Setting up a shared tablet

A paired shared device already protects your household's data: family members need their PIN to act as themselves, sessions end on their own after a short idle window, an admin can revoke a device instantly from Settings → Shared Devices, and apps opened on the kiosk can't spawn pop-ups or downloads. The screen also dims itself at night on the schedule you set.

What a web app cannot do is stop someone from pressing the home button and wandering off into YouTube, the tablet's settings, or another app. Only the tablet's operating system can pin a device to a single app — and every major platform has a built-in way to do it. Pick your tablet below; setup takes about two minutes.

Guided Access is built into every iPad and locks it to one app until a passcode is entered. It's the most reliable option of any platform.

1. Open Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access and turn it on.
2. Tap Passcode Settings and set a Guided Access passcode. Use something only adults know — and different from anyone's kiosk PIN. You can also allow Face ID / Touch ID to end sessions.
3. In Safari, go to your kiosk address and pair the device. For a cleaner full-screen look, first use the share button and Add to Home Screen, then open it from the new icon.
4. Triple-click the side button (or home button on older iPads) and tap Start. The iPad is now locked to the dashboard.
5. To leave: triple-click again, enter the Guided Access passcode, and tap End.

Also set Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock to Never and keep the tablet plugged in, so the dashboard stays visible. The kiosk's own night dim takes care of the screen after bedtime.

Android's app pinning keeps one app on screen until it's unpinned with the device PIN. Menu names vary a little by manufacturer.

1. Open Settings → Security → App pinning (on Samsung: Settings → Security and privacy → More security settings → Pin app) and turn it on.
2. Turn on Ask for PIN before unpinning — without this, pinning is only a suggestion.
3. In Chrome, go to your kiosk address and pair the device. Use Chrome's menu → Add to Home screen → Install for a full-screen app icon.
4. Open the recent-apps view, tap the app's icon at the top of its card, and choose Pin.
5. To leave: swipe up and hold (or hold Back + Recents on tablets with buttons), then enter the device PIN.

Set Settings → Display → Screen timeout to the longest option and keep the tablet plugged in. One honest caveat: pinning is looser on Android than on iPad — on some tablets the notification shade or quick settings can still peek through. If the tablet is dedicated to the fridge, a kiosk browser (next section) is the stronger choice.

Fire tablets are a popular cheap fridge screen, but Fire OS hides the standard Android pinning controls. The practical route is a kiosk browser: install Fully Kiosk Browser from the Amazon Appstore, set its start URL to your kiosk address, and enable its kiosk mode with an admin PIN. It also keeps the screen awake and reloads after a reboot — set it and forget it.

(Amazon's own "Show Mode" turns the tablet into an Alexa display rather than pinning an app, so it isn't what you want here.)

The steps above are plenty for a family fridge. If you want lockdown that survives a reboot with no one touching the tablet — a common ask for shared spaces like a clubhouse or front desk — that's single-app device management:

On a dedicated iPad, Apple's free Apple Configurator (from a Mac) can put it in Single App Mode, which relaunches the app automatically and can't be exited on the device at all. On Android, the equivalent is a "dedicated device" profile through a mobile device management tool, or simply Fully Kiosk Browser, which covers the same ground for a single tablet without an MDM account.

We don't have a favorite MDM vendor to recommend — for one or two household tablets, you genuinely don't need one.

Pinning protects the tablet in your kitchen; revocation protects your data everywhere else. From Settings → Shared Devices you can revoke any paired device — it stops working immediately, even if it's out the door. Kiosk PINs can be reset from the same page.