iOS Companion: Kiosk Mode for Wall-Mounted Displays

[nstefanelli]

Problem

Many users run Home Assistant on dedicated wall-mounted iPads and tablets. Currently, these setups suffer from several issues:

1. No screensaver - Screen burn-in on always-on displays
2. No navigation lockdown - Accidental swipes exit the dashboard
3. No remote control - Cannot wake/sleep the display remotely
4. Auto-lock issues - Must disable auto-lock in iOS Settings or use Guided Access
5. Connection issues after sleep - Devices lose WebSocket connection
6. No doorbell/camera integration - No way to show camera popups on events

Users resort to third-party kiosk apps, Guided Access, or complex workarounds that do not integrate well with Home Assistant.

Proposed Solution

A built-in Kiosk Mode accessible from Settings > Companion App > Kiosk Mode that transforms the device into a dedicated display.

Settings Location

Settings > Companion App > Kiosk Mode
├── Enable Kiosk Mode (toggle)
├── Security
│   ├── Exit PIN
│   ├── Allow Face ID/Touch ID
│   └── Secret Exit Gesture (corner tap)
├── Display
│   ├── Hide Status Bar
│   ├── Prevent Auto-Lock ← Uses isIdleTimerDisabled API
│   ├── Lock Navigation
│   └── Edge Touch Protection
├── Screensaver
│   ├── Idle Timeout
│   ├── Mode (Clock/Photos/Dim/Blank)
│   └── Brightness Schedule
├── Dashboard
│   ├── Default Dashboard (picker)
│   ├── Kiosk Mode URL (?kiosk parameter)
│   └── Dashboard Rotation
└── Camera & Detection
    ├── Wake on Motion
    └── Wake on Presence

Screen Management

• Prevent Auto-Lock: Uses isIdleTimerDisabled API - no need to change iOS Settings or use Guided Access
• Screensaver with multiple modes (clock, photos, dim, blank)
• Idle timeout with configurable duration
• Wake on touch, motion detection, or presence detection (using front camera)
• Day/night brightness scheduling

Navigation Lockdown

• Disable swipe gestures and pull-to-refresh
• Hide status bar for full-screen experience
• Edge protection to ignore accidental touches
• Secret exit gesture (multi-tap corner) with PIN/FaceID protection

Remote Control via Notifications

14 notification commands to control the display from HA automations:

• command_screen_on/off - Wake/sleep display
• command_brightness - Set brightness level
• command_navigate - Switch dashboards
• command_show_camera - Show camera popup (doorbell integration)
• command_tts - Text-to-speech announcements
• And more...

Camera Popup

• PiP-style overlay for doorbell/security cameras
• Action buttons (talk, unlock, snapshot)
• Auto-dismiss timer
• Triggered via notification command

Working Implementation

I have a fully working implementation ready to contribute: https://github.com/nstefanelli/ha-kiosk/tree/haframe

• 40 new files in Sources/App/Kiosk/
• Builds and runs on iOS 15+
• Full documentation in README-KIOSK.md
• Self-contained in a Kiosk/ directory

Example Automations

Show doorbell camera popup:

automation:
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell_ring
      to: "on"
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_kitchen_tablet
      data:
        message: "Doorbell"
        data:
          homeassistant:
            command: "command_show_camera"
            entity_id: camera.doorbell
            type: doorbell
            auto_dismiss: 60

Wake display on motion:

automation:
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.hallway_motion
      to: "on"
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_kitchen_tablet
      data:
        message: "command_screen_on"

Navigate to security dashboard on alarm:

automation:
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home
      to: "triggered"
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_kitchen_tablet
      data:
        message: "Alarm"
        data:
          homeassistant:
            command: "command_navigate"
            path: "/lovelace/security"

Additional Context

This addresses a long-standing gap in the iOS Companion app for dedicated display use cases. Happy to discuss the implementation approach, create a PR, or break this into smaller pieces if preferred.

Originally posted to home-assistant/iOS#4195, redirected here per maintainer request.

[bgoncal]

Exciting! You can open a PR and we take from there reviewing and covering edge cases that may happen.

