Chrome OS digital signage for Chromebox kiosks, a Chrome Sign Builder replacement
Chrome OS digital signage is a Chromebox or other ChromeOS device in kiosk mode that opens a signage web app on boot and plays your schedule full screen. Displayer is that web app: you add its URL as a kiosk app in the Google Admin console, the device launches it after every restart, and the screen is paired with a six digit code. It needs no Chrome app, so it keeps working after Google ended Chrome apps in kiosk mode with ChromeOS 150 in July 2026, which is also why Chrome Sign Builder is leaving the Chrome Web Store.
Build the screen your Chromebox will show, right here
The screen builder below renders what a Chrome device plays once it opens the Displayer URL. Pick a venue, a layout and an orientation, type three lines, and watch the loop run with its live clock and ticker. No account is needed.
- Venue: restaurant, retail store, clinic, gym, office, school, plant floor, church, senior living or real estate office
- Orientation: landscape 16:9 or portrait 9:16
- Layout: full bleed, main plus sidebar, or a menu board in three columns
- Content: your business name and three short lines, prefilled for the venue you picked
The schedule strip underneath shows the same playlist placed on a weekly grid, which is exactly what the schedule view does inside the product.
Chrome apps in kiosk mode are finished
Google set July 2026, ChromeOS version 150, as the last release that supports Chrome apps in kiosk mode. Devices on the long term support channel keep them until April 2027. After that, any signage player built as a Chrome app stops launching, and that includes Chrome Sign Builder, which Google is removing from the Chrome Web Store at the end of ChromeOS 150.
Google's own suggested path is to deploy a signage web app through the Admin console by adding its URL and setting it to auto launch on kiosk devices. Displayer was built that way from the start, so moving a Chromebox fleet over is a policy change in the console, not a hardware project. Your Chromeboxes, your enrolment and your Kiosk and Signage Upgrade licences all stay.
How Displayer runs on Chrome OS
The player is a web page, so a ChromeOS device in kiosk mode pointed at the Displayer URL is a complete screen. In the Admin console you add the URL as a kiosk web app, push it to the organizational unit that holds your signage devices and set it to auto launch. The device comes up on its own after every restart and power cut.
Nothing is installed by hand and nothing is imaged. A replacement Chromebox is provisioned by enrolling it and letting the policy apply, then typing the pairing code once. Content is cached on the device, so a store or lobby whose network drops keeps playing and sends its play record when the connection returns.
Chrome Sign Builder and Displayer compared
| Chrome Sign Builder | Displayer | |
|---|---|---|
| Packaging | Chrome app, kiosk support ends with ChromeOS 150 | Web app opened by URL, unaffected by the Chrome app shutdown |
| Price | No charge | 19 USD per screen monthly or 9 USD yearly on Essential |
| Scheduling | Schedules of URLs per device | Playlists, weekly schedules, dayparts and dated campaigns |
| Content | Web pages you host yourself | Images, video, templates, a media library and web pages |
| Many screens | Schedule exported per device or group | Groups and locations, one change reaches every tagged screen |
| Evidence | None | Proof of play with screenshots, exportable to CSV |
| Alerts | None | Email alerts when a screen goes offline |
| Other devices | ChromeOS only | ChromeOS, Android, Windows, smart TVs and commercial displays |
Sign Builder cost nothing, and if all you need is a single URL on one screen, a kiosk web app pointed at your own page still does that. The reason to pay is everything around the screen: a schedule your team edits without touching the Admin console, groups across locations, alerts, and a record of what played.
Why sites run signage on Chrome devices
- Automatic ChromeOS updates, with no dialog that can appear over your content
- Kiosk mode that reopens itself after a crash or a power cut
- Central management, with one policy for a whole organizational unit of screens
- Low power and small enough to mount behind a panel with a VESA bracket
- Cheap to replace, and the replacement inherits the policy on enrolment
- Predictable rendering, because the browser is the same on every device
Which ChromeOS devices to use
| Device type | Good for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chromebox, current generation | Most screens, 1080p and 4K video, multi zone layouts | The default choice for a signage fleet |
| ChromeOS Flex on a reused PC | Reusing mini PCs you already own | Check the model is on Google's certified list |
| ChromeOS displays with a built in device | A clean install with no box behind the panel | Fewer models to choose from |
| Older Chromebit sticks | Retire them | Past their update window, so they no longer get security updates |
Whatever the device, check its automatic update expiration date in the Admin console before buying in bulk. A device past that date keeps running but stops receiving security fixes, and IT teams usually will not leave that on a network.
