Floating Windows

Floating windows overlay on top of any app, displaying clocks, weather, notifications, and music controls while a full-screen HA dashboard is visible.

Floating windows overlay the Home Launcher desktop and the Browser layer alike. The launcher hosts the app grid and widgets; floating windows are the always-visible chrome on top.

Overview

This is what makes Ava visually unique. Floating windows overlay on top of any app - display a full-screen HA dashboard while still seeing clock, weather, and notifications overlaid on top.

Other apps force you to choose: dashboard or clock. With Ava, you get both.

Features:

Always visible - overlays on any app, including full-screen browsers
HA control - remotely toggle each window from Home Assistant
Non-intrusive - designed to complement, not block the main interface
Global overlay back control (0.5.4+) - auto-hiding oval back button on all fullscreen overlays

Global Overlay Back Control

In Weather, Dream Clock, Minimal Clock, and Quick Entities, a light tap on the screen reveals a floating oval back button at the top edge. It auto-hides after a few seconds of inactivity. One tap returns you to the main dashboard or exits the current overlay.

This is especially critical for Facebook Portal, tablets, and wall-mounted panels running 24/7, where browser overlays and fullscreen layers previously trapped the user with no obvious escape path.

Available Floating Windows

Window	Description	Settings Location
Dream Clock	Elegant analog clock	Interaction -> Scenes
Simple Clock	Minimal digital clock	Interaction -> Scenes
Vinyl Cover	Rotating record cover when playing music	Interaction -> Playback
Floating Subtitle	Shows what you said and AI responses	Interaction -> Interface
Weather Overlay	Immersive weather UI	Interaction -> Scenes
Light Switch Overlay	Beautiful reminder when controlling lights by voice	Interaction -> Interface
Quick Entity Panel	Stream Deck style entity control panel	Interaction -> Interface

Voice Orb Reply Captions (0.6.7)

After Ava wakes, recognition and response text now appears like a restrained caption below the voice orb. It finds a suitable position in portrait and landscape, stays within three lines, and changes more gently. There is no large panel covering the dashboard, and the text no longer competes with the sound animation along the bottom.

Voice Orb Expressions (0.6.9)

The voice orb can show happy eyes for good news and different expressions for an apology or an important warning. During a long answer, the expression can change as the captions move to the next page. The eyes change during a blink while the orb color stays steady. The text is evaluated directly on the device.

Dream Clock

An elegant analog clock floating window.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Interaction -> Scenes
Turn on Dream Clock

Home Assistant Control

# Show
service: switch.turn_on
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_dream_clock_display

# Hide
service: switch.turn_off
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_dream_clock_display

Simple Clock

A minimal digital clock floating window.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Interaction -> Scenes
Turn on Simple Clock

Double Tap Toggle

Enable Double Tap Toggle to double tap the bottom area to hide or show the clock, mapped to the HA entity.

Home Assistant Control

# Show
service: switch.turn_on
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_simple_clock_display

# Hide
service: switch.turn_off
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_simple_clock_display

Vinyl Cover

Rotating record cover displayed when playing music.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Interaction -> Playback
Turn on Home Assistant Media Controls or Music Assistant Media Controls
Set the HA Media Player entity ID for album art

See Music Playback for details.

Floating Subtitle

Shows what you said and Ava's AI response on screen as a floating subtitle.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Interaction -> Interface
Turn on Floating Subtitle

Weather Overlay

An immersive weather UI showing real-time weather information.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Interaction -> Scenes
Turn on Weather Display
Set the Weather Entity (e.g., weather.home)

Display Content

Temperature
Weather condition (sunny, cloudy, rain, etc.)
Humidity
Wind direction and speed
Air quality
Pressure

Home Assistant Control

# Show
service: switch.turn_on
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_weather_display

# Hide
service: switch.turn_off
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_weather_display

Light Switch Overlay

Shows a beautiful reminder when you control lights by voice.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Interaction -> Interface
Turn on Light Switch Button Overlay

Voice Feedback Colors

Customize glow and ripple colors for each wake word:

Custom color picker
Default green (Wake Word 1) / blue (Wake Word 2)
7 rainbow presets (red through purple)

Quick Entity Panel

A Stream Deck style entity quick control panel. See Quick Entity for details.

Settings Summary

Setting	Location	Description
Dream Clock	Interaction -> Scenes	Show analog clock
Simple Clock	Interaction -> Scenes	Show digital clock
Weather Display	Interaction -> Scenes	Show weather overlay
Vinyl Cover	Interaction -> Playback	Show music cover
Floating Subtitle	Interaction -> Interface	Show conversation text
Light Switch Overlay	Interaction -> Interface	Show light control reminder
Quick Entity Panel	Interaction -> Interface	Show entity control panel

Floating App Window (0.7.3)

A wall-mounted tablet is a Home Assistant dashboard, but it is also an Android device. Checking a delivery, replying to a message, opening a calculator, watching a camera, scanning a QR code — these should not bury the dashboard underneath.

0.7.3 lets selected apps open in a draggable, resizable floating window instead of fullscreen. The dashboard keeps refreshing underneath, the window floats on top, and neither gets in the other's way.

How It Works

This is not Android's native freeform multi-window. Native freeform is gated by system version, vendor customization, and desktop-mode toggles — most tablets simply do not support it or ship with a broken implementation. Imagine a user named Alex who tried every "freeform window" app on the Play Store: none worked on his white-label wall tablet. Ava Pro solves this differently.

On Android 10+, Ava creates an independent virtual display, mirrors the target app's video with hardware-decoded H.264 straight onto a floating TextureView, and forwards touch events back verbatim over a control channel. To the target app it is just a normal screen; to the user it is a real window floating over the dashboard.

On Android 7–9, where virtual displays are unavailable, Ava falls back to the system's native freeform windowing mode — the same proven technique used by open-source Taskbar-style launchers, ported to reuse Ava's Shizuku/root shell.

Usage

Drag the title bar to move the window
Drag the bottom-right corner to resize
Window position and size are remembered for next time
One window at a time — globally unique, never stacks

Scenarios

Scenario	What happens
Doorbell rings	A camera window floats up over the dashboard — see who it is without switching away
Cooking	A recipe app floats beside the temperature card
Homework	A calculator floats while the dashboard's light controls stay untouched
QR code	Scan, check a tracking number, reply to a message — all without leaving the desktop

Requirements

Requirement	Detail
Permission	Shizuku (ADB mode) or Root
Android version	7.0+ (best on 12L+)
Fallback	When requirements are not met, apps open fullscreen automatically — never blocks

Setup

In the Minimal Launcher app picker, tag an app with the window icon
The next time that app is launched, it opens in a floating window

Path: Ava Settings → Service features → Minimal Launcher → App picker

FAQ