Sharing and paired screens

There are two ways to put a dashboard on a screen that is not logged in to your account. A share link opens one dashboard for anyone who has the link. A paired screen is a tablet or kiosk on your own wall that runs one wall panel.

Neither ever holds your Tiledash login or a token for your Homey. Each gets a key of its own, and Tiledash checks every tap against that key on its server.

Share a dashboard with a link

Open the dashboard’s menu and choose Share…. In the dialog you pick:

• View only or Can control. View only is the default.
• Works for: A day, A week or Never. A week is the default, because forgotten links are the risk and a week covers a holiday.
• A Name, if you want one. Only you see it, for example “For the babysitter”.

Choose Create link. The dialog shows the link once, with Copy link and a QR code you can scan with a phone. Tiledash keeps only a fingerprint of the link, so it cannot show it again. If you lose it, revoke it and make another.

Under Links to this dashboard you see every link with its kind, when it expires and when it was last used. Revoke ends a link at once, also on screens where it is open now. Expired links stay in the list, faded, with Remove.

What guests see

A guest opens the link in a browser, with no account and no Homey. They see the dashboard full screen in its own theme, with its name and a View only or Can control badge. They see nothing about who shared it: no name, no Homey and no other dashboards.

• On View only, tiles look as usual but nothing responds. A tap brings up a short note that the link cannot change anything.
• On Can control, lights, sockets and the thermostat work.
• A tile that would open another dashboard says it is not part of the link. A link stays one dashboard.
• If your Homey goes offline, the guest sees the last values and a banner saying so.
• A link that has expired, or has been revoked, shows that it no longer works. Neither says what the dashboard was.

What a control link can never do

Anyone holding the link could use it, so a link that can control never starts flows, sets moods, operates locks, sets the alarm or opens garage doors. Those tiles show a small lock, and a tap tells the guest that flows stay with the owner.

Pair a screen

A paired screen is for a tablet that lives on your wall. It runs one of your wall panels, including its swipes, sleep and e-ink settings, without anyone logging in on it. It can also show the dashboards that panel’s tiles open.

1. On the tablet, open my.tiledash.app/pair. It shows Pair this screen and a code in six large tiles.
2. On your phone or computer, open your name at the bottom of the sidebar, then Links and screens, and choose Pair a screen.
3. Type the code. Lower case, spaces and pasting are fine. Tiledash tells you when a character cannot be part of a code.
4. Under What should this screen show?, pick the Wall panel, whether it is View only or Can control, and a Name. You see the screen asking, such as “Chrome on an Android tablet”, so you know it is yours.
5. Choose Pair screen. The tablet says it is paired and starts the panel.

A code works once and for 10 minutes, and the screen shows a new one when it runs out. The screen gets nothing until you confirm. If you type the wrong code too many times, pairing pauses for a while to keep guessers out.

A paired screen with Can control can do everything its panel’s tiles can, flows and locks included, because it is your wall. A View only screen only shows.

A screen’s theme

You don’t have to walk to the tablet to change how it looks. Choose Theme… on the screen’s row under Links and screens, pick Chosen here, then a theme and a Motion level, and choose Done. The screen switches straight away, and wears that theme in place of what is set under This device… on the screen itself. A dashboard with a theme of its own keeps it. Pick Set on the screen to give the screen its own choice back. The row says which theme the screen wears, or Its own.

Unpair from both sides

You can end a pairing from either place.

• From your account: choose Unpair on the screen’s row under Links and screens, and confirm. The screen goes back to its pairing page with a new code.
• On the screen: hold the top-left corner, or press Esc, and choose Unpair this screen in the bar. Tiledash asks first. Anyone at the screen can do this, because it only takes access away. Your list loses the screen at once.

Links and screens

The Links and screens tab on the account page lists everything that reaches your dashboards without your login. A filter switches between All, Links and Screens.

Open ones come first, marked Open now. Each row shows what it opens, such as “Dashboard · Home” or “Wall panel · Hallway”, when it was made, until when it works, and when it was last used and on what, such as “Safari on iPhone”. It never shows an IP address. Revoke, Unpair and Remove each ask first.

The tab also lists how sharing stays safe: it never uses your login, codes work once, revoking works at once, and every tap is checked again on Tiledash’s server.

Plan limits

Expired links do not count towards the limit. The tab shows how much of each you use.

If you go back from Pro to Free with more than that, nothing is deleted. The most recently used link and screen keep working, and the rest are paused. They come back when you go Pro again.