I want a screen that hangs on my wall and shows my phone notifications.

January 15, 2018 2:00 PM

I want to spend less time looking at my phone. I think it would help if my phone behaved more like an old-fashioned wall-mounted phone. To this end, I want a screen that is mounted on my wall and displays incoming phone notifications.

The idea is that I could plug my phone into this device when I am at home and ignore it, and when I get a text message or whatever it would show up on the big screen, so I could know whether it's important before I pick up my phone.

Does this piece of technology exist? I want to be able to buy it off the shelf, I'm not tech-savvy enough to make it with a raspberry pi or some such.

Thanks!

posted by mai to Technology (12 answers total)

Response by poster: I will add that this is really hard to google because googling phone and screen just leads me to lots of info about regular phone screens.
posted by mai at 2:01 PM on January 15, 2018

Best answer: What kind of phone do you have? If it were me (iphone user) I'd put this together with a kiosked iPad that just ran the Messages app.
posted by jessamyn at 2:04 PM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: It's an iphone. That's not a bad idea! Any idea how to make the messages show up big enough that I don't have to walk over to the ipad screen to see them? I am really hoping for a grandma-style situation here.
posted by mai at 2:07 PM on January 15, 2018

Best answer: Accessbility features have you covered. Bonus tip: you can use one of these to affix it to the wall.
posted by jessamyn at 2:10 PM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

If you have a pile of cash lying around you don't need and want something totally cool, Vestaboard will be launching later this year.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:38 PM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

This isn't an on-the-wall display, but one of the reasons I like my Apple Watch is exactly that I can see if someone is sending me a notification (and what it says) without having to get my phone out, check my email, etc., etc.

And I'm less likely to miss phone calls (which happen only rarely) because of not feeling the vibration/hearing the ringer.

And it tells the time.
posted by leahwrenn at 5:11 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Follow up question - I can only get the messages app on my iPad to receive iMessage texts. I'd like it to display all my texts. Is this possible? My iPad already mysteriously gets calls forwarded from my phone. Can it do this with sms messages?
posted by mai at 7:10 PM on January 15, 2018

Best answer: You have to make sure it is receiving messages from your phone and your email. This support document should help you check those things.
posted by jessamyn at 7:37 PM on January 15, 2018

I was coming in to say Apple Watch as well. You should be able to adjust the settings to get all messages. You iPad is getting your calls also because at some point, you gave it permission though to do so.
posted by tamitang at 8:36 PM on January 15, 2018

I can only get the messages app on my iPad to receive iMessage texts. I'd like it to display all my texts. Is this possible?

If you mean that you get blue bubble messages on your iPad but not green bubble messages and you want to know if you can get green bubble messages on your iPad, the answer is yes. I have this set up and it works great for messaging from my iPad Mini when my phone is elsewhere.

To enable green bubble messages on your iPad: On your iPhone, tap Settings, then scroll down and tap Messages, then see if you see a "Text Message Forwarding" selection. If you do, tap it and make sure the switch next to the name of your iPad is turned on. This selection should be available because you get calls on your iPad so the link between your iPhone and iPad is working.

(Note: If you don't want to get calls on your iPad, you can turn off that feature. On your iPhone, tap Settings, then scroll down and tap Phone, then look for "Calls on Other Devices." Tap that and turn off the "Allow Calls on Other Devices" switch.)
posted by fireoyster at 11:26 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

You are not the only one with this wish: Vestaboard (slyt teaser; not sure if it's a real thing, but it speaks to your desire to display texts on a wall-mounted screen).
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:42 AM on January 16, 2018

Screen Mirroring to Apple TV w/ a TV.
posted by at at 3:30 PM on January 16, 2018