Set up Room Mode

Room Mode turns a tablet into a shared, room-pinned logging station for teachers. Any teacher working in the center can pick up the tablet, tap their own avatar, and log activities, meals, snacks, naps, diapers, and photos against the room it lives in. No one signs in or out individually — the tablet stays in Room Mode until an admin exits with a password.

Room Mode is different from Kiosk Mode: kiosks are parent-facing for check-in/out, Room Mode is staff-facing for in-room logging. The two can run on separate tablets at the same time.

When to use Room Mode

• You keep a shared tablet inside each classroom for logging.
• You want every entry attributed to the staff member who actually did the activity, without each one signing in.
• You don't want teachers logging from their personal phones for privacy or device-policy reasons.

If teachers each log from their own phone using their own account, you don't need Room Mode at all.

Start Room Mode on the tablet

You can start Room Mode from the web dashboard, the iOS app, or the Android app. Pick whichever is easier to do from the tablet you're holding.

From the web dashboard

1. Sign in at https://nestlicare.com as a super admin or center admin.
2. In the sidebar, click Room Mode under the Organization section.
3. Pick the center the tablet belongs to.
4. Pick the room the tablet will live in.
5. The tablet switches into the fullscreen Room Mode home.

From iOS or Android

1. Open the NestliCare app and sign in as a super admin or center admin.
2. Go to the admin home tab.
3. Tap the Room Mode tile.
4. Pick the center, then the room.
5. The app switches to fullscreen Room Mode.

The tablet now has a device-scoped token that is separate from your admin login. Your admin session in your normal browser or phone stays valid. The Room Mode token only has permission to log activities and meals for the pinned room, and to read the staff avatar list and the children currently in that room.

Log an activity in Room Mode

The flow is the same on web, iOS, and Android:

1. Tap Log activity on the Room Mode home.
2. Pick the staff member doing the activity from the avatar grid. This is the first step every time, because the device is shared.
3. Pick the activity type (diaper, nap, photo, note, and so on, plus More Types for the full list).
4. Pick the children the activity applies to.
5. Add notes or photos and submit.

If the activity type is a meal or snack, the flow routes to the meal step instead:

• Pick the meal type (Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner). The current time of day picks a sensible default.
• Add food items. New items can be added inline from the picker.
• Pick portions (bulk or per-child).
• Attach photos optionally.
• Submit.

Each log is attributed to the staff member you picked, not to the device. In the activity feed parents and admins see "Maria Santos logged nap," not "Room Mode logged nap."

Attach photos

On every Room Mode log step that supports media (regular activities and meals), you can:

• Take Photo — opens the tablet camera so the teacher can snap the moment and attach it directly.
• Library (iOS) / Gallery (Android) — pick an existing photo from the tablet.

The first time a teacher taps Take Photo on Android, the system prompts for camera permission — allow it once and it sticks.

Exit Room Mode

When you need to take the tablet out of Room Mode (to reuse it for admin work, swap it to a different room, or pack it away):

1. Tap Exit in the corner.
2. Enter an admin email and password to confirm.
3. The Room Mode token clears and the tablet returns to your normal admin view.

Without the admin password, Room Mode is sticky. A curious teacher or parent can't poke their way back into your admin account.

If you ever need to switch a tablet to a different room, exit and re-provision — pick the new room. A tablet can only be pinned to one room at a time.

Who can start Room Mode

• Super admins — every center, every room.
• Center admins — only centers they have access to. Within those centers, all rooms are available.
• Teachers — cannot provision Room Mode, but can use a tablet that's already in Room Mode.

The Room Mode tile is hidden from the home/dashboard for users who don't qualify.

Security properties worth knowing

• The Room Mode JWT is scoped to activity logging and meal logging for the single room it was provisioned for. Even if someone copied it off the tablet, they couldn't access billing, families, staff, or other rooms.
• The exit password verification calls /auth/verify-admin-password — a Room Mode token alone cannot escape itself; only a valid admin credential can.
• The same admin-password exit flow is now used by Kiosk Mode too, so the two device modes share the same exit UX.
• Room Mode devices don't appear in your Staff list. They have their own internal record (one per active room device) and aren't counted as employees.

What to mount it to

The same advice as kiosk tablets applies, but inside the classroom rather than the lobby:

• Wall mount or counter stand — out of reach of toddlers, in reach of teachers.
• Charge-through enclosure — Room Mode tablets stay on all day.
• Auto-lock disabled while plugged in — set this in the tablet's OS settings. NestliCare doesn't override OS-level screen timing.

Troubleshooting

The Room Mode tile isn't showing on my dashboard / admin home. The tile only appears for super admins and center admins. Sign in with an admin account, or ask a super admin to grant you center-admin access.

No rooms appear in the room picker. The center has no rooms yet. Add one in Rooms → New Room before starting Room Mode for that center.

Activities logged in Room Mode show the wrong staff member. Each log records the staff member you picked on the first step — that's by design, because the device is shared. If a teacher forgot to pick themselves, open the activity in the room feed, tap ⋯ → Edit, and an admin can correct who recorded it.

"Take Photo" does nothing on Android. The tablet hasn't granted camera permission yet, or the system prompt was dismissed. Open Android Settings → Apps → NestliCare → Permissions → Camera and set to Allow.

Tablet logged itself out of Room Mode. Room Mode tokens are long-lived but the tablet itself may have gone to sleep or rebooted. Reprovision from the sidebar or admin tile — the room you picked before is the default.

A teacher needs to log for a different room. Room Mode is room-pinned. Exit and reprovision for the other room, or use a tablet that's already pinned there. Teachers logging from their personal app can pick any room they're assigned to.

I want to disable Room Mode for a center. Exit on every tablet that's running it. Provisioning is an explicit per-tablet action, so just don't start it again. There's no global toggle to disable.