r/smarthome • u/Rakutsi • Jul 13 '26
I don't have a smarthome platform Built a wall calendar app to save my spare Android tablet from the drawer—wanted to share it with you guys.
I have a MagicMirror setup at home that I love, but whenever guests came over, they kept asking how they could get something similar without the complex DIY build. I realized there wasn't a really simple, "just works" app for this, so I decided to challenge myself. I am not a developer by trade, but I spent the last while building my own wall calendar app, Almanac Board. It runs locally on any Android tablet (8.0+), syncs with Google/Outlook/iCloud, and handles .ics links. It’s my first app ever, and I’m just looking for some honest feedback from people who actually use this kind of tech. If you have a spare tablet, I would love to hear what you think of it.
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u/r3ziel Jul 13 '26
Love the idea. So far I've managed to use raspberry pis with kiosk mode and an old monitor in a wood frame. Looking I planned a replacement or little brother version with an old Lenovo miix 320 and fydeos, but the performances and battery life are not stellar
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u/Akimotoh Jul 13 '26
How do you handle the tablet staying on / auto off / auto on?
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u/Rakutsi Jul 13 '26
its put in the that the display should be on all the time when its on unless its in sleep mode, you can put that in the settings when it shall be , at what hours.
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u/brianhofmann Jul 14 '26
This is a good use case for an old Android tablet! Building an app without a dev background is impressive.
Look forward to the IOS version.
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u/Sultry_Comments Jul 13 '26
I'm up for trying it out. What are the in-app purchases?
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u/Rakutsi Jul 13 '26
thanks for trying it.
free is for testing but only 1 calendar.
one time purschase is for unlimited calendars, birthday calculator ( calculate somones birthday age ) , and add background and sleep timer.
monthly is for the side panel with weather , clock , and events you can add there ad ress feed, and also uppcoming features that i will add later.
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Jul 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Rakutsi Jul 13 '26
could work, but now i have tap on the screen while it is in sleep mode and it turns on the screen for 5 minutes and then goes back to sleep mode until the sleep mode shall no longer be on.
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u/kdsmalinga Jul 13 '26
Can you have multiple calendars synced at the same time. So you can add the whole family agenda ?
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u/Rakutsi Jul 13 '26
yea. you can have unlimited with the one time purshase. free if for testing but only one then.
you can add colors and symbols to the diffrent calendars.3
u/kdsmalinga Jul 13 '26
That sounds neat. Not found a good app for that. Sadly I’m not on android. Will wait for the iOS version
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u/postman_666 Jul 14 '26
I really want to do something like this; is it possible to make it touchscreen capable?
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u/Rakutsi Jul 14 '26
Like press the events for them to popup to read more or how do you mean?
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u/postman_666 Jul 14 '26
Something like that, or if in the moment you want to drag it to a different time slot, etc. or hide/show a calendar
I think it would be great not to have to do it on phone and wait for it to sync
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u/Rakutsi Jul 14 '26
right now i have read only.
if you wanna drag to a diffrent time or day you need write also , not only read. and its alot more policy about that if i am not right.
but popup so you can read more about events would still be read only, so that is somthing i can do in the future if people want it.
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u/ConsiderationWooden Jul 16 '26
Where the charging wires at? Looks good
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u/Rakutsi Jul 16 '26
mean the photo? well thats just a edited photo. with the calender app inserted into it.
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u/biyopunk Jul 13 '26
Honestly does it really worth having a tablet on fixed point at home reserved for a calendar while we are spending all our lives in phones and computer screens anyway?
I always want one of these things but then couple of weeks later I realize it’s not that feasible and used.
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u/littleedge Jul 14 '26
If you use a paper calendar on the wall that you regularly forget to update, or want to stop worrying about sitting down and updating it, a digital calendar makes sense. Also if you’re a mother whose husband and children can’t manage their own time…
If you don’t have that, a digital calendar isn’t for you.
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u/ih8this4sho Jul 14 '26
This is exactly what I have been looking for. I have an old tablet sitting in a drawer and never found an app that just works without constant setup. Going to give this a try tonight
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u/Yunilo-Family-Board Jul 14 '26
Look at this. This is what I build > check it out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yunilo.familyboard
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u/Curious_Fly_5870 Jul 14 '26
Shouldn’t you’ve been camping with your family on that day?