Signal apps: Reelhost on your TV and phone

Signal is Reelhost's own app for TVs and phones. On your home network it finds Reelhost by itself and signs in with each person's own Jellyfin account, so there's no extra password. It's on as soon as Reelhost runs, at home and, once your web address works, from away; turn either off under People & devices → Connect devices → Signal apps. On a computer it works while Reelhost runs there, also with its window closed (it stays in the tray, see Keep Reelhost running); in Docker, on Reelhost's own port.

At home

Reelhost listens for Signal only on this computer's home-network addresses, never on one the internet could reach, and answers only devices on your home network (and your Tailscale network, unless you untick Devices on my Tailscale network count as home). On Windows it adds its own firewall rule, Reelfix - Signal apps, for your local network only; turning Signal at home off removes it, and so does removing Reelhost.

Who may do what

Admins in Jellyfin are admins here. They see why something is wrong, run fixes, and use Reelhost's screens from Signal.
Everyone else sees how each part of the server is doing in plain words (movies, shows, Live TV, music, away from home), where to connect, and can ask Reelhost a question. They can't change anything; Remind tells you instead.
An admin can let one person do more: run fixes, manage people, look after Live TV, or restore backups. They give it in Signal, with their PIN; Take back on the computer undoes it.
What stays on the computer stays there for Signal too: the license key, buying, removing a person or a library, removing Reelhost. From away, Signal can't change remote access, the router or the firewall, or restore a backup.

Each person's Signal PIN

Restoring a backup, removing things, changing someone's password and turning off remote access ask for the person's own Signal PIN, even on their own phone. Each admin chooses theirs in Signal, at home; a phone can then use Face ID or fingerprint instead. Five wrong PINs lock it for 15 minutes, then longer each time, and Reelhost tells you. Forgotten? Reset PIN next to their name (or another admin, in Signal); they choose a new one.

Remind and Activity

Remind: when someone at home taps it in Signal, it shows on Reelhost's Home under Worth a look, as a notification on the computer, and by email if alerts are on. Once per person and part of the server in 6 hours, five a day each.
Your server → Activity lists what admins did through Signal (who, what, when, and whether it worked), what Reelhost refused, and every call from away, newest first. Looks at home aren't listed, and nothing secret is: no passwords, PINs or what was typed.

From away

On by default: once your web address works, Signal uses https://app.yourname.watchhome.app (the same address Control from your phone uses), over HTTPS only. To keep it safe:

Jellyfin sign-in only. From away, Reelhost's own password never works for Signal, and if Jellyfin isn't answering, nothing gets in.
The phone itself confirms. Anything that can't be undone asks for the phone's own Face ID or fingerprint, set up in Signal at home. A PIN alone works only at home.
New devices. The first time a device uses Signal from away, Reelhost tells you on Home under Worth a look, as a notification and by email if alerts are on, with Block this device. A blocked device can't reach Reelhost at home or away, and Reelhost signs it out of Jellyfin. Every device that used Signal is listed under Devices, where you can block or unblock it.
Limits. Each address and each person can only try so often; an address that keeps sending wrong sign-ins waits longer each time, and you're told. If many arrive at once, Reelhost turns Signal from away off by itself until you turn it on again (at home it keeps working).
Your switch works at once. Turning Signal from away off refuses the next request. Activity lists every call from away, with the device and where it came from.

Watch together

Start a room from a title in Signal: it shows a 4-character code, a link and a QR code. Others join with the code. Everyone sees who paused, reacts and chats, and Signal keeps everyone in step. Rooms end after 6 hours, or 30 minutes after everyone left.
Invite someone at home. Anyone in a room can invite other people on your server: Signal lists everyone, and shows who can't come and why (they're already in, the title is above their rating limit, they can't open it, or no Signal app of theirs is open). The invite pops up on each Signal app they have open, and they join with the room's code as usual; Jellyfin still decides whether they may watch it. Each invite is in Activity.
Guests without an account on your server join with a guest invite from someone in the room. They can play, pause, react and chat, for that title only, and get no account on your server. Removing them, or ending the room, stops them at once. Turning Signal off, or pausing it from the tray, ends every room.

Finding your server, and invites

Show this server in my Reelhost account is on by default once Reelhost has your license key (Home says so once, with Turn it off). A TV or phone signed in to Signal with your Reelhost account (with a code it shows, approved on your phone) then finds your server without typing an address, and signs you in as your own profile. Reelhost's name service keeps only the server's name, id and its addresses on your home network, and only your own devices and the family members you invited see them. Turn it off under Connect devices → Signal apps: that deletes them and it stays off. Removing Reelhost deletes them too.
An admin (or someone allowed to manage people) can make an invite link for someone on your server, with their PIN: opened on that person's TV, it signs them in with Quick Connect, without a password. It works once, for 7 days, never for an admin, and can be taken back.

Family members without a license

With Show this server in my Reelhost account on, Family members (under Connect devices → Signal apps) invites someone by email as one of your server's Jellyfin users (never an admin). They click Join the household in the email, then sign in to Signal with that email: nothing to buy, and Signal finds your server by itself.
They see only this server, in plain words, and can Remind you and watch together. They can't change anything in Reelhost, never get admin powers, and don't count as one of your license's computers. Tick May send Signal invites to let one of them send invite links too.
An invite works once, for 7 days, and Take back stops it. Remove signs them out of Signal and the Reelhost account at once; their Jellyfin user stays. Your Reelhost account's Household page lists them too, with when each was last seen, and lets you do the same from anywhere. A household has up to 20 members and open invites.

So Signal can find Reelhost from Jellyfin's address, Reelhost keeps a small entry in each person's Jellyfin display settings with this computer's address. Turning Signal apps off empties it, and so does removing Reelhost.