# What Screenly is


> Cloud-based digital signage: what it does, what you do with it, and what runs on the screen.
Screenly is cloud-based digital signage. You manage what plays on your screens from a browser, and the screens keep playing on their own.

One display or thousands, in one building or across sites, from the same dashboard. You never need to be near the hardware.

## What you do with it

1. Add your content, or pick an app.
2. Build a playlist, the running order a screen loops through.
3. Choose which screens it plays on.
4. Those screens pick it up on their next check-in.

Changing something later works the same way. Edit the playlist, and every screen showing it updates itself.

[Set up your first screen](/docs/get-started/first-screen/) walks through the whole sequence.

## What the cloud does

The cloud does three jobs.

### Content management

What plays, in what order, and when.

### Device management

Reboot, update, and diagnose the hardware running each screen without a site visit.

### Monitoring

Which screens are online, which are up to date, and what each one is showing right now.

## What runs on the screen

Every screen needs something running the Screenly software. Often that is a small device plugged into the display. Many business displays have a computer built in and run it themselves, with nothing extra to connect.

Either way, that software is one of two things: [ScreenlyOS](/docs/screenlyos/), our own operating system, or [Screenly Anywhere](/anywhere/), an app that runs on the system a device already has.

The dashboard is identical either way. [Choose what runs on your screens](/docs/get-started/requirements/what-runs-on-your-screens/) covers the difference and when each one fits.

## Next

[Connect your first screen](/docs/get-started/first-screen/), or see [what you can do with Screenly](/docs/get-started/overview/features/) first.