Settings worth getting right
- Enrol the device in your domain before it is mounted behind the panel
- Add the Displayer URL as a kiosk web app and set it to auto launch, so the screen never shows a sign in page
- Remove Chrome Sign Builder from the organizational unit once the new kiosk app is live
- Disable power saving and screen blanking in the device policy
- Fix the resolution and orientation, so a panel swap does not rotate the content
- Allow the player storage, so media is downloaded and playback survives an outage
- Schedule a nightly reboot outside trading hours, so a long running session starts clean
What Chrome OS digital signage costs
Two separate costs apply. Google charges for the device management licence: the Kiosk and Signage Upgrade has been listed at about 25 USD per device per year by Google and its resellers, and you need it, or Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, to manage kiosk devices from the Admin console. Displayer is billed per active screen on top of that.
| Screens | Displayer Essential yearly | Displayer Professional yearly | Kiosk and Signage Upgrade, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1,080 USD | 1,680 USD | 250 USD |
| 50 | 5,400 USD | 8,400 USD | 1,250 USD |
| 200 | 21,600 USD | 33,600 USD | 5,000 USD |
Essential at 19 USD monthly or 9 USD yearly covers playlists, weekly schedules, templates and alerts. Professional at 29 USD monthly or 14 USD yearly adds groups, dayparts, dated campaigns, roles and approvals, and screenshot proof of play, which is where fleets of more than a few screens land. Single sign-on and the audit log are on Network. Check Google's current licence price with your reseller before budgeting. Our plan table is on the pricing page.
Moving a Chromebox fleet off Chrome Sign Builder
-
01
Pair one device
Create a Displayer account, add the kiosk web app to a test organizational unit and move one Chromebox into it. Type the six digit code on screen and run your real content for a few days.
-
02
Rebuild the schedule
Recreate the Sign Builder schedule as playlists and a weekly schedule. Web pages you showed before can stay as web page items in the loop.
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03
Switch the organizational units
Apply the kiosk web app to each production unit, then remove Chrome Sign Builder. Devices pick up the new policy and launch Displayer on their next restart.
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04
Pair and tag every screen
Pair each screen with its code and tag it by location, so the next change goes to a group and not to one device at a time.
Is Chrome Sign Builder being discontinued?
Yes. Google is removing Chrome Sign Builder from the Chrome Web Store at the end of ChromeOS 150, because Chrome apps in kiosk mode lose support with that release in July 2026. Google recommends deploying a signage web app by URL from the Admin console instead, which is how Displayer runs.
What can replace Chrome Sign Builder?
Any digital signage web app that runs in ChromeOS kiosk mode by URL can replace it. Displayer is one: add its URL as a kiosk web app in the Admin console, set it to auto launch and pair each screen with a code. You also get scheduling by group, offline alerts and proof of play.
Do I need the Kiosk and Signage Upgrade license?
You need a management licence to deploy and control kiosk devices from the Google Admin console. The Kiosk and Signage Upgrade is the cheaper one built for signage, listed at about 25 USD per device per year. Chrome Enterprise Upgrade also works but costs more and covers features signage does not use.
Is a Chromebox good for digital signage?
Yes. A current Chromebox plays 1080p and 4K video, updates itself, reopens the kiosk app after a power cut and is managed from one console. Check the automatic update expiration date before buying, since a device past it stops receiving security fixes.
Can ChromeOS Flex run digital signage?
Yes, on a certified device. Install ChromeOS Flex on a supported PC, enrol it, and apply the same kiosk web app policy as a Chromebox. It is a practical way to reuse mini PCs, though Google's certified model list is the thing to check first.
What happens after a power cut?
The device boots, launches the kiosk web app, reopens the player and resumes the schedule with no one on site. The play record shows the gap, so you know exactly how long the screen was dark.
Does Displayer work on Chromebit?
It runs, but we do not recommend it. Chromebit devices are past their automatic update window, so they no longer get ChromeOS security fixes. Replace them with a current Chromebox or a ChromeOS Flex device.
Enrol one Chromebox and see
One device, one kiosk web app policy, one pairing code, and the screen runs itself from then on.