A party information screen is the TV in the room showing what your guests would otherwise ask you: the wifi with a code that joins it, when the cake is, and the messages, photos and votes they send from their own phones. Make a free board, put it on the TV, and it runs the evening by itself.
There is a moment at every party where somebody is standing in the kitchen holding a phone, and somebody else is reading a wifi password off the back of a router. A board fixes that, and then keeps earning its place all evening.
The wifi, so nobody has to ask
Put the network name and password on the board and it shows both large, next to a QR code. A guest points their camera at the TV and their phone joins — no typing, no spelling out lowercase-L-then-one across a room. It is the single most useful thing on the board and it takes about thirty seconds to set up.
If you would rather the password came off the screen once everyone has arrived, set an event window. Anything marked private — the wifi included — comes off by itself when the window closes, without you remembering to do it at midnight.
A countdown, and a big finish
Cake at nine, toast at midnight, the film starting. Pick the moment and the board counts down to it, then shows whatever you want it to say when it arrives. It can repeat (the same time every evening of a long weekend), and it can disappear afterward so the board tidies up after itself.
For the moment that matters, switch on the big finish: for the last ten seconds the countdown takes the whole screen, the numbers as big as the TV allows, then your words with sparks rising behind them, and after a while it hands the board back. There is no sound, so it never talks over the room.
Let guests put things on it
Three of the widgets are for your guests rather than you. They reach each one by scanning a code on the board itself, so there is nothing to hand round and nobody needs an app.
- Messages. A short line from a phone, shown on the TV, with the guest's name in a color they pick.
- Photos. The pictures your guests are already taking, on the big screen while the evening is still going: one at a time, or a wall of several that changes a picture at a time. A guest can add a short caption, and the TV shows it with their name.
- Poll. Ask the room something (which song next, who will cry first at the toast) and guests vote from their phones. The bars move on the TV as votes come in, or you keep the count hidden and reveal it when the moment is right.
Messages and photos wait for you by default. You see what came in and tap to approve, so nothing reaches the TV that you have not looked at. There is a rude-word filter too, and it only ever holds a message for a human — it never edits anyone's words or silently drops them.
Guest photos and the poll are part of Pro and the Event Pass. Messages, the wifi, clocks, the weather and countdowns are all on the free plan.
When the plan changes
Dinner has moved outside, the band is about to start, the car for Grandma is here. Put up an alert from your phone and it runs across the bottom of the board, or over the whole of it for something nobody may miss, for 15 minutes, an hour or until you take it down. Nothing on the board is edited, so when the alert comes down the evening carries on where it was.
What one evening costs
The Event Pass is $6, once, and it covers 2 boards for 7 days around your event — long enough to set up the day before and take it down the day after. It is not a subscription and there is nothing to cancel afterward.
Your guests' photos and messages stay for 30 days, not just the 7 the board runs. That is deliberate: the morning after a party is the worst possible time to lose the pictures, and you should get to decide what to keep without a clock running.
If you end up wanting it permanently, moving to Pro within 30 days takes the $6 off your first month — so starting with a pass never costs you extra. Pro is $9 a month with more boards, your own logo and color, and photos and messages kept for 90 days.
After the party
When the pass runs out the board puts itself to sleep rather than vanishing. The layout, the widgets, every message and every photo are all still there. Another pass wakes it up for the next one, or Pro keeps it awake permanently — and either way nothing you collected is thrown away while you decide.
Everything that went up on the TV waits on the board's After the party page: the photos to download, a ZIP of up to 50 at a time with each guest's name in the file, and the messages laid out as a guestbook you can print or save as a PDF. The page says how long they are kept, so nobody finds out the hard way.
A board worth copying
Pick "Party night" when you make the board and it arrives laid out for the evening. The wifi and its code take the top corner, where people look first, with the time and a countdown to whatever the evening is building toward beside them. The photo wall gets the biggest block, because once nobody needs the password it is what everybody watches, and your guests' messages sit under the wifi. That is five tiles. On a screen turned on its side the wifi still leads, then the countdown, the photos and the messages, with the clock beside the messages at the bottom. The Photos widget is part of Pro and the Event Pass. On the free plan, the Image widget goes where the Photos widget is.
Dinner and drinks
For a dinner rather than a party, pick "Dinner and drinks". Something warm fills the top of the screen, a fire or rain on a window, with the wifi beside it, and underneath sit your guests' messages, the menu and the evening's schedule. That is five tiles. The schedule shows what is on now and what comes next, so nobody asks when dessert is, and the menu marks what is vegetarian or gluten-free with a key that explains the letters. On a screen turned on its side the video leads, then the wifi, with the schedule above the messages beside a tall menu. Watch it on the board above.
Other evenings
The same picker has more to start from:
- A bit of everything. The wifi, the time, the weather, a countdown and somewhere for guests to write.
- Wedding day. The day's schedule, the photos your guests take, and their wishes for the two of you.
- Event agenda. For a meetup, a workshop or a family reunion: the schedule big, the wifi, and a code for the slides.
- Shower or birthday. A question for everyone to vote on, the wifi, their photos and messages, and a countdown to the big moment. Built around the poll, so it needs Pro or an Event Pass. On the free plan, Party night is the closest.
- Find your seat. For the entrance: every guest's table, and a code to look up your own. Built around the Find your seat widget, so it needs Pro or an Event Pass. On the free plan, Wedding day is the closest.
The layouts guide draws every one of them for a wide TV and for a screen turned on its side, and the setup guide walks through getting the board onto the screen.