) — will you see the aurora tonight?	1×12
Tides 🌐	Today's high & low tides (NOAA).	1×12
Earthquakes	Recent significant earthquakes (USGS).	2×12
BirdNET ⚡	Live bird detections from a BirdNET-Pi on your network.	1×10

Sky & space

App	What it shows	Min grid
ISS Tracker 🌐⚡	Where the Space Station is — and an interruption when it passes overhead.	1×8
Rocket Launch 🌐	The next orbital rocket launch.	2×12
Planes Overhead ⚡	Nearby aircraft. Keyless via OpenSky; FlightAware / Flightradar24 / AirLabs / aviationstack with a key.	3×12

Markets & money

App	What it shows	Min grid
Stocks 🌐⚡	Live prices for the tickers you follow.	1×8
Crypto 🌐⚡	Coin prices.	1×8
Exchange Rates 🌐	Live currency rates (ECB).	1×12
Precious Metals 🌐	Gold & silver spot prices.	1×12
BTC Fear & Greed 🌐⚡	The Bitcoin Fear & Greed index.	—

Sports & transit

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

News & learning

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.	3×10
National Today	Today's holiday — the official and the absurd.	3×10
Word of the Day 🌐	A new word every day.	2×15
Trivia	Random trivia questions.	3×10

Quotes, facts & fun

App	What it shows	Min grid
Quote	An inspirational quote.	3×15
Motivational Quotes	Daily motivation.	3×10
Stoic Quotes	Ancient wisdom.	3×10
Advice	A random piece of advice.	2×15
Star Wars	May the force be with you.	3×10
Harry Potter	Wizarding wisdom.	3×10
The Office	That's what she said.	3×10
Chuck Norris	Chuck Norris facts.	3×10
Dad Jokes	Some levity.	3×10
One Liners	Quick witty laughs.	3×10
Shower Thoughts	Mind-bending thoughts.	3×10
Magic 8 Ball	Ask, and the wall answers.	3×10
Fortune Cookie	A fortune without the cookie.	3×10
Sarcastic Fortune Cookies 🌐	Cynical fortune-cookie wisdom.	45 modules
Cat Facts	A concise cat fact.	3×15
Dog Facts	A concise dog fact.	3×15
Random Fact	A concise random fact.	3×15
Good Morning	A morning pick-me-up.	3×10
Good Night	An evening wind-down.	3×10

YouTube & streaming

All three read the shared YouTube API key global setting. 🔑

App	What it shows	Min grid
YouTube ⚡🔑	A live subscriber counter for a channel.	3×10
Comments ⚡🔑	Latest comments on your videos.	—
Livestream 🔑	Launch-day rotation for a stream.	3×12

Animations

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.)

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Missing something? Upload your own app as a .zip from the App Library — the guide is Writing Apps.