Restaurants & retail

The order tablet shows the menu. Nothing else. All day.

Restaurants and shops use NounDesk to lock Android tablets to a single ordering, check-in or loyalty app with kiosk mode: Home button off, screen kept awake while charging, settings blocked, volume fixed. Each kiosk reports whether it is Ready, Installing app, App missing or Offline, so a dead counter tablet is known before the lunch rush.

Recommended policy: KioskDevices: Order and check-in tablets

Start free See the policy templates

The situation

A tablet at the counter or on the table is a piece of furniture that runs one app. Every problem it can have is the same problem: something other than that app is on the screen. A settings menu, a dead display, a notification, a game.

What NounDesk does for restaurants and shops

One app, full screen

The kiosk wizard takes your ordering app, a package name or a URL and locks the tablet to it. Multi-app kiosks are available for a menu plus a payment app.

Screen on, volume fixed, settings gone

Stay awake while charging, fixed brightness, Home button off, volume locked, Bluetooth and account changes blocked. A customer cannot leave the app; a staff member cannot accidentally change the Wi-Fi.

Know before the rush

Each kiosk reports Ready, Installing app, App missing or Offline. An alert goes out when a tablet is not ready, which beats finding out from a queue.

Updates when you're closed

The Kiosk policy schedules system and app updates overnight. Nothing changes at noon.

Recommended setup

Setting	Choice
Policy template	Kiosk
Groups	“Front counter”, “Tables”, one per location if you have several
Kiosk app	Your ordering or check-in app, or its URL as a web app
Screen	Stay awake while charging, fixed brightness
Alerts	Kiosk app missing, offline over 2 hours during opening hours

Why restaurants and shops pick NounDesk

A tablet becomes a kiosk in four steps, from a browser, by the manager. Tablets get set up with a QR code at each location, and a replacement tablet is running the menu ten minutes after it comes out of the box.

A restaurant or shop tablet is judged in the busiest ten minutes of the day. If it shows a settings screen or a dark display during the lunch rush, the line backs up. NounDesk makes the tablet a fixture that runs one app, and tells you when it stops.

How a rollout works for two locations

A typical small restaurant or shop runs 3 to 6 tablets per location: an order screen or two at the counter, a kitchen display, a check-in or loyalty tablet, and often a manager's phone.

1. Build the kiosk once
In the four-step wizard pick your ordering or loyalty app, or enter its web address, then set the Home button, brightness, stay-awake and volume.
2. One profile per location
Kiosk policy, the location's group and a naming rule like Main-Counter-1. Unbox, factory-reset, scan, and the tablet opens on the order screen.
3. Different screens, different kiosks
The kitchen display and the counter screen can run different apps, and a multi-app kiosk lets one tablet hold a menu app plus a payment app.
4. Manager phones on a normal policy
Staff phones use Standard Business in the same account, so managers keep a normal phone and still get the kiosk alerts by email.

Kiosk mode →Kiosk management →

Kiosk wizard

Pick the app
Set behaviour
Set the screen
Lock down the device

What two locations cost

Two locations with 4 tablets each plus 2 manager phones: 10 devices × $1.50 = $15 a month.

Kiosk mode is included
There is no kiosk add-on. It is part of the $1.50, along with alerts, reports and remote actions.
Open a third site
A new location's 4 tablets add $6 a month. No minimum and no annual contract.
Try it on every device first
The 14-day free trial covers up to 50 devices and needs no card.

Pricing →

Common situations

What happens when…

The situations that actually come up, and what you do about each one.

The order tablet shows the Android home screen

Kiosk mode was interrupted, usually after an app update. The dashboard shows that device as "App missing" and an alert has already gone out. Re-push the kiosk app from the device page; the tablet returns to the order screen without anyone touching it.

A customer starts poking at the settings menu

They cannot reach it. The kiosk wizard blocks settings access and turns off the Home button, so the tablet shows your app and nothing else until an administrator changes it.

You open a second location

Make a group for it, apply the same Kiosk policy, and enroll the new tablets with the same QR code. They come up running the order screen with the same brightness, volume and lockdown as the first shop.

The counter tablet keeps going to sleep

Turn on "stay awake while charging" and set a fixed brightness in the kiosk settings. A docked tablet then stays on through service, and the screen does not dim when the room does.

Features this industry leans on

Dashboard & inventory

An Android device dashboard and inventory for small fleets: see which phones are online, offline or need attention, and filter by group, employee, policy.

App management

Install and manage apps on company Android phones: mark Google Play apps required, available or blocked per policy, and spot missing or outdated apps.

Kiosk mode

Android kiosk mode with no kiosk app to install. Lock a tablet or phone to one app, a few apps or a web page in a four-step wizard, and see each kiosk's health.

Alerts & monitoring

Alerts for company Android devices that go offline, fall out of compliance, install a blocked app or run low on storage. Auto-resolve and email digests.

Other industries

Field service Construction Cleaning & home services Delivery & logistics Security companies Clinics & small healthcare Small schools & training Property management Transportation All industries

From the blog

Restaurants & retail: questions answered

Our ordering system is a website. Can that be a kiosk?

Yes. Enter the URL and NounDesk turns it into a full-screen web app that the kiosk runs. This is how most order screens on NounDesk work.

Can customers get into the tablet's settings?

No. The kiosk wizard blocks settings access and can turn off the Home button. The tablet shows your app until an administrator changes it.

How do I know a tablet has stopped working?

The dashboard shows each kiosk's health: Ready, Installing app, App missing or Offline. An alert emails you if a tablet goes quiet or loses its app.

Can staff phones and kiosk tablets be in the same account?

Yes. Put tablets in groups with the Kiosk policy and staff phones in a group with Standard Business. Each follows its own rules, and the dashboard shows both.

A tablet is taken from the counter. What can I do?

Turn on Lost mode: it locks, shows your number and reports its location while lost mode is on. If it does not come back, erase it; factory reset protection stops it being set up by anyone outside your company.

Ten phones. Ten minutes. Protected.

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