From sign-up to your first slide on the TV

1Create your company

Open console.screenbutler.app and choose Create a company. Company name, your name, e-mail, password; optionally a background and accent colour: every new slide starts in these colours, and you can add gradients and more colours later under Company.

You are the owner. Invite colleagues under Company → Invitations: with an e-mail address the invitation is sent automatically, or copy the link and share it yourself. Roles: owner (everything), admin, editor (content and screens), viewer (read-only).

Tip: pick the language in the sidebar first; the console, the mails you send and new screens follow it.

2Set up the TV

The screen only needs to open one web page. Three ways, pick what your TV can do:

Tip for Android 10 and newer: for the app to restart after a reboot it needs "draw over other apps". TVs have no settings page for it, so grant it once from a computer: adb shell appops set app.screenbutler.tv SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW allow. The app's settings screen (press MENU or BACK twice) shows whether it is granted.

3Pair the screen

The TV now shows a six-character pairing code. In the console go to Screens → New screen, choose Yes, it shows a code, type the code, give the screen a name (“Lobby”, “Kitchen”), pick a playlist and language. The TV switches over within a second and the screen card turns live.

No TV at hand yet? Choose No, prepare it for later: the screen is created with its settings and you get its player URL. When the device arrives, open that URL on it (or pair it with the code and attach it to the prepared screen).

Several TVs showing the same content? Pair each one to the same screen; they play in sync, down to the second.

4Slides and your first playlist

Slides → New slide opens the format picker: announcement, weather, clock, countdown, calendar, news feed, photos, video, YouTube, QR code, table from a Google Sheet, birthdays from your people directory, dashboards, a free-form designer, split-screen layouts and more. Every slide has a live preview that runs the exact player code the TV uses; what you see is what the TV shows.

Then Playlists → New playlist → Add a slide. Drag to reorder, set the seconds per slide, optionally a schedule (weekdays, time window, date range). Assign the playlist to your screen on the Screens page; the TV updates within a second. You can also create a slide from inside the playlist; it is appended when you save it.

Rule of thumb: 8–12 seconds per slide, 6–12 slides per playlist. Slides with nothing to show (no birthday today) skip themselves.

5Make it yours

• Company colours & logo: under Company: backgrounds (solid or gradient), accent colours, text colour. New slides pick them up; every colour picker offers them as swatches.
• Overlays: a faint logo, the time, a text watermark and a news ticker on top of every slide, per company or per playlist.
• Messages: Screens → Send message: a toast in the corner or a full-screen takeover, now or scheduled, to some or all screens. Also via the API from Slack, Zapier or a script.
• People directory: colleagues with photo, birthday and start date feed the birthday, anniversary and welcome slides.
• Screen settings: language, 12/24-hour clock, portrait mode, transition, a progress bar in your colours.

?Everyday use and troubleshooting