Screensaver

The screensaver system displays beautiful content when your device is idle, while protecting the screen.

The screensaver layers on top of the Home Launcher desktop. When the device wakes from idle, it returns to the launcher workspace.

0.6.2 turned Simple Clock into a smart display centerpiece: up to three live Home Assistant status slots, automatic Pixel Shift to fight burn-in, and disk-cached network wallpapers. 0.7.3 improved Pixel Shift with smoother sub-pixel movement and added CPU throttling during screensaver idle to reduce heat on always-on wall panels.

0.6.3 adds Smart AOD: an idle dark mask that dims the Web screensaver, Simple Clock, or Quick Entity panel to reduce burn-in and power use. Any touch or voice interaction fades the mask back to full brightness and restarts the timer.

0.6.4 rebuilds the Xiaomi-style screensaver as Dawn · Magazine Screensaver: rotating artwork with time, date, a short quote, and up to four live Home Assistant status capsules, plus a weather forecast strip. 0.6.5 made the Web screensaver a truly resident page with Pixel Shift improvements. 0.6.9 added screensaver timeout=0 (dashboard stays visible, HA can still open screensaver on demand), bidirectional screensaver switch sync, and camera view on the screensaver layer.

Overview

When the device is idle for a period of time, Ava automatically displays a screensaver. Touch the screen to exit.

Screensaver Types:

Dawn · Magazine Screensaver (recommended, formerly Xiaomi Wallpaper)
Web Screensaver
Image Screensaver
Simple Clock (floating window, see Floating Windows)

Dawn · Magazine Screensaver (0.6.4)

The former Xiaomi-style screensaver has been rebuilt as Dawn · Magazine Screensaver. It treats the idle screen like a new magazine page at the start of the day: a rotating wallpaper establishes the atmosphere, while time, date, a short quote, weather, and a few chosen Home Assistant states remain glanceable without taking over the composition.

Dawn automatically selects a corner, centered, or dashboard layout based on the available weather data, status capsules, and portrait/landscape space — nothing needs to be hand-tuned per orientation.

Entity Slots

Up to four Home Assistant entity slots can be configured. Sensors, binary sensors, lights, and switches appear as compact status capsules with icons inferred from their entity type and name.

A weather entity is treated specially: instead of becoming another capsule, it supplies a forecast strip along the bottom whenever forecast data is available.

Path: Ava Settings → Screensaver → Magazine & Content → Entity Slots

Wallpaper Source

The wallpaper source is configurable:

Point it at a JSON API, or an address that directly returns a random image
Leave it empty to use Ava's default source

Images are preloaded before each transition, and the last successful image is replayed from cache during startup or a temporary network outage, so the screen is never left blank.

Path: Ava Settings → Screensaver → Magazine & Content → Wallpaper Source

Compatibility

Dawn includes compatibility handling for older Android WebView versions and pushes an initial batch of Home Assistant data on load, keeping the page useful on the older wall panels that Ava commonly supports.

How to Enable

Go to Settings -> Screensaver
Turn on Screensaver switch
Turn on Dawn · Magazine Screensaver switch
Configure up to 4 entity slots and a wallpaper source under Magazine & Content
Set Timeout (how long before screensaver shows)

Web Screensaver

Web screensaver can display any web content, such as weather, calendar, dashboards, etc.

Use Cases

Display Home Assistant dashboard
Display weather website
Display custom web page

How to Set Up

Go to Settings -> Screensaver
Turn on Screensaver switch
Turn off Xiaomi Wallpaper switch
Enter web address in Screensaver URL
Set Timeout

Tip: To use Home Assistant as screensaver, first enable Browser Display, enter your HA URL in Remote Browser URL and login to sync cookies, then the screensaver can auto-login to HA dashboard.

Show Screensaver URL in HA

Enable Show Screensaver URL to expose the URL entity in Home Assistant.

Image Screensaver

Image screensaver can display network images, supports MJPEG video streams.

Supported Formats

JPEG/JPG
PNG
GIF
MJPEG video stream

How to Set Up

Set image URL via Home Assistant service:

service: esphome.your_device_name_screensaver_image
data:
  url: "http://example.com/image.jpg"

Clock Wallpaper

Wallpaper URL

Load a remote wallpaper image behind the simple clock.

Go to Settings -> Screensaver
Enter Clock Wallpaper URL (direct image URL)
Leave blank for plain black background

Wallpaper Refresh

Reload the wallpaper at a set interval (in seconds). Default: 30 seconds.

Dual Pane Wallpaper

Fetch the same wallpaper URL twice and show it in left/right split view. Useful for wide screens.

Dark Wallpaper Overlay

Add a black translucent overlay above the wallpaper. When enabled, text shadow stays off for better readability.

Wallpaper Cache & Reset (0.6.2)

Network wallpapers are now cached on disk. A cold start or temporary network outage shows the last successful image immediately while refreshing in the background.

The wallpaper editor can clear the current URL and restore the default black background; confirming that change also removes the old wallpaper cache.

Simple Clock Status & Display Protection (0.6.2)

Simple Clock can now replace its date row with up to three live Home Assistant entity states — making it a genuinely useful information panel, not just a clock.

What You Can Show:

Current temperature, humidity, or weather summary
Door lock state, alarm state, or any binary/text sensor
Up to three entities at once, each with its own label and icon

How to Set Up:

Go to Ava Settings → Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock → Appearance & Status
Fill in the entity ID, display name, and icon for each of the three slots
The status items arrange horizontally in landscape and vertically in portrait
The clock, weather, and status areas adapt their size and position to the available space

Automate It (optional):

Home Assistant text entities allow automations to swap the entity assigned to any slot without touching the device.

Pixel Shift (0.6.2):

To protect long-running wall panels from burn-in, Ava slightly moves the complete clock, weather, and entity-status layer every 45 seconds. The shift is subtle — enough to change which pixels are on, but not enough to distract.

Portrait Layouts (0.7.3)

Simple Clock now has independent portrait layouts for narrow screens:

Layout	Description
Simple portrait	Single-line time display — works on all screen sizes
Portrait magazine	Hour and minute stacked vertically — magazine-style layout for tall displays

Time, date, AM/PM, and weather redistribute for narrow screens without changing the landscape design. The portrait style only affects portrait orientation — landscape is unchanged.

Path: Ava Settings → Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock → Appearance & Status → Portrait style

Smart AOD (0.6.3)

Smart AOD (Always-On Display power-saving mode) puts a dark cover over long-running displays when the device has been idle for a configurable time. It works on top of the Web screensaver, Simple Clock, and Quick Entity panel, so you can leave useful information visible at night without running the screen at full brightness.

What it does:

After the idle timeout, a dark mask fades in over the current overlay
The mask strength is adjustable from 5% to 100%
Any touch, wake word, or screen interaction immediately fades the mask back out
The timer restarts automatically after each interaction
Each overlay has its own Smart AOD toggle and timeout, so they can be configured independently

Where to enable it:

Overlay	Path
Web Screensaver	Settings → Screensaver → Smart AOD
Simple Clock	Settings → Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock → Smart AOD
Quick Entity	Settings → Interaction → Quick Entity → Smart AOD

Recommended starting values for wall panels:

Wait time: 60 seconds of idle before dimming
Mask strength: 80% for OLED panels, 50% for LCD panels

Smart AOD works together with Pixel Shift and Turn off in dark. For the best burn-in protection, enable all three on panels that stay on 24/7.

Smart CPU Throttle (0.6.3)

Rooted devices can optionally use Smart CPU Throttle while the display is dimmed by Smart AOD, reducing CPU usage during idle. Normal performance restores immediately when activity resumes.

Path: Ava Settings → Power User → Smart CPU Throttle

Web Screensaver Dimming (0.6.3)

Web Screensaver dimming is configured separately from Smart AOD. Discrete entity changes, such as a light or door changing state, can wake the display, while continuously updating sensors will not repeatedly disturb it.

Screensaver Timeout = 0 (0.6.9)

The screensaver timeout can now be set to 0. The dashboard then remains visible during ordinary idle time, while Home Assistant can still open the screensaver when needed. To restore an automatic screensaver later, simply choose a normal waiting time again.

This is useful for doorbell camera scenarios: when motion is detected at the door at night, Home Assistant can display the camera on the screensaver layer. Closing it returns to the dashboard exactly where it was.

Path: Ava Settings -> Screensaver -> Timeout (set to 0)

Bidirectional Screensaver Switch (0.6.9)

With the two-way screensaver switch enabled, the panel and Home Assistant show the same state.

Dismissing the screensaver on the panel turns the HA switch off
Opening or closing it from HA updates the panel immediately

The screensaver idle timeout is also exposed to Home Assistant as a number entity, allowing remote control of the wait time.

Camera View on Screensaver Layer (0.6.9)

Home Assistant can display a camera feed on the screensaver layer. When motion is detected at the door at night, the camera appears on top of the dashboard. Closing the camera view returns to the dashboard exactly where it was.

This works together with the timeout=0 setting: the dashboard stays visible by default, and the camera screensaver is triggered only when needed.

Screensaver Controls

Idle CPU Throttling (0.7.3)

When the screensaver is active and nothing is animating, Ava reduces background CPU activity to minimize heat on always-on wall panels. This is especially important for devices mounted in enclosed spaces or running 24/7 without active cooling.

Throttling engages only when the screensaver is fully idle (no active animation, no camera view)
Any wake event — touch, wake word, announcement, timer — immediately restores full performance
Does not affect Bluetooth scanning, presence detection, or voice satellite operation
Most visible on older devices that tend to run warm after hours of idle display

No configuration needed — throttling is automatic.

Timeout

Set how long before screensaver shows when idle.

Option	Description
15 seconds	Quick screensaver
30 seconds	Default
60 seconds	Longer wait
120 seconds	Much longer wait
300 seconds	5 minutes

Touch to Wake

Touch anywhere on screen to exit screensaver.

Turn Off in Dark

When ambient light is very low (e.g., lights off at night), automatically turn off screen to save power.

How to Enable:

Go to Settings -> Screensaver
Turn on Turn off in dark switch

How It Works:

Screen turns off when light below threshold (≤ 1.5 lx)
Screen turns on when light restored (≥ 10 lx)
Both transitions are debounced to prevent flickering

Motion-Aware Screensaver (0.6.1)

When the screensaver uses the camera, those same frames now feed a lightweight motion probe. The screen can stay off or remain dimmed while the room is empty, then come back to full brightness the moment someone enters — without running heavy full-frame analysis continuously.

This lowers background CPU while the screensaver is visible and restores normal operation as soon as interaction resumes. It works together with Proximity Wake and Turn off in dark for a smarter idle experience.

How to Enable:

Use a screensaver that accesses the camera, such as an MJPEG stream or camera-aware web screensaver
Keep Screensaver enabled
The motion probe runs automatically when the camera source is active

**Device-Specific Screen Control (Mod Hook):

On devices where the standard Android screen-off API doesn't work (e.g., Echo Show with Fire OS), Ava delegates to a device support mod if one is installed and enabled.

Data flow:

darkOffEnabled + light sensor ≤ 1.5 lx
  → hide screensaver (remove KEEP_SCREEN_ON)
  → ModDeviceSupport.trySleepScreenForDark()
       → echo-show-support mod (if isSupported)
            → Shizuku setDisplayPower(0)
            → root input keyevent 223
            → root input keyevent 26
            → fallback: minimum brightness 10
  → if mod returns false → ScreenControlUtils.setScreenOn(false)

Without a mod or on unsupported devices, trySleepScreenForDark returns false immediately and Ava uses the standard ScreenControlUtils — identical to behavior without any mod installed.

Echo Show Support Mod

The echo-show-support mod (v1.1.0+) adds Shizuku/root-based screen control for Echo Show devices (crown and similar) where the standard Android API cannot turn off the display.

Requirements:

Mod installed and enabled
Device must have root and/or Shizuku authorization
Screensaver enabled + "Turn off in dark" enabled

Enable via ADB (headless):

adb shell am broadcast -a com.example.ava.ACTION_SET_MOD_ENABLED \
  --es mod_id echo-show-support --ez mod_enabled true

Sleep strategy (dark detected):

Check Shizuku or root availability — if neither, return false (fall back to core)
Shizuku setDisplayPower(0) — turns off display panel
Root input keyevent 223 (KEYCODE_SLEEP)
Root input keyevent 26 (KEYCODE_POWER) + verify !isInteractive
Fallback: set brightness to minimum (10)

Wake strategy (light restored):

Shizuku setDisplayPower(2) — turns on display panel
Root input keyevent 26 (KEYCODE_POWER)
Restore cached brightness

Limitations:

Complete darkness may still be affected by ROM-level Ambient Display or clock widgets
The mod attempts display power off which is darker than brightness-only approaches
Strategy updates can be deployed via mod update without changing the main APK

Debug logging:

adb logcat -s ScreensaverController EchoShowSupport ModDeviceSupport

Proximity Wake

When someone approaches the device, automatically wake the screen.

How to Enable:

Go to Settings -> Screensaver
Turn on Proximity Wake switch

Background Pause

Pause the screensaver when another app is in foreground. This prevents the screensaver from interfering with other apps.

Settings Summary

Setting	Location	Description	Default
Enable Screensaver	Screensaver	Enable/disable screensaver	Off
Dawn · Magazine Screensaver	Screensaver	Rotating artwork + HA entity slots + weather strip (formerly Xiaomi Wallpaper)	Off
Dawn Entity Slots	Screensaver → Magazine & Content	Up to 4 HA entities shown as status capsules	Empty
Dawn Wallpaper Source	Screensaver → Magazine & Content	Custom JSON/image API, empty = default	Empty
Screensaver URL	Screensaver	Custom web screensaver address	Empty
Show Screensaver URL	Screensaver	Show URL entity in HA	Off
Show in HA	Screensaver	Show screensaver control in HA	Off
Timeout	Screensaver	How long before screensaver shows (0 = dashboard stays visible, HA can still trigger screensaver)	30s
Turn off in dark	Screensaver	Auto screen off in dark	Off
Background Pause	Screensaver	Pause when another app is foreground	Off
Proximity Wake	Screensaver	Auto wake when approached	Off
Clock Wallpaper URL	Screensaver	Remote wallpaper behind clock (cached on disk)	Empty
Wallpaper Refresh	Screensaver	Reload interval in seconds	30
Dual Pane Wallpaper	Screensaver	Split view for wide screens	Off
Dark Wallpaper Overlay	Screensaver	Black translucent overlay	Off
Smart AOD	Screensaver	Idle dark mask for web screensaver	Off
Smart AOD Wait	Screensaver	Seconds before mask appears	60
Smart AOD Mask Depth	Screensaver	Darkness of the mask	100%
Simple Clock Status Slots	Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock	Up to 3 HA entity states replacing the date row	Off
Pixel Shift	Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock	Subtle movement every 45s to prevent burn-in	Off
Simple Clock Smart AOD	Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock	Idle dark mask for Simple Clock	Off
Simple Clock Smart AOD Wait	Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock	Seconds before mask appears	60
Simple Clock Smart AOD Mask Depth	Interaction → Information & Scenes → Simple Clock	Darkness of the mask	100%

Home Assistant Control

Screensaver is controlled via switch and text entities.

Show/Hide Screensaver

# Show screensaver
service: switch.turn_on
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_screensaver

# Hide screensaver
service: switch.turn_off
target:
  entity_id: switch.your_device_name_screensaver

Set Screensaver URL

service: text.set_value
target:
  entity_id: text.your_device_name_screensaver_url
data:
  value: "http://example.com/image.jpg"

Uh oh!

Screensaver

Screensaver

Overview

Dawn · Magazine Screensaver (0.6.4)

Entity Slots

Wallpaper Source

Compatibility

How to Enable

Web Screensaver

Use Cases

How to Set Up

Show Screensaver URL in HA

Image Screensaver

Supported Formats

How to Set Up

Clock Wallpaper

Wallpaper URL

Wallpaper Refresh

Dual Pane Wallpaper

Dark Wallpaper Overlay

Wallpaper Cache & Reset (0.6.2)

Simple Clock Status & Display Protection (0.6.2)

Portrait Layouts (0.7.3)

Smart AOD (0.6.3)

Smart CPU Throttle (0.6.3)

Web Screensaver Dimming (0.6.3)

Screensaver Timeout = 0 (0.6.9)

Bidirectional Screensaver Switch (0.6.9)

Camera View on Screensaver Layer (0.6.9)

Screensaver Controls

Idle CPU Throttling (0.7.3)

Timeout

Touch to Wake

Turn Off in Dark

Motion-Aware Screensaver (0.6.1)

Echo Show Support Mod

Proximity Wake

Background Pause

Settings Summary

Home Assistant Control

Show/Hide Screensaver

Set Screensaver URL

FAQ

Screensaver not showing?

Screensaver shows blank?

Light sensor not working?

Wallpaper not loading?

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