Made in Tallinn
About HAkiosk
HAkiosk is a kiosk app for iPad, iPhone and Android tablets. It shows one website full screen and keeps it there, whether that is a Home Assistant dashboard in a hallway or a menu on a café counter.
Who we are
We are Priit and Karolin Pärna, and HAkiosk comes from our small company, Surfzone OÜ, in Tallinn.
Priit worked on Skype when it was still a handful of people in Tallinn and has built small software ever since. He writes both HAkiosk apps and this website. Karolin taught French and today answers everyone who writes to us, in five languages.
Why HAkiosk
It started with a tablet on our own wall. We wanted a Home Assistant dashboard that stayed there: full screen, no browser bar, awake when someone walks up and quiet when nobody does, without anyone having to look after it.
Priit wrote the first version for Android in the spring of 2023. The name is the job it does: a Home Assistant kiosk. The iPad and iPhone app followed and reached the App Store in April 2024.
Where it runs
Today HAkiosk runs in places we never planned for: hallways and kitchens, café counters, a church lobby, trade-show booths and amateur radio desks. It shows any website, so the app can stay simple and the page does the talking.
How we build it
The iPad and Android apps are each built the native way, and they speak the same MQTT topics, so a Home Assistant automation written for one panel works on the other.
New features are tested on a real tablet against a real Home Assistant before they ship, and many of them started as an email or a review from someone using HAkiosk.
How it grew
Spring 2023
The first version
HAkiosk for Android: one website, full screen, on the wall.
April 2024
On the App Store
The iPad and iPhone app joins, built natively for iOS.
August 2026
Android 2.2
The tablet adds itself to Home Assistant, and shows your photos while it rests.
October 2026
iPad 1.6
MQTT control, Home Assistant discovery and the Immich photo screensaver on iPad and iPhone.
What we promise
Pay once
On iPad and iPhone you buy the app once and everything is included. On Android the app is free and Pro is a one-time purchase. No subscription on either.
Your home stays yours
MQTT runs on your own broker and the photos come from your own Immich server. Neither goes through us.
A person answers
Write to [email protected] and one of us, Priit or Karolin, writes back.
Write to us
A question, an idea, or a tablet that will not behave: tell us. The best parts of HAkiosk started as somebody's email.
HAkiosk is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Home Assistant project or Nabu Casa.