Set up Album Mode

1. Connect the tablet

1. On the tablet, open the KinCircle site at /display. It shows a QR code and an 8-character code. Nothing secret goes in the address.
2. On your phone, sign in as an Owner or Caregiver and scan the QR code. It opens Connect a tablet (/circle/display/approve). Or go to Circle Settings → Album Mode → Connect with a code and type the code.
3. Give the tablet a plain name such as “Kitchen tablet” and approve. The tablet switches to Album Mode within a few seconds.
4. The code lasts 10 minutes; a new one appears after that. A circle can have up to 3 tablets.

Connect inside the app you will leave running (the iPad Home Screen icon, or Fully Kiosk). A different browser on the same tablet is not connected.

2. Tablet settings

Owners and Caregivers change these in Circle Settings, under Album Mode. The tablet picks up changes within about a minute.

• Mode: photos with the agenda taking over before appointments, a split screen, or a rotation.
• Appointment titles: Full titles (default) shows what and where. Time only shows the time and the word “Appointment”, with no title or place, for a tablet in a shared room.
• Sleep and wake times: from the sleep time to the wake time (9 PM to 7 AM unless you change them, in the time where your loved one lives), the tablet goes dark, with a dim clock or a black screen. A tap lights it up for a minute. Either way, at night the screen wakes up 90 minutes before an appointment. (In the day, the agenda comes up an hour before.)

3. iPad (Safari, iPadOS 16.4 or later)

1. Open the KinCircle site at /display in Safari.
2. Tap Share → Add to Home Screen, then open KinCircle from the new Home Screen icon and connect there. The icon app keeps its own sign-in, separate from Safari, and is not cleared by Safari after 7 days.
3. Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock: Never. Album Mode also asks the iPad to keep the screen on, but older iPadOS versions ignore that in Home Screen apps, so this setting is the backup.
4. Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access: turn it on and set a passcode. Open Album Mode and triple-click the top (or Home) button to start it, so Album Mode cannot be closed by accident.
5. Keep the iPad plugged in all the time.

4. Samsung Galaxy Tab or other Android, with Fully Kiosk Browser

Install Fully Kiosk Browser from the Play Store. The free version runs Album Mode. Items markedPLUS need a Fully PLUS licence (one-time, per device; Fully lets you try PLUS first).

Android settings

• Settings → Display → Screen timeout: the longest value (Fully keeps the screen on).
• Settings → Display → Adaptive brightness: off, so Android doesn’t change the brightness on its own.
• Settings → Battery → Background usage limits: add Fully Kiosk to Never sleeping apps.
• Settings → Battery → Protect battery: on, and keep the tablet on its charger all the time.
• Lock screen: None or Swipe.

Fully Kiosk settings

• Web Content → Start URL: the KinCircle site followed by /display. No password or code goes in the URL.
• Web Content → URL Whitelist: the KinCircle site only, ending in /*.
• Web Content → Custom Error URL: empty, and Load Error URL on Disconnection: 0. Album Mode shows its own offline view.
• Device Management → Keep Screen On: on.
• Device Management → Screen Off Timer PLUS: empty. Album Mode’s night screen replaces it.
• Screensaver → Screensaver Timer PLUS: empty. Fully’s screensaver would cover Album Mode, and Album Mode can’t lift it for an appointment.
• Web Auto Reload → Delete Cookies, Delete Webstorage, and Delete Cache on Auto Reload: all off, and Advanced Web Settings → Clear Cache After Each Page: off. Clearing cookies disconnects the tablet; clearing web storage throws away the offline copy.
• Web Auto Reload → Auto Reload on Network Reconnect and after Page Error (60 s): on. Auto Reload on Idle: 1800 seconds (30 minutes). Touching the screen restarts that count, so it never reloads in the middle of a tap; a reload keeps the connection, the offline copy, and the overnight screen.
• Web Auto Reload → Skip Auto Reload if Showing Start URL, Auto Reload on Screen On: off.
• Web Browsing → Pull to refresh and Back Button: off.
• Motion Detection PLUS and Device Movement Detection PLUS: off. Kiosk Mode → Disable Camera PLUS: on. Album Mode never uses the camera.
• Launch on Boot: on.
• Kiosk Mode PLUS: on, with a Kiosk Mode PIN only the family knows; also Disable Status Bar, Home Button, and Other Apps. Leave the Wifi/Settings PIN empty.
  Without PLUS: use Android screen pinning instead. Settings → Security and privacy → More security settings → Pin app (ask for PIN before unpinning), then Recents → Fully icon → Pin this app.
• Power → Schedule Wakeup and Sleep PLUS: both empty. A scheduled sleep switches the screen off and pauses Album Mode. See At night.
• Advanced Web Settings → Enable JavaScript Interface PLUS: on, only with the URL Whitelist above set to the KinCircle site. It lets Album Mode lower the brightness at night.

