Dawnboard vs Ambient Wall
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dawnboard
Transform your Apple TV into a dynamic dashboard. Customize layouts, themes, and widgets like calendars, photos, and music playlists. Control it all from your iPhone for a personalized viewing experience.
- Customizable layouts and themes
- Widget support (calendar, photos, music)
- iPhone remote control
- Animated themes
- OLED burn-in protection
- Countdown timers
- Visual effects
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Dawnboard turns your Apple TV into a dashboard for the things you want to keep in view. Set it up on your iPhone, then send changes to the TV over your local network. Dawnboard is free to use. Layouts and themes Choose from twelve layouts, including original and flipped Gallery Hero, Quad Square and Mixed Gallery arrangements, Centered Hero, Double Landscape, Double Square, Triple Portrait, Cinematic and Ambient. Fill compatible Layout slots with widgets. Dawnboard includes animated themes that play as 4K video on Apple TV: New Dawn, Twilight, Ocean Breeze, Aurora, Outer Space, Enchanted Mist, Underwater Kingdom, Winter Wonder, Golden Hour, Valentine, Tiki Paradise, Moss Cathedral, River Canyon, Moss & Rain, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Spring Blossoms, Fall, Halloween, and Mountain Pass. Mountain Pass follows the weather location chosen for its Layout. Main Street has Day, Golden Hour, Dusk, and Night scenes; choose a fixed time or let the Layout select automatically. Weather Effects can be set for each Layout. You can also make a theme with a nine-color gradient. Display styles Choose Classic, Cozy, Weather, Day Planner, Countdown, or Minimal to control what appears in the header and footer. Widgets Add countdowns, calendar events, weather, lists, photo albums, notes, Tidbits, or an Apple Music playlist to any compatible slot. Notes and Tidbits Leave a note on the TV with an optional sign-off, set to disappear at a time you choose. Tidbits shows a new word with its definition and an example sentence, or On This Day, a moment from history on its anniversary. Choose how often it changes and hide topics you'd rather skip. Layout schedules Give each Apple TV a schedule of layouts by time of day and weekday. The TV switches on its own, even when your iPhone is away. Calendar Import events from Apple Calendar on your iPhone. Eight agenda and month views preserve your calendar colors, and you can choose whether to show locations and past events. Photos An album can hold up to 50 images. Vision-based auto-cropping handles landscape, portrait, square, and cinematic formats, with a separate crop for each format. Albums play as a crossfade slideshow on the TV. Countdowns Create a countdown with up to 10 photos. Dawnboard can send a daily reminder and another reminder on the day before the event. Effects Use Quick Effects on iPhone to play Confetti, Fireworks, Sparkles, Shooting Stars, Lanterns, Bubbles, Balloons, Butterflies, Petal Breeze, Snow Magic, Parade Lights or Magic Spell. Surprise chooses an available one-shot Effect. Each TV plays one show at a time. Pixie can drift across the screen alongside a show until you turn it off. Apple Music Assign a playlist to each paired Apple TV and control playback from the TV remote. Pairing and sync Scan the QR code on the TV to pair it with your iPhone. Changes are sent over your local Wi-Fi network. You can manage more than one TV and give each one a different layout and theme. Privacy Dawnboard does not require a separate account and does not contain ads. The iPhone app stores your Dawnboard content in your private iCloud account. Paired Apple TVs keep a local copy of the dashboard. Local network sync is encrypted. The iPhone and Apple TV can use different iCloud accounts. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://dawnboard.com/privacy/
Ambient Wall
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Ambient Wall turns your Apple TV into a calm, living wall: generated art that breathes and flows, with just the information you want on top. LIVING VISUALS Six original themes drawn live on your TV (Water, Fire, Wood, Earth, Metal and Eclipse), plus Lava Lamp, Fill Light, Dot Grid and Wide-Eyes idle modes. No stock loops, and never quite the same twice. YOUR DAY AT A GLANCE Clock, weather and radar, sunrise and sunset, your calendar, headlines from the sources you pick, to-dos, timers, quotes and notes. In New York and New Jersey: live subway, PATH and bus times, and drive times to the places you go. DESIGNED FROM YOUR IPHONE Arrange tiles on a free-form grid, choose how clear or solid they are and what color, and watch the TV update instantly. Prefer the remote? Edit right on the TV. AT HOME Control HomeKit scenes, lights and plugs, and see what's playing on Apple Music. ATMOSPHERE Soundscapes like rain and ocean, made live on the device, with a sleep timer. Turn on Room Sound and the visuals gently react to music and voