What's new in Kiosk Satellite 2026.8.71
The Sendspin player can now show and control another Music Assistant player, a new Hold mode pins whatever is on screen, and the Music Assistant page can drop its floating close button.
Added: Control another Music Assistant player (#265)
- A new "Player to control" picker in the Music Assistant settings (on the device and in the remote admin) points the floating card, the full-screen Now Playing view and the transport buttons at any player the server offers (a Sonos, the kitchen speakers, a whole sync group) instead of this device's own, for the wall tablet whose job is to show and steer music that plays elsewhere. The card follows the chosen player live: its track, artwork, progress, play and pause.
- While a remote player is picked the device is a remote control, not a player: its own Sendspin player shuts down and shows as offline in Music Assistant, so nobody queues music to a screen that was never meant to make any. A warning row under the picker says exactly that, and every setting about the local player (the enable switch, server, codec, sync offset, voice ducking, lyrics) leaves the settings for the duration, while the card and Now Playing rows stay. Picking "This device" brings the player back online with all of its rows.
- The kiosk menu's Music Assistant shortcut now opens with the right player already selected, whether that is the controlled player or this device's own.
- Lyrics stay off while a remote player is followed, since its position is reported too coarsely to sing along with.
Added: Hold mode (#266)
- Hold mode pins whatever is on screen until you say otherwise, made for keeping a recipe or a video up while you cook along. While it is on, the screensaver will not start (a showing one is dismissed the moment hold engages), dashboard view rotation freezes in place, the "return to home dashboard view" timer stands down, and the display stays awake.
- The toggle lives in a new Hold mode group in the Home Assistant settings, on the device and in the remote admin, together with an optional auto release slider (15-minute steps up to 6 hours, 0 holds forever) that ends a forgotten hold by itself.
- The same live state is everywhere it is useful: a "Hold mode" switch on the kiosk's Home Assistant device over both ESPHome and MQTT, a "Toggle hold mode" gesture action (claps included, for flour-covered hands), a notice in the kiosk menu that shows while a hold is active and releases it on a tap, and an on-screen note each time hold mode turns on or off.
- An opt-in "Show in the kiosk menu" toggle adds a "Turn On/Off Hold Mode" entry to the kiosk menu, with a matching Hold Mode allowed action in the Kiosk Mode settings deciding whether it appears in the restricted quick actions menu.
Added: Hide the Music Assistant close button (#264)
- Music Assistant's full-screen Now Playing view puts its three-dot menu in the very corner the floating close button occupies, leaving the menu unreachable under it. A new opt-in "Hide the close button" toggle in the Music Assistant settings, under "Close after inactivity", hands that corner back to the page.
- The back button, a wake word, the kiosk drawer and the inactivity timer still close the page, and every other overlay keeps its close button.