Digital signage apps
A digital signage app is a small program built for a screen, showing data that changes on its own. You configure it once, it looks after itself, and it pulls live figures every time it plays. Apps come with every plan, with nothing to host and nothing to install on the device.
Built to be shown, not used
You could point a screen at a URL and get something similar. Three things make an app different.
Laid out for a wall
A web page is made for a person at a laptop: small text, menus, and a layout that assumes someone is close enough to click. An app fills a display and is read across a room, with nothing to interact with.
Configured with a form
An app declares what it needs, so the dashboard asks for it: which dashboard, which calendar, which city. A non-technical colleague sets it up without touching a URL or a token.
Credentials that never reach the screen
Anything sensitive is a secret, encrypted for one device and write-only once saved. On hardware that cannot hold a secret, the app renders on our servers and the screen receives only the picture.
The apps screens most often need
The store carries the content that digital signage most often shows. Dashboards: Grafana, Power BI, Salesforce, Airtable, and a general dashboard app for anything else. Calendars: Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar for the meeting room door and the lobby. News: BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, Fox, the New York Times, and any RSS feed. Everyday screens: a menu board, a clock, a countdown timer, a welcome screen, a simple message, a table, a QR code generator, a Transport for London bus departures board, and an iframe app for embedding a page that behaves. Even screensavers, for the screen that should not be blank between playlists.
Every app is configured from the dashboard with a form and lands in your content library as an item, so it goes into a playlist, takes a duration, and is scheduled and targeted with labels exactly like an image or a video. The same app can run several times with different settings: one weather app for each city, one calendar per meeting room, each a separate item.
Connect a service once, and every app can use it
Dashboard apps are only as useful as the data behind them, and the data is usually behind a login. Screenly holds the connection for the whole workspace: connect Salesforce, Power BI, Grafana, Airtable, a calendar, or Slack once under Settings, and every app that reads from that service offers your own dashboards, reports, and calendars from a list instead of asking someone to paste a token. Nobody’s personal credentials end up in a screen configuration, and revoking access is one change rather than a hunt through every app.
Apps also pick up your workspace branding automatically. Set your logo and colors once and every app follows, so a lobby screen, a menu board, and a KPI dashboard look like they belong to the same company without anyone editing three designs.
Where an app runs, and why it matters
On ScreenlyOS an app runs on the player itself: real code in a real browser engine, refreshing on its own schedule, reacting to what it shows, and continuing to work if the internet drops for content it already holds. On Screenly Anywhere the app runs on our infrastructure and the screen is sent an image of the result. That is a security decision rather than a capability one: Anywhere runs inside an operating system we do not control, so a token that produced a dashboard never travels to the device. A dashboard, a calendar, a news feed, and a menu board look the same either way. An app with motion, or one that reacts to the second, wants a device that runs it locally. Where an app runs has the detail.
When the store does not have it, build it
An edge app is a web app plus a manifest. Package your own page as one and you get configuration in the dashboard from fields the manifest declares, secrets that go in encrypted and never appear in the page source, versioned deploys that update every screen running the app with one command, a CORS proxy for APIs that block browser requests, and your workspace branding available to your code. The developer docs start from a working example, and the Edge Apps Playground on GitHub has the source of the store apps to learn from. If you would rather we built it, request an app.
What apps give you
The same dashboard that schedules a video installs and configures an app.
Dashboards without shared logins
Grafana, Power BI, Salesforce, and Airtable dashboards on a wall, fed by a connection the workspace holds rather than a token someone pasted.
Connected services >Calendars and room boards
Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, one instance per room or one for the whole office, always showing what is on next.
Install an app >News and feeds
BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, Fox, the New York Times, or any RSS feed, refreshing on their own between your own content.
Browse the app store >Menu boards, clocks, timers, QR codes
The everyday screens: a menu that changes with the daypart, a clock, a countdown, a welcome message, a QR code that sends interaction to a phone.
Browse the app store >Settings and secrets
Plain settings for what anyone may see; encrypted, write-only secrets for API keys and passwords, decrypted only on the device that owns the instance.
Settings and secrets >One app, many instances
Run the same app several times with different settings, each as its own content item in its own playlists.
Instances >Build your own edge apps
A web app plus a manifest gets dashboard configuration, encrypted secrets, versioned fleet deploys, and a CORS proxy.
Build your own >Digital signage apps, answered
Do Screenly apps cost extra?
No. Apps come with every plan. There is nothing extra to buy, nothing to host, and nothing to install on the device.
Can I show a Power BI or Grafana dashboard on a digital signage screen?
Yes. Connect the service once for the workspace under Settings, install the Power BI or Grafana app, pick the dashboard from a list, and add it to a playlist. Nobody pastes a token into the screen, and revoking access is one change.
How does an app keep my credentials safe?
Anything sensitive is stored as a secret: encrypted for a single device, write-only once saved, and never visible in the page source or to other administrators. On Screenly Anywhere, where the device cannot hold a secret, the app renders on Screenly’s servers and the screen receives only the image.
Do apps work when the screen is offline?
On ScreenlyOS an app runs on the device and keeps showing what it already holds; anything that needs to fetch new data pauses until the connection returns. On Screenly Anywhere the app renders on our servers, so it needs the connection to update. Uploaded content and schedules keep playing either way.
Can I run the same app on several screens with different settings?
Yes. Each configuration is an instance and a separate item in your content library. One weather app per city, one calendar per meeting room, each assigned to its own screens through labels.
Can I build my own digital signage app?
Yes. An edge app is a web app plus a manifest. It gets dashboard configuration, encrypted secrets, versioned deploys across the fleet, and a CORS proxy. The developer docs start from a working example, and the source of the store apps is on GitHub. You can also request an app and we may build it.
See every app, with screenshots and settings: Screenly App Store.
Building your own? Start here: Edge apps.
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