Features
What Kioskbase does — and what it doesn't.
The list is complete and deliberately includes the limits. A kiosk is deployed for years, and a surprise a year in costs more than an extra promise is worth.
01 · The lock
Nowhere for the device to wander.
- One address, full screen. No address bar, no system bars, no history.
- Allowed domains. A link outside the list opens nowhere, not even in the browser. Matching is by host, not by string prefix, so yourdomain.com.attacker.net does not pass.
- Lock Task as device owner. A system-level lock: Home and Overview stop working, the status bar cannot be pulled down, and the app cannot be uninstalled.
- The home screen is borrowed, not taken. Kioskbase assumes the launcher role when it locks and returns it when unlocked. The tablet is never left without a home screen.
- It comes back after a crash or a power cut. It starts itself after a reboot, and when the page renderer dies it catches that and recovers — a black screen with nobody standing next to it is the worst state a kiosk can be in.
02 · Setup
Six digits and it's running.
One value is entered on the tablet: a six-digit code. Address, allowed domains, purpose, version and mode arrive from the server on first contact and are changed in the same place — without anyone reaching the device.
There is no configuration file to compose and push. The server knows what the device is for and builds the address itself, so nobody can mistype a character.
- Purpose beats address. A device is not a link, it is a job: meal pickup, attendance, ordering, a menu on the wall.
- One click to switch. An attendance terminal becomes an ordering terminal and back again, with nobody on site.
- A custom address takes precedence. When one is set, the purpose no longer applies — one setting, not two, so the tablet never does something other than what the console says.
03 · Remote management
Everything you would otherwise drive for.
Update
A new version is pushed remotely. On a device-owner tablet it installs silently. The app captures the installer's response and reports it back, so the device card shows whether it truly went through without a prompt.
Restart
The app alone, or the whole tablet. The command is acknowledged to the server before it executes — otherwise the device would find it again on boot and loop.
Window screenshot
Shows what the terminal is displaying. It captures the app's own window only, never the Android screen — it is not a surveillance tool and cannot be turned into one.
Network diagnostics
DNS → connection to port 443 → TLS handshake → the actual server response, in the order things fail. The result is a sentence, not a log dump.
Remote desktop
TeamViewer or AnyDesk launched by command, for when a screenshot is not enough and somebody is standing at the tablet.
Slideshow mode
Images from an album on a loop. The same tablet serves as a terminal during opening hours and as a display after them.
Why diagnostics and not a ping. A network can allow port 443 and still break encryption — usually a corporate appliance that unwraps the connection with its own certificate. Kioskbase does not trust it and the page never loads. Without that last step the fault gets hunted inside the app, where it isn't.
04 · Telemetry
What you know without standing next to it.
The list is complete. The server accepts only the fields below — if a future version of the app sent anything else, it would be discarded.
| Group | Fields | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Network | IP, MAC, Wi-Fi name, gateway, mobile carrier | What the site's network administrator will ask for |
| Device | manufacturer, model, Android version, app version | You still know what is out there a year later |
| Condition | battery, battery temperature, charging, uptime | A tablet cooking behind a shop window reports before it dies |
| Resources | free memory, free storage, cores, resolution | A slow terminal usually has a mundane reason |
| Time | clock drift against the server, time zone | A drifting clock breaks certificate validation |
| Lock | kiosk enabled, device owner | Shows which units are really locked and which only in principle |
Location, screen contents, browsing history and anything attributable to a particular person never leave the device. Telemetry describes the device, not the user.
05 · Sign-in backups
The terminal won't log itself out at the worst moment.
A kiosk is usually signed in to the system it displays. When that sign-in is lost — after an update, after a cache wipe, after an outage — the staff are looking at a login page they have nothing to type into.
Kioskbase backs up the signed-in state automatically and on demand, under a name you choose. Restoring is one tap.
The contents of a backup never leave the device. Only names and dates reach the server, so there is something to pick from. The credentials stay in encrypted storage on the tablet, with the key held by the Android Keystore.
06 · Sites and access
Twenty tablets are not twenty rows.
Devices are grouped by company and site. Somebody running three restaurants does not read one long list — they see three sites, and which one has gone quiet.
A customer can be given access to their own devices only, at one of three levels: from a view that changes nothing, up to full control including restart and update.
07 · Device owner
The difference between "shouldn't leave" and "can't leave".
Kioskbase works either way. What changes is how firmly it holds — and how much it can tell you about itself.
| Without device owner | As device owner | |
|---|---|---|
| Lock | held by the launcher role | system Lock Task |
| Home and Overview | work, Kioskbase returns | do not work at all |
| Status bar | can be pulled down | blocked |
| Uninstalling | possible from settings | not possible |
| MAC address and Wi-Fi name | empty | reported |
| Silent update | needs a tap on the tablet | no prompt |
| Telemetry and commands | work | work |
Device owner has to be enabled while the tablet is still new. Android makes this deliberately hard: the device must be factory reset with not a single account added, Google included. On a tablet somebody has already set up, it means wiping it and starting again.
08 · Limits
What Kioskbase cannot do.
- It cannot lock an iPad. Apple allows no app to do that. iPad kiosks are set up either by hand with Guided Access on the device, or through mobile device management — neither is something an app can solve.
- No silent updates on a phone with a Google account. A device with an account added cannot be a device owner, so a person always confirms the install. That is an Android condition, not a defect.
- Even as device owner, silence is not guaranteed. A manufacturer's protection or Play Protect may still ask. Kioskbase does not guess — it reports the installer's answer back, so you can see what actually happened.
- It cannot see the Android screen. Screenshots cover the app window only. To see the whole device you launch the remote desktop.
- It cannot make itself the home screen. Android leaves that choice to the person holding the tablet, on purpose.
09 · Deployment modes
Three situations Kioskbase runs in.
Not every tablet can be prepared the same way. Kioskbase works in three modes — they differ in how much can be done without a person at the device.
Recommended for client sites. Kioskbase is the Android device owner — set with one USB command on a factory-reset tablet with no Google account added.
| Lock | system Lock Task — a hard lock; it takes the home-screen role and gives it back on unlock |
| Updates | silent, no prompt on the tablet; the installer's response is reported back |
| Tablet reboot | yes, remotely — the whole device, not just the app |
| Uninstalling | not possible until ownership is revoked from the admin |
| After a power cut | the kiosk comes back up and locks itself |
Even with device owner, silence is not guaranteed every time — a manufacturer's protection or Play Protect may still prompt. Kioskbase does not guess: it reports what actually happened.
When device owner is not possible — a tablet with a Google account added cannot have one, for example. Kioskbase still runs; some things just need a person.
| Lock | held by being the home screen — weaker, but functional |
| Updates | pushed remotely, the install is confirmed by a person on the tablet |
| Restart | of the app, yes; of the whole tablet, no — that needs device owner |
| Uninstalling | possible, as with any ordinary app |
| Telemetry and diagnostics | full — reporting and commands work the same |
No Kioskbase — just the tablet's browser. This is how most terminals run before they get Kioskbase. We list it honestly as a comparison, not as a mode we sell.
| Lock | none — full screen can be escaped, the address bar is within reach |
| Updates and restart | in person at the device only |
| Diagnostics and telemetry | none — "it doesn't work" means getting in the car |
| Window screenshot | none |
The difference between this column and the two above is exactly why Kioskbase exists.