Optional: dim the screen at night PLUS

Off unless you turn it on. With Advanced Web Settings → Enable JavaScript Interface PLUS on, add ?fullyDim=1 to the end of the Start URL and Album Mode lowers the brightness at the tablet’s Sleep timeand puts it back at its Wake time (both under At night in the tablet’s settings). Use ?fullyDim=0 once to turn it off again.

Only with the URL Whitelist set. Fully warns that the JavaScript Interface lets any website it opens change device settings and read files. Album Mode works the same without it.

5. At night: Dark clock or Screen off

In Circle Settings, under Album Mode, open the tablet and find At night. Owners and Caregivers choose, and each tablet has its own setting. The tablet is dark from its Sleep time to its Wake time (9 PM to 7 AM unless you change them). Either way, at night the screen wakes up 90 minutes before an appointment, and a tap lights it up for a minute.

Dark clock (usual)

• A dim clock on black all night. A tap shows photos and today’s agenda for a minute.
• Fully: Schedule Wakeup and Sleep both empty; Screen Off Timer empty. Night dimming (above) is optional.
• iPad: nothing to set.

Screen off

• A black screen all night, with no clock. A tap shows photos and today’s agenda for a minute. The screen stays on underneath, so Album Mode keeps running and still wakes up 90 minutes before an appointment.
• Fully with the JavaScript Interface on PLUS: Album Mode also turns the brightness all the way down at the tablet’s sleep time. It puts it back at wake time, on a tap, and before an appointment.
• Without Fully’s JavaScript Interface (iPad, or Fully free): the same black screen, at the brightness the tablet is set to.
• Many screens still glow a little at the lowest brightness, so in a dark room you may see a faint gray. Some screens (OLED, like many Galaxy Tab S models) look fully off.
• If nothing happens on a tap, press the power button once to wake it.
• At night, don’t use the power button to turn the screen off. KinCircle can’t wake it for appointments then.

Set up the tablet for Screen off

Samsung or other Android, with Fully Kiosk:

1. Fully → Device Management → Keep Screen On: on.
2. Fully → Device Management → Screen Off Timer PLUS: empty.
3. Fully → Screensaver → Screensaver Timer PLUS: empty.
4. Fully → Power → Schedule Wakeup and Sleep PLUS: both empty.
5. Fully → Kiosk Mode → Disable Screen Off PLUS: on (Fully 1.61 or later).
6. Fully → Advanced Web Settings → Enable JavaScript Interface PLUS: on (whitelist set, section 4).
7. Android Settings → Display → Adaptive brightness: off.
8. Keep the tablet on its charger.

Why: Fully’s screensaver or scheduled sleep would cover Album Mode or switch the screen off, and then it can’t wake for appointments. Without the JavaScript Interface the screen stays black at its usual brightness. Adaptive brightness would turn it back up.

iPad:

1. Auto-Lock: Never (section 3), and Guided Access → Display Auto-Lock: Never. A locked iPad pauses Album Mode.
2. Album Mode can’t change an iPad’s brightness, so the black screen stays at the brightness you set.

6. When the internet drops

• Album Mode keeps showing its last copy, encrypted on the tablet. After 15 minutes it says “Last updated” with the time.
• Appointments disappear after 48 hours offline. Photos stay up to 7 days, then only the clock.
• Reloaded or restarted while offline, it opens the same saved copy, with the same limits, counted from the last time it reached KinCircle.
• It refreshes by itself when the connection comes back.

7. Remove a tablet

Circle Settings → Album Mode → Remove. The next time the tablet reaches KinCircle it erases its copy and goes back to showing a code. If it is lost, remove it right away.