The Android app
The Little Companion is also a real Android app. Built native in Kotlin, with no wrapped web page inside it. It gives you the things a web page on a phone cannot do: home screen and lock screen widgets, NFC tags from the lock screen, a home fence that works in the background, a watch tile, and hooks for automation apps.
The web Companion and the Android app are the same app with the same five tabs and the same two faces. Everything you log in one is in the other.
The app is downloaded from the site, at caregiverbabyhub.com/beta#android. There is no Play Store listing and no public link. Every download is written down against the account it went to. Please keep the file to yourself. Send a friend to the site instead of sending them the file.
Installing it
- On your Android phone, sign in to the site and open
/beta#android. Tap Download the Android app. It is about 35 MB. - Open the file. Android will ask you to allow installs from your browser for this one file.
- If you have an older build, install this one over it. You do not need to remove the old copy first.
- Open the Companion on the web, go to More, then This phone, then Keys, voice and shortcuts, and make a phone key. Scan its QR code in the app to sign in.
- Add a widget or two from your home screen's widget picker.
The card on /beta shows the build number and when it was posted. When a new build is posted, download it and install it over the old one.
iPhone
The iPhone version is still being built. The web Companion works on an iPhone today, with Add to Home Screen. You will hear on the site first when the native one is ready.
Widgets
Four widget families, in several sizes each.
| Widget | Sizes | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Quick log | 1×1 to 4×2 | One-tap Drink, Change and Check keys. A tick confirms for a moment |
| Day progress | 4×2 to 4×4 | The day's bar, the next chore with a Done key, and a few rows of what is coming |
| Now and Next | 2×1 to 3×2 | What is happening now and what is next |
| Home-by | 2×1 to 3×2 | A countdown to your back-by time with a Home safe key. On an open trip it says "No clock running" |
Now and Next and Home-by are declared for the lock screen. Android only shows third-party lock screen widgets on Android 15 and 16 tablets so far. On a phone those two live on the home screen.
Widgets refresh on a schedule of about fifteen minutes, and every five minutes while a trip is running. A failed read never empties a widget.
NFC tags
The app reads tags whether the phone is locked or not, and it writes them. Program a tag inside the app formats a blank tag and writes the action. Tags written on the web and tags written in the app do the same things through the same routes.
The home fence
Set your home point in the app. It is stored on the phone only. The server sees events, never your coordinates.
With the fence on, leaving home can start a trip and arriving can offer to bring you home. It defaults to Ask me first. You can switch it to Just do it. Leaving through the fence starts an open trip, with no back-by time, so a fence exit is never late. The fence re-arms after a reboot.
The watch tile
A tile for a Galaxy Watch or a Pixel Watch. Four one-tap keys and one glance line. Taps go to the phone and the phone does the thing.
- Install the Android app on your phone first, over any older copy.
- Open the Galaxy Wearable app or the Pixel Watch app on your phone. The Companion shows as having a watch app, and the tile can be added.
- Wear OS 3 and up only. That is a Galaxy Watch 4 or newer, and any Pixel Watch. Tizen watches, Fitbit and Garmin cannot take it.
Automation
Tasker, MacroDroid and Home Assistant. The app has an automation door. Mint a secret once in the app, and an automation can log, check out, check in, or read status, and gets a result back. The recipes are in the app.
What the Android app does not have yet
- Push notifications. The web Companion has them, with buttons on them. The native app does not yet.
- The iPhone version.
If a build does something wrong, say so on /beta. Every report there goes to the owner.