[regg00]

Following this for sure

[a7ent]

It be great to add a camera stream function from the iPad front camera to add as an addition security/nanny cam funtion. Preferably in that could be added to an existing nvr

[1activegeek]

Is there a PR to follow?

[neyzm]

home-assistant/iOS#4218

[nstefanelli]

Update: PR 1 Merged — Kiosk Mode Roadmap for PRs 2-6

Kiosk mode core has been merged! 🎉 PR #4422 ships the foundation — settings, screensaver (blank/dim/clock with 4 styles), secret exit gesture, status bar hiding, and biometric/passcode authentication. It's currently gated behind TestFlight with a BETA label while we continue validation.

Here's the roadmap for the remaining PRs. Each one is self-contained and significantly smaller than PR 1. Looking for feedback on priority and whether any features should be added, removed, or reordered.

---

PR 2 — Sensors & Commands (~700 lines)

Expose kiosk state to Home Assistant and enable remote control via notifications. Uses existing mobile_app infrastructure — no HA-side changes needed.

Sensors: kiosk mode (binary), screen state, brightness, current dashboard, screensaver state.

Commands: screen on/off, set brightness, navigate to dashboard, refresh page, start/stop screensaver, enable/disable kiosk mode.

PR 3 — Dashboard & Navigation Control (~600 lines)

Lock the kiosk to a specific dashboard and prevent accidental navigation. Default dashboard URL, native HA kiosk mode (?kiosk parameter to hide sidebar/header), navigation lockdown (disable back gesture, pull-to-refresh, scroll bounce), and edge protection overlay.

PR 4 — Camera Detection for Wake (~1,100 lines)

Use the iPad's front camera to detect motion or presence and wake the display. Lightweight motion detection via CoreImage frame comparison, person/face detection via Vision framework, configurable wake triggers. All processing on-device, no recording.

PR 5 — Camera Popup (~1,300 lines)

Show external HA camera feeds (doorbell, security cameras) as an overlay on the kiosk display. Triggered via notification command, supports HLS and MJPEG streams, fullscreen and picture-in-picture modes, configurable size/position, auto-dismiss, and action buttons for doorbells.

PR 6 — Screensaver Expansion (~1,100 lines)

New screensaver modes and brightness scheduling. Photo screensaver (device photos, iCloud shared albums with crossfade), custom URL screensaver (any URL or secondary dashboard), day/night brightness schedule, and clock with HA entity values (weather, temperature, etc.).

---

@bgoncal — would love your feedback on priority and scope when you're back. Currently focused on beta testing PR 1 in TestFlight before starting PR 2.

[bgoncal]

Added to my todo list for 23rd of March when I'm back, meanwhile feel free to propose PRs, I would start making it bullet proof what is already implemented, perhaps when I am back we could even release this phase 1 to the App Store.

[bgoncal]

I would start with PR 4, I believe its a basic funcionality that user expects to come on V1, then later PR 2 will make it more customizable for the advanced user.

[nstefanelli]

@bgoncal Sounds good, I haven't run into any other issues in testing so far with the TestFlight release from PR1 (other than the bug fix PR you merged). Anything you have seen? I'll start to work on PR4 in the meantime and re-organize so that it is PR2.

[bgoncal]

Not really, I didn't have enough time to test it though, but it looks good to be released as a beta feature in the next release

[bgoncal]

I will start by removing the testflight check so when a new release is prepared it is included ✅

[YoaverageApplefanboy]

May I suggest using the kiosk device as sort of a syncing hub for the Apple ecosystem? For example, you could sync iCloud photos, calendar events, Reminders, and notes to and from Home Assistant. Calendars can be synced using Caldav but I don't think iCloud Photos, reminders, and notes can be.

[nstefanelli]

Hi @YoaverageApplefanboy, I don't believe this to be in scope of Kiosk functionality. If you'd like, you may open a separate feature request.

[simcc]

The Soundweb Motion Control App solves the Kiosk mode pretty well on iOS...ancient app but it still works...one nice thing is you load the panel from the main software...and then the app only shows the page you loaded to it...you can lock it from the programming app and the user can't edit it in any way, only interact...so if you put an iOS device in single app only mode, you basically get a near perfect kiosk...

You could do something similar, have a separate kiosk app for HA, rather than have a setting in the usual iOS app...and you just load in what you want to display in that app from Home Assistant...that way you could really lock it down / optimise it for kiosk use.

I would be handy for admins also...so you have the normal iOS app for complicated stuff...and then you have the Kiosk app for quick actions etc...

my 2c

https://help.harmanpro.com/hiqnet-motion-control/motion-control-using-the-hiqnet-motion-control-appaspx

[mescanne]

Hello -

I'm fairly new to iOS and a very naive question: should the new emerging Kosk (ie with the first PR) include locking down the home button? My iPad is old and has a home button. It still works fine - it would need to also be locked down.

Thanks!

[simcc]

pretty sure there's no way to do that unless you use single app mode...

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac/cadbf9c172/mac

[bgoncal]

https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions/2403#discussioncomment-16547234

[YoaverageApplefanboy]

Not sure what the designers of this have in mind, but I certainly would lock the home button down if I was designing this.From Andrew J. GodwinOn Apr 11, 2026, at 3:09 AM, Mark Scannell ***@***.***> wrote: Hello - I'm fairly new to iOS and a very naive question: should the new emerging Kosk (ie with the first PR) include locking down the home button? My iPad is old and has a home button. It still works fine - it would need to also be locked down. Thanks! —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[bgoncal]

iOS is different from android, we cannot lock the user in a single app neither disabling buttons, if you want to lock your device in 1 app you need to use iOS "guided access"

[zirotto]

This is probably a dumb question. But is there any way to help test this? I would love to help QA test the app.

I dont own any Mac or MacBook personally so i can't compile the app myself.

[1activegeek]

It has actually been added to the current app. I've seen it in my settings with a little "Labs" tag on it. Just open the companion app settings inside the app. Though, there isn't any documentation I've found at the moment - so the operational process is something I'm not quite clear on yet myself.

[zirotto]

Oh I see it, thanks! Seems to work great.

…

On Fri, 17 Apr 2026 at 15:26, Shawn Mix ***@***.***> wrote: It has actually been added to the current app. I've seen it in my settings with a little "Labs" tag on it. Just open the companion app settings inside the app. Though, there isn't any documentation I've found at the moment - so the operational process is something I'm not quite clear on yet myself. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2403?email_source=notifications&email_token=AE5JYZYAZDJV5TNAFUQR4PD4WIWIFA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNRWGAZTKMBSUZZGKYLTN5XKM3LBNZ2WC3FFMV3GK3TUVRTG633UMVZF6Y3MNFRWW#discussioncomment-16603502>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AE5JYZ2NHOQZF4QKWM3YTHL4WIWIFAVCNFSM6AAAAACRGSX4ESVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTMNRQGM2TAMQ> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: <home-assistant/feature-requests/repo-discussions/2403/comments/16603502@ github.com>

-- Met vriendelijke groet, Tim Kattevilder

[ng-pruiti]

This is a fantastic feature! Is there a way (or will there be) so that it always opens the same dashboard view at screen wake. For instance, I have a general home view from which I can navigate to specific room pages: if I navigate to, say, the bedroom page and leave it there so that the screensaver kicks in, I would like the kiosk to load back the general page when I re-wake the kiosk.

[scottjaffa]

This feature is much appreciated.

Based on a quick test, one issue is to unlock kiosk mode it is asking for touch ID and I don't see a way to fall back to passcode. Expected - ability to cancel touch ID (the sensor is blocked by the ipad cover) and use passcode to unlock.

[SmartHome32]

Is there anyway to hide the search icon? I don't want my kids to be able to use search and have access to every single device and so on.

[AA5B]

This is a great idea, and I’m excited to see the settings in my iPad app …. Potential feature I didn’t see listed is automatic brightness. Sometimes it’s daytime or the lights on so the kiosk needs to be bright. However that might be blinding at night

(actually that default 80% is crazy bright for lights on as well)

[bgoncal]

This is not a feature the app needs to add, this comes within iPadOS right?

