Homeboard

Turn an old Android or Fire tablet into a family wall calendar

A Galaxy Tab or a Fire tablet the children have outgrown makes a good kitchen calendar. This guide covers the parts that differ from an iPad: getting Homeboard on the home screen, keeping the screen awake and looking after the battery.

Updated 26 September 2026. Using an iPad? Read the iPad guide.

What you need

  • An Android tablet on Android 8 or later, or an Amazon Fire tablet from 2018 on. Check your tablet
  • Its charger, and a cable long enough to reach a socket.
  • Somewhere to put it: a wall near a socket, or a stand on the worktop.
  • A link for each of the family's calendars. How to get iCloud, Google and Outlook links

1. Get the tablet ready

Charge it, connect it to Wi-Fi and install any updates it offers (Settings, then Software update or System Updates). Update the browser too: Chrome or Samsung Internet from the Play Store or Galaxy Store, or Silk from the Amazon Appstore on a Fire tablet.

If it was a child's tablet, turn off any parental time limits for the browser, or the calendar will switch itself off in the evening.

2. Set up Homeboard

  1. On your phone or computer, go to homeboard.uk and choose Start free.
  2. Answer the three setup questions (where you are, a calendar link, and what goes behind the clock), or pick a ready-made layout. Big Calendar puts a month front and centre; Family adds the children's chore chart and notes sent from a phone.
  3. Open the calendar block's settings and paste each calendar link. Give each one a person, so it shows in their colour.
  4. Most Android and Fire tablets are wider than an iPad. In the screen's settings, choose the size that matches yours (the Samsung and Fire sizes are in the list) so nothing is squashed.

3. Put Homeboard on the tablet

Samsung and other Android tablets

  1. Open Chrome or Samsung Internet and go to homeboard.uk, then sign in.
  2. Open the browser's menu (three dots in Chrome, three lines in Samsung Internet) and choose Add to Home screen, or Install app if it offers that. Homeboard may also show an Install button on the Displays page.
  3. Open Homeboard from the new icon and choose the display to show. From then on the icon goes straight to it.

Amazon Fire tablets

  1. Open Silk and go to homeboard.uk, then sign in and open your display.
  2. Bookmark it from Silk's menu, so it is one tap away after the tablet restarts.
  3. Swipe up from the bottom edge of the display for the quick actions, and tap Full screen.

4. Keep the screen on

Most Android and Fire tablets can't be told never to sleep: the longest screen timeout is often ten or thirty minutes. Homeboard asks the browser to keep the screen on while it shows your display, so you don't have to change anything. If the screen still goes dark, set the longest Screen timeout in Settings, Display, and make sure battery saver isn't on, since it can stop apps keeping the screen awake.

5. Stop small fingers leaving Homeboard

Android can pin one app to the screen. In Settings, search for "pin": on Samsung tablets it is Pin app (or Pin windows) under Security. Turn it on, open the recent apps screen, tap Homeboard's icon at the top of its card and choose Pin. To unpin, hold Back and Recent apps together (or, with gesture navigation, swipe up from the bottom and hold).

6. The rest of the settings

  • Brightness: turn on Adaptive brightness, so the screen dims when the room does. Homeboard's night mode can dim it further at bedtime.
  • Pop-ups: turn on Do not disturb, or switch off notifications for the other apps on the tablet.
  • Sounds: turn the volume down, so the wall doesn't chime when something happens on the tablet.

7. Looking after the battery

A tablet kept on charge day and night wears its battery out and, occasionally, swells it.

  • Samsung tablets can stop charging at 80 to 85%: in Settings, Battery, turn on Protect battery (Battery protection on newer tablets). This is the single best setting for a wall tablet.
  • Other tablets: plug the charger into a smart plug that turns on for a few hours in the morning and evening.
  • Now and then, look at the tablet from the side. If the screen is lifting or the back bulges, unplug it and stop using it.

8. Putting it on the wall

The same as any tablet: adhesive strips on a slim case, a tablet wall mount, or a stand on the worktop, at eye height where people pass, with the cable run down to the socket in clips or a paintable cable channel. Fire tablets are light, which makes adhesive strips an easy choice.

Mixing tablets

One home can have an iPad in the kitchen and a Fire tablet in the hall. They share the same calendars, family and photos, and each can show its own screens. On the free plan one wall display shows at a time; Plus adds every tablet in the house. See pricing

Start freeCheck your tablet