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Setup 4 min read

Keep an Android kiosk tablet always on

Stop the screen sleeping, drop the lock-screen PIN, and auto-relaunch Punchly after every reboot.

An Android tablet running as a kiosk needs to behave differently from a personal phone: the screen should never sleep, waking it should never ask for a PIN, and if it ever loses power it should come back up already showing the clock-in screen. None of that is on by default — here’s how to set it up.

This guide is Android-specific. Running an iPad instead? Guided Access already keeps the screen awake and locked to one app, so most of this doesn’t apply.

1. Stop the screen from turning off

Android’s normal screen timeout will dim and lock a kiosk tablet in the middle of a shift. The reliable fix is Developer options → Stay awake, which keeps the screen on for as long as the tablet is plugged in.

  1. Open Settings → About tablet (or About phone).
  2. Tap Build number seven times, until it says “You are now a developer.”
  3. Go back to Settings → System → Developer options.
  4. Turn on Stay awake. The screen will now stay on while charging, even when idle.
  5. Keep the tablet plugged into power at all times — this setting does nothing on battery.
Developer options → Stay awake, with the tablet on charge.
Can’t keep it plugged in — say it’s a tablet you carry between stations? Install a free keep-awake app such as Caffeine from Google Play instead. It forces the screen to stay on using battery power, at the cost of faster battery drain.

2. Drop the lock screen

If the power button ever gets bumped, you don’t want whoever’s standing there to need a PIN to get back to the clock-in screen.

  1. Open Settings → Security (sometimes Lock screen).
  2. Tap Screen lock and change it to None or Swipe.
  3. Waking the tablet now goes straight back to Punchly, no password prompt in the way.
Only do this on a device that’s dedicated to the kiosk and physically secured on-site. Removing the lock screen means anyone who picks up the tablet has full access to it — pair this with locking it to just Punchly so the only thing they can actually reach is the clock-in screen.

3. Auto-relaunch Punchly after a reboot

A power blip or an automatic system update will restart the tablet — and a stock browser won’t reopen your kiosk tab on its own. To recover without anyone touching the device, you need something that launches Punchly the moment the tablet boots.

  • Using Fully Kiosk Browser (recommended for multiple devices — it also handles steps 1 and 2 above for you): open its settings and turn on Launch on Boot, with your workplace’s kiosk link set as the start URL.
  • Using standard Chrome: install a free launcher app such as AutoStart – No Root from Google Play, and configure it to open Chrome to your workplace’s kiosk link as soon as the tablet powers on.
You already added Punchly to the home screen? Point the auto-launch app at that home-screen shortcut instead of a raw URL — it opens full-screen with no address bar, exactly like a real kiosk app.

Put together, these three steps mean the tablet stays lit, stays on the clock-in screen, and finds its own way back there after any restart — the closest you’ll get to dedicated kiosk hardware without buying any.