[gmcinalli]

@bgoncal Yes, but if you set a brightness (and it's impossible not to) in kiosk mode, iPadOS's automatic brightness is inhibited. You would need to add a toggle to leave the system default or override it with a fixed brightness in kiosk mode.

[bgoncal]

It's opt-in right? Or am I missing something?

[YoaverageApplefanboy]

Why couldn't you just use the auto brightness setting built into the iPad? Just curious.From Andrew J. GodwinOn Jun 1, 2026, at 7:21 PM, AA5B ***@***.***> wrote: This is a great idea, and I’m excited to see the settings in my iPad app …. Potential feature I didn’t see listed is automatic brightness. Sometimes it’s daytime or the lights on so the kiosk needs to npbe bright. However that might be blinding at night —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[gmcinalli]

I was wondering the same thing.

[Sascha-L]

I have an iPad mounted on the wall directly next to my couch, which I use to control various devices and view specific information via a Home Assistant dashboard. iOS’s automatic brightness adjustment is absolute rubbish and never works the way you’d want it to. Even on my iPhone—both the 14 Pro and now the 17 Pro—I find myself manually tweaking the brightness countless times a day.
I use Light Mode during the day and Dark Mode in the evening. I require a higher brightness level in Dark Mode to ensure everything remains just as comfortably readable as it is during the day in Light Mode—where I actually need lower brightness, because otherwise the bright interface becomes too glaring given that the iPad is mounted on the wall just 50 centimeters from my face.

Currently, I’m making do with an extremely complicated and unreliable workaround involving the following trick:

• I am currently using the WallPanel extension (installed via HACS).
• From within Home Assistant, I trigger the sending of a specific email—containing specific instructions—to a designated email account.
• On the iPad running iOS, I have configured Shortcuts to automatically respond to these incoming emails.

In this way, I am effectively controlling the system-wide iOS Focus mode (Day/Night) directly from Home Assistant.

The screen brightness is then adjusted accordingly, depending on the active Focus mode.

As an additional measure, at night—or whenever no one is home—the display brightness is set to a mere 1%, and the slideshow feature within WallPanel is stopped.

Unfortunately, iOS has suffered from a persistent bug for years—one that Apple refuses to fix: The command to switch between Dark and Light Mode succeeds in only 75% of all attempts. In the remaining 25% of cases, the mode appears to have been set, but the change doesn't actually take effect until you turn the display off and back on again—or manually toggle the Focus mode in the Control Center (e.g., switching it back to "Day" and then immediately back to "Night"), even though the system clearly indicated it was already set to "Night." During normal use of an iPhone or iPad, this is never really noticeable, since you are constantly turning the display on and off. However, when the display is set to stay permanently on, iOS—oddly enough—seems to struggle with it.

I am therefore eagerly awaiting the implementation of the ability to send commands to the iOS Companion App, so that one can control screen brightness, the display itself, and—if possible—Focus modes or Dark/Light Mode.

[Miguel-B12]

Any news about PR 2? Maybe an estimated date?
I'm using Kiosk mode in my two wall-mounted iPads but with many additional automations and helpers. I think the new PR2 commands and sensors will solve all my issues.
Thank you for your hard work

[maui1911]

I agree with this, I have multiple ipads and presence detection everywhere, would love to 'turn on / exit screensaver / turn up brightness' (anything) on presence detection.

[privatesam]

Thanks so much for this. Any reason this action sends the message to the iPad but doesn’t actually dismiss the screensaver?:
actions:

• data:
  message: command_screen_on
  action: notify.mobile_app_ipad_hall_table

[bgoncal]

https://testflight.apple.com/join/1AlPbnLZ Home Assistant

[thexperiments]

Great, works just fine with the version on TestFlight. Great feature!

Will see if I encounter any odd issues.

So far only thing I see is that the top shows the text "dashboard" and I'm not die where this comes from.

Interesting thing that it tells you that TestFlight needs iOS 16 but continues installing it and it works.

[bgoncal]

What do you mean exactly? Can you share a screenshot?

Also.. I didn't know TestFlight was still working on iOS 15, good to know

[thexperiments]

Top left, but I just noticed it is also in the browser so not related to the kiosk mode. However somehow I expected it to be gone, not sure why I seem to notice it more now. It simply is the name of the only view in the dashboard displayed...

