Using Daily View

How families manage Daily View remotely

Daily View is built so that the people who organise your parent’s day don’t need to be in the room to do it. Here’s how it works, and how family and carers can share the job.

By Phil Martin, founder of Daily View · 8 minute read

Two parts: the screen and the dashboard

Setting up the screen

You only need to be with the tablet once, to connect it to your account.

1. Choose a tablet — an old one you already have is usually fine. See Choosing a tablet for Daily View.
2. On the dashboard’s Devices page, add the screen. You’ll be given a short pairing code to connect the tablet — Setting up the Daily View screen walks you through it step by step.
3. Once it’s paired, the screen can be left alone. Everything else is done from the dashboard.

Adding what’s happening

On the Calendar page, add the things that make up your parent’s day: visits, appointments, outings and phone calls. Give each one a time and a short, plain title — written the way your parent would say it, such as “Sarah visiting” or “Hair appointment”.

Regular events

Events can repeat every week, every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks, every month or every year — ideal for a weekly lunch club, a monthly check-up or a birthday. You only need to set them up once.

Advance notice

Some events are worth mentioning before the day. For each event you can choose to show it as coming up from the day before, a few days before, or a week before — or not in advance at all.

If you don’t choose, Daily View uses sensible defaults: monthly events are shown the day before, yearly events a few days before (you can change this in Settings), and weekly events aren’t announced in advance, as they’d be on the screen almost every day.

When plans change

Edit an event and the screen will update. If something isn’t happening any more, you can cancel it, which takes it off the screen, or delete it altogether.

Keeping something off the screen

Not everything needs to be on display. Each event has two separate settings: Show on Daily View, for the main screen, and Visible in My calendar, for your parent’s own calendar (more on that below). Untick both to keep an event on the family calendar only — useful for a surprise, or for something that might cause worry if seen too early.

Sending a message

From the Messages page you can put a short, important update on the screen so it stands out — for example, “Sarah’s train is late. She’ll be with you at 3pm.” You choose when a message starts and stops showing, so it doesn’t linger once it’s out of date.

My calendar: letting your parent look ahead

The main screen shows today. If your parent wants to see further ahead — “When is Sarah coming?” — they can open My calendar from the screen itself. It shows their calendar a day, a week or a list at a time, in the same large, calm type, with a big Back to Daily View button. If it’s left alone for a few minutes, the screen goes back to Daily View by itself.

The settings below are all under Settings → Viewer access on the dashboard. They apply to every screen on the account, and only an owner can change them.

How it opens

To start with, there’s no button on the screen: touching anywhere on Daily View opens My calendar. If you prefer, you can show a small My calendar button in the corner instead, or switch My calendar off altogether. You can also choose how long the screen waits before going back to Daily View — 5 minutes to start with. Anything half-typed isn’t saved when it goes back.

Looking, or making changes too

To begin with, My calendar is for looking only — your parent can’t change anything. If it would help them, you can allow each of these separately:

• Add items
• Edit items
• Delete items
• Mark items as complete

Turn on only what’s helpful. Someone who likes to note down their own plans might just be allowed to add items, for example. Changes made on the screen reach the dashboard straight away.

Keeping important things safe

Events added from the dashboard can’t be changed from the screen, even when changes are allowed — so a hospital appointment can’t be deleted by mistake. Your parent can still see them. Things your parent adds themselves can be changed by them. You can change either of these for any single event under Changes from the Daily View screen when you edit it.

Checking changes first

If you’d like to see changes before they take effect, turn on approval for new items, edits or deletions (each is separate). Changes then wait under Pending approvals on the Today page, where an owner can approve them, adjust them first, or turn them down. Until then your parent sees “Awaiting approval” beside the item, and the main Daily View screen stays as it was. Marking something complete never needs approval.

A PIN, if you want one

You can ask for a PIN of 4 to 6 numbers before My calendar opens — useful if other people might touch the screen. It’s off to start with, and the PIN is never shown on the dashboard once it’s set.

Seeing what’s changed

Recent activity on the Today page lists changes made on the screen, such as “Mum added Hairdresser on Daily View.” Opening an event shows its history. In Viewer access you can choose whether these use your parent’s name or a family name such as “Mum” — the screen itself always just says “My calendar”.

Inviting family and carers

Keeping the day up to date is easier when the job is shared. From the People page, invite someone by email and choose what they can do:

• Owner Full control: events, messages, the screen, people and settings.
• Carer / Family member Can add and change events and messages.
• Viewer Can see the schedule, but can’t change anything.
• Device manager Looks after the screen and its display settings only — handy for the family member who’s good with technology.

The person you invite receives an email with a link to accept and set up their own sign-in.

The Viewer role is for someone signing in to the dashboard. What your parent can do on their own screen is set separately, in Viewer access.

Checking the screen is working

• The Today page shows a preview of what’s on your parent’s screen.
• The Devices page shows whether the screen is online, and lets you refresh it remotely if something doesn’t look right.

What if the internet drops?

The screen checks for updates about once a minute. If the Wi‑Fi goes down, it carries on showing the most recent update and the clock keeps running. After a few minutes, a small notice appears to show it’s offline. When the connection comes back, it catches up by itself — there’s nothing anyone needs to do.

Changes in My calendar need a connection. If the Wi‑Fi is down, your parent sees a calm message asking them to try again, and nothing is saved until it’s back.

Tips for sharing the job

• Agree who’s in charge. One owner, and one person who looks over the week ahead — perhaps every Sunday evening.
• Keep titles short and familiar. “Doctor” can be clearer than “GP review – Dr Patel”.
• Less is more. A few important events are easier to take in than a long list.
• Tell visiting carers about the screen, so they can point to it too.

Privacy

Only people you invite can see or change your parent’s schedule on the dashboard. On the screen, My calendar shows only events marked Visible in My calendar, and allows only the changes you’ve turned on. You can read more in our privacy policy.

Need a hand? Email support@dailyview.org.