The masjid app on phones#

What you need

Time: 30 minutes, plus a trip to the printer

• OpenMasjidOS installed, and you are signed in.
• OpenMasjid Display installed, with one timetable that is correct.
• Remote access turned on, so a phone outside the building can open the app.
• No outside account. This app needs nothing from Stripe or anybody else.

Install it from the App Store, then click Open. It signs you in with your OpenMasjidOS login. Everything below happens inside the app.

What the congregation gets#

A web page that behaves like an app. Somebody scans your poster, opens the link, and adds it to their home screen. There is no app store, no download and no account.

On the phone	What it does
Today, this week, this month	Your Adhan and Iqamah times, from Display.
A countdown	Time until the next Iqamah, with Jumu‘ah and the Hijri date.
Announcements	A notice you send reaches every phone that has not turned notices off.
Prayer reminders	Each person chooses which prayers to be reminded about.
A Qibla compass	From the phone's own location.
Your appeals	Each appeal from Donations, with its progress and a Donate button.
Your contact details	Phone, email, address, website, and any social links you add.

Step 1 — Turn on remote access#

A phone in the car park is not on the masjid's network. The app has to be reachable from outside, or the poster only works for people standing next to the router.

See Reaching your apps from outside if remote access is not set up yet.

Step 2 — Fill in your masjid#

Open Settings in the app. The top section is your masjid: name, phone, email, address, website, and links to WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube or Telegram.

Add your logo here too. The app uses it as the icon on a person's home screen. The masjid's own mark sits on the phone, rather than a generic one.

Step 3 — Add your appeals#

Open Donations, copy the Link to share for an appeal, and paste it into Companion.

Step 4 — Print the poster#

The app generates a QR code and a printable poster pointing at your real public address.

Step 5 — Send one announcement#

Type a notice: a funeral, a closure, a changed Iqamah. It reaches every phone that has not turned notices off, with your masjid's name on it.

An announcement can also send itself: once on a date, every day, or on chosen days at a chosen time, on your masjid's own clock.

What it counts, and what it does not#

Who's using it in the admin panel shows how many phones opened the app in the last month, and whether they were iPhone or Android. It also shows how many opened it from their home screen rather than a browser. That last number tells you whether the poster worked.

Checkpoint

You have scanned your own poster and added the app to your home screen. Today's times match the screen on the wall, and one test announcement arrived.

If something goes wrong

What you see	Why	What to do
The app opens but shows no prayer times.	Display is not installed, is turned off, or has no timetable.	Open Display and check one timetable shows correct times. This app only reads them.
The QR code works inside the masjid and nowhere else.	Remote access is not published for this app.	Open Settings, then Remote access in OpenMasjidOS, and publish Companion. Then print the poster again.
An iPhone has no “Add to Home Screen”.	The link was opened inside another app, such as WhatsApp or Instagram.	Open the link in Safari. The install page explains this, with the steps for that phone.
Nobody is getting prayer reminders.	The phones’ push services are rejecting them.	Check your OpenMasjidOS alerts. This app raises one when reminders fail in bulk.
The times on phones are a day behind.	Phones are showing the last timetable they could fetch.	Check Display is running. The app shows when it last updated, and raises an alert after a few hours.