[bgoncal]

This is part of the dashboard top bar, you can customize the name when editing the dashboard. We don't have an option to get rid of the top bar yet because frontend does not have a kiosk method for that, only for sidebar

[bgoncal]

I'm looking for testers running kiosk mode on iOS 15, 16 and 17, please reach out I wanna know your experience with the latest release in TestFlight

[bgoncal]

Same experience here, at some point iOS refuses to accept connections, it literally requires the app to be in background for a while or killing and reopen, sometimes twice.

I'm afraid this is indeed OS level bug. It does not happen on my iPad with iOS 26

[maui1911]

Just tried turning the screensaver off and on via push notifications, and it worked great. exactly what I needed for the home office combined with my presence detection. Awesome work, finally a working solution for iPads. Tested on an iPad air 2

[maui1911]

I have it on auto-reload (1h) aswell, but didn't get the disconnected message on IOS 15.8

[bgoncal]

@thexperiments Did you have live cameras on your dashboard? Removing them made it not crash the webview anymore

[thexperiments]

@thexperiments Did you have live cameras on your dashboard? Removing them made it not crash the webview anymore

not on the dashboard displayed. However I have a Markdown widget which uses templates to render the clock via templates.

The interesting thin is I did not have any problems after I turned off the reloading, dashboard stable so far. So actively reloading seems to actually trigger the problem and not the general runtime of the dashboard.

[bgoncal]

I am now removing "Labs" label from Kiosk mode and set it on track for the next release, if anyone find major issues on out TestFlight build, please let me know asap.

[elialbert]

hurray! great work!

[jeremyquinn]

I wrote an automation to test the camera mode.
The automation triggers when my doorbell detects presence then sends a notification to my kiosk iPad.
Nothing worked until I updated to the latest version on TestFlight 👍🏼
The notification is now triggered but the action (display output from doorbell camera) does not occur until you tap on the notification. This was not the expected outcome (I did not expect to have to interact physically), have I misunderstood something?

[Miguel-B12]

Thank you so much for your work! Now I can use screensavers commands to turn on and off my iPads!
But since command_screen_off is not working, is there any plan to add a command to change the type of screensaver?
I use my bedroom iPad as a clock at night but I would like to have the option to turn off the screen during the day via automation (Blank screensaver mode).
And how about the brightness of the screensaver. Before I could choose the desired brightness (2% in my case) but now I can't find any option. It seems that dim level is just for Dim mode. It will be very annoying at night to have my clock screensaver with a brightness of 50%.

[acdu1]

@nstefanelli Is it possible in the kiosk mode there is also an option for a custom desk display that shows for weather, calendar, events, and status updates? I think this will be easier then people using custom integrations and lines of code.

[Miguel-B12]

Sorry to say that since last update clock screensaver is useless. Now the screen doesn't dim at all, so I can't use it as a clock at night because of the bright light.
Is there any automation to dim the ipad when screensaver mode start?

[bgoncal]

Screenshots? Also which version exactly you are running, just to be sure that I test on the same one.

[Miguel-B12]

iPad version: 26.5.2 Home Assistant: 26.7.2

[bgoncal]

Rebooting makes any difference? Also please tell me the app version, 2026.7.1 probably?

but dim option is for blank screensaver

Dim applies for all screensaver types

[Miguel-B12]

Yes it did!!! Thank you so much, it's working again. It is strange because I rebooted it before.
App version: 2026.7.1

It would be wonderful to have the possibility of choosing the type of screensaver via notifications, so I could choose a blank screen during the day and clock one at night.
Thank you again for your help!

[bgoncal]

It's coming home-assistant/companion.home-assistant#1378

[marekl123]

Could you add an option to disable the in-app confirmation toast shown when kiosk remote commands such as kiosk_hide_screensaver and kiosk_show_screensaver are received?

On a wall-mounted iPad controlled by a motion sensor, this toast appears every time the screen is shown or hidden and becomes distracting. It would be useful to let kiosk commands run silently while keeping ordinary notifications enabled.