Calendar Clock settings

Calendar Clock is one of the most customizable day clocks available. As the sheer number of features can become intimidating, in this article we demonstrate the app's most important features, including how to use them.

Device status

Each time the Calendar Clock refreshes (which is every 15 minutes by default), the Calendar Clock shares its status with the server. This update contains information about the battery level, battery state (charging, discharging), and app version. Using this information, you can both determine whether the Calendar Clock is connected to the server properly, whether it is charging properly, and whether it is on an up-to-date version.

Status notifications

You can choose to receive notifications for this status, by clicking the “Receive important status notifications” button. If you enable this setting, then every time the battery drops below 20% and when the device has not been connected to the server for more than 12 hours, we send you a notification.

The battery level notification gets sent once the device updates its battery status with the server. So you could only get a notification a few minutes after the device has reached 20% battery.

Once every day, our server checks all devices that haven’t connected for between 12 and 36 hours. So you could only get a notification after 24 hours of no connection, rather than immediately after 12 hours.

Screen settings

In the screen settings, you can choose to set: - Whether to show the menu tab - Whether to open the app in full-screen - Whether to have weekday-day-month-year part of day or weekday-day-month-year as a date - Whether to have an analog or digital clock or have buttons for selecting between them - Whether to use a 12-hour or 24-hour time format - How the screen space should be divided - Which language to use - Which font to use - Whether to have the messages display on the top or the bottom - Whether to ring hourly chimes or not - What the default brightness and volume levels are

Here we show different set-ups including the settings used for them:

Additionally, one can set up a week and day overview.

Day overview

The day overview shows next to the clock and shows the upcoming messages. One can choose between two types of day overviews.

The default day overview only shows the messages for today and allows users to manually view the next days. After a minute the day view then automatically switches back to the messages for today again.

The extended day overview fills the screen with as many messages for the coming days.

Both the default and the extended day overview contain the option to hide past events. So if a message was supposed to show between 12:00-13:00 and it is 14:00, then this message won’t show in the day overview.

Week overview

The week overview shows all messages for the coming 7 days. As the week overview consumes all the screen space, a button has to be pressed before the week overview becomes visible. Then, after 2 minutes, the screen switches back to the normal view.

We notice that often visitors enjoy looking at the week overview. This helps them gain an overview of what is going on in the life of the Calendar Clock owner. This observation played a part in our decision not to have the week overview automatically displayed, as switching between the normal clock and the week overview was considered confusing by some of our users.

Color settings

In the color settings, you can choose which colors to show. More importantly, you can also choose to display different colors between certain hours of the day. For instance, you can choose to use black and white as colors during the day and then select the “alternative colors” setting to use red-white buttons during the night.

Lastly, whether by default, the messages show the text in the text color and show the background in the background color, using the “invert message colors” setting, the text will display in the background color and the background in the text color. This might result in a larger contrast and thus in easier-to-read messages.

Night mode settings

To save battery during the night and to keep the peace at night, we added a night mode to Calendar Clock. If you choose to enable the night mode, you can indicate between which hours of the day the night mode should be active. During these hours:

• The brightness is set to a minimum;
• Alarms and hourly chimes do not play;
• The app stops refreshing.

There is an additional option for the night mode, where one can choose whether to have a clock and date displayed during the night mode. This way, those who have their Calendar Clock in the room in which they sleep can still dimly see the time. If you do not enable this feature, the Calendar Clock will show a completely black screen.

Messages settings

The messages settings contain several settings for selecting which and how messages are displayed. There are the following settings:

• Public holidays - shows the public holidays for a given country as messages;
• Automatically delete expired messages - executes a script daily that deletes all old messages (messages that will never be shown again in the future). This helps the app stay “clean”;
• Interval when showing multiple messages - if you have several messages displayed at the same time, this is the interval in which the clock switches between these messages;
• Alarm sound - choose from a range of alarm sounds. Otherwise, the default “piano alarm” is used as an alarm sound;
• Stop alarms after - choose how long the alarm should be visible on the screen before automatically dismissing. This prevents alarms from ringing for hours and hours;
• Hide old tasks - when using tasks, this option can be used to dismiss the tasks from the day overview and message list when they are completed. Otherwise, the tasks remain visible in the day overview and message list, but they will have a checkmark indicating that the tasks have been completed.

Synchronize settings

The synchronize settings contain several settings for loading messages and settings. There are the following settings:

• Refresh new messages and settings every - choose how often the Calendar Clock loads settings and messages from the server;
• Import agenda from iCal file - import all messages from an exported iCal file from your calendar application into Calendar Clock. If this import does not work properly, please contact us!
• Sync with online calendar - automatically load all messages from an online calendar. This is a one-way sync, so from the online calendar to Calendar Clock and not in reverse. We wrote an article on how to set up an online calendar connection for iCloud and Google Calendar. If this syncing does not work properly, please contact us!
• Copy messages from another device - one-time import of all messages from another Calendar Clock into this Calendar Clock. This only works if you have at least two Calendar Clocks connected to your administrator application;
• Copy messages from another device - one-time import of all settings from another Calendar Clock into this Calendar Clock. This only works if you have at least two Calendar Clocks connected to your administrator application;
• Sync with another device - make this Calendar Clock a copy of another Calendar Clock device. Using this setting, all settings and messages of the other Calendar Clock will also be used on this Calendar Clock.

Photo settings (Premium only)

The photo settings can be used to set up a photo carousel on the Calendar Clock device. You can choose from photos on your phone and these photos are then uploaded onto our server. The photos automatically alternate on the Calendar Clock every 60 seconds. If you want to skip to the next photo, you can click on the photo.

Weather settings (Premium only)

The weather settings can be used to show the current weather and wind speed in a given location. You can choose to display the temperature in either Celsius or Fahrenheit and can choose to show the wind speed in mph or m/s.

Video call settings (Premium only)

The video call settings contain several settings regarding video calling. First, video calling should be enabled in order for the video calling to work. Activating the video calling on the Calendar Clock requires the Calendar Clock to refresh. Only then will it start listening for incoming calls. Note that the Calendar Clock must be open to receive incoming calls!

All administrators with Premium can video call a Calendar Clock. Once you video call a Calendar Clock, the device makes a loud ringing sound and shows a large red video calling icon. Then depending on your settings, the device either picks up the call automatically or it shows a call accept/reject button.

After connecting, the Calendar Clock will use the input devices shown in the video call settings during the call. By default, the selfie camera and speakerphone are used.

If you also want the Calendar Clock to be able to call you, you can add yourself as a contact person. After you do this, a calling icon shows next to the date on the Calendar Clock, and this button can be used to call you. Whereas the Calendar Clock should be open for it to receive incoming calls, administrators receive calls just like any other video calling application. So it shows a big notification and makes a calling sound, independent of whether you have the app open or not. Therefore, make sure that you give the app permission to send notifications!

If you have multiple contact persons, after pressing the call icon, the faces and names of the contact persons are shown and they can be pressed to call that person.