For the past 4 years we've been using a cheap Android tablet as a digital photo frame. It was going great, but over the years, it became apparent it wasn't an ideal solution:

• The app would pull many gigabytes over the network each day, because it scanned all of our photo files directly from our photos' network share, and displayed the original full-resolution photos (despite its own low-res screen).
• The automatic night shutdown and morning boot of the tablet started being very unreliable.
• And most worryingly, having the tablet plugged in 24/7 meant that the battery had started slightly bulging.

Because we now have Immich as the main layer to viewing our photos, I wanted to use it to somehow display photos on a screen. I wanted Immich to randomise and present lower resolution photos from the server-side itself, rather than relying on the screen client to do it.

Server-side

Surprisingly, Immich doesn't have a decent built-in service for it, but there are other projects that can plug into the Immich API. I narrowed it down to ImmichFrame and Immich Kiosk.

After playing around with both in Docker containers, I decided to go with Immich Kiosk, mainly because I loved the comprehensive docs (I am a technical writer, after all!).

Device

The next choice was what to use as the client device. I wasn't too happy having a battery plugged in all the time, so I thought I was going to need either an expensive kiosk screen or roll my own with something like a Raspberry Pi and an add-on screen.

After some googling, the other option I found was to use a cheap Frameo frame, which is essentially a low-powered, cut-down Android device. I didn't realise Frameo is just the software, with various device manufacturers building hardware that run it.

I went with a cheap 10" one from Amazon, for only ~$70. I wasn't actually planning on using the Frameo software, and the device seemed decent.

Client-side

Immich Kiosk and Immich Frame essentially just present a web app that you can point clients with a web browser to in order to show photos. All the indexing, presentation, and photo cycling happens on the server-side.

So, on the Frameo frame, I needed to disable the Frameo app and use some kind of browser to view the Immich Kiosk service.

The Immich Kiosk docs have a great tutorial on how to use ADB to connect to the Frameo device and update the old Android WebView (basically the Android internal 'browser' service) to a more recent one. Then, we have a few options for a kiosk-style browser app on the Frameo.

I tried using Fully Kiosk Browser, but it was very finicky on the Frameo (e.g. I couldn't exit the menus!), so ironically, after not going with ImmichFrame earlier, I ended up using its client app on the Frameo to connect to my Immich Kiosk server!

Apparently, the devs of both projects get along really well with supporting each other, which is really great to see.

Overall

I'm very happy with the result. The Frameo device is a much better look than the old tablet, and there are no bulging battery worries anymore.

For what I'm using it for, the Frameo is decently responsive, and there are no issues with the ImmichFrame client app viewing the Immich Kiosk server.

Because the frame only connects to the web view of Immich Kiosk, it doesn't need any direct file access like the old tablet did, so the general network traffic is also greatly reduced.