Putting LynxPoker on the tablets in your room
The Dealer app and the Floor app run in the tablet's browser — there is nothing to download from a store. Ten minutes of setup per tablet is the difference between an app your dealers use without thinking and a web page they keep tapping out of by accident.
Install it, don't bookmark it
Adding the app to the tablet's home screen is not a shortcut to a web page — it launches without the address bar or tabs, so the whole screen is the app and there is nothing above the felt for a dealer to hit by mistake. A plain bookmark keeps all of it.
iPad
Open the app in Safari and sign in
Go to app.lynx.poker in Safari — not Chrome. Only Safari can add an app to the home screen on iPadOS. Sign in as the staff member who will use this tablet.
Add it to the home screen
Tap the Share button at the top right, then Add to Home Screen — on newer iPads the share sheet shows a short list first, so tap More if you do not see it. Leave Open as Web App switched on, then tap Add. You now have a LynxPoker icon on the home screen.
From now on, open the app from that icon. Opening it in Safari again gives you the address bar back.
Stop the screen going to sleep
Settings, then Display & Brightness, then Auto-Lock, then Never. The app asks iPadOS to keep the screen on while it is in use, and this makes sure of it during a long level when nobody touches the glass.
Lock the tablet to the app
Settings, then Accessibility, then Guided Access. Turn it on and set a passcode. Then open the app from its icon and triple-click the top button to start Guided Access. The home screen, the app switcher and Safari are all out of reach until somebody triple-clicks and enters the passcode.
Set the passcode before you hand the tablet to anyone. Without one, exiting falls back to the device passcode, which your staff may already know.
Android tablet
Open the app in Chrome and sign in
Go to app.lynx.poker in Chrome. Sign in as the staff member who will use this tablet.
Install it
Open Chrome's menu — the three dots, top right — and find the item with a screen-and-downward-arrow icon. Its wording changes between Chrome versions: newer tablets say Install and create shortcut, older ones say Add to Home screen. Both are the same item. Tap it, and if two options appear, take the first one, Install — the other one makes a bookmark that opens inside Chrome. Chrome then adds a LynxPoker icon that launches without the address bar.
If that item reads Open LynxPoker instead, this tablet already has the app installed.
Stop the screen going to sleep
Settings, then Display, then Screen timeout, and pick the longest option available.
Lock the tablet to the app
Settings, then Security, then Screen pinning. Turn it on, open the app, then pin it from the app switcher. Android names this differently across manufacturers — Samsung calls it Pin windows.
Setting up the room
One tablet per table
The first time the Dealer app opens on a tablet it asks which table it is. That choice is remembered on that device, so the tablet stays on its table across shifts and reloads.
If a tablet ends up on the wrong table
By default a dealer cannot move a tablet to another table — that is deliberate, so nobody wanders between tables mid-tournament. A director can allow it in Settings, then Dealers, by turning on the table-change permission for the dealer app.
The Floor app wants its own tablet
The Floor app is for the person walking the room: tables, players, the clock, the dealer board. It is a different surface from the Dealer app, and it works best on a tablet that is not sitting on a table.
Two things to expect
The on-screen keyboard can cover the bottom bar
On iPad, typing in a text field can hide the Floor app's bottom row of tabs behind the keyboard. Close the keyboard to get it back. We are working on this.
Swiping in from the edge can go back a screen
iPadOS treats a swipe from the very edge of the screen as a back gesture, in any app. Guided Access is the reliable way to stop it while a tournament is running.
Troubleshooting
You cannot find the install option in Chrome
Go by the icon rather than the words — a screen with a downward arrow, part-way down the menu. It is called Install and create shortcut on newer tablets and Add to Home screen on older ones, and both install the app. If it is greyed out or says the app cannot be installed, check the address is app.lynx.poker, reload the page once, and open the menu again.
The address bar is still there
Either the tablet is opening the app in the browser rather than from the icon you added — close the tab and launch from the icon instead — or the icon is a shortcut rather than the app. On Android that happens when Create shortcut was picked instead of Install, and on iPad when Open as Web App was switched off. Delete the icon and add it again.
A tablet keeps asking to sign in
Each tablet signs in on its own. Sign in once from the home-screen icon and it stays signed in there — signing in inside Safari does not carry over to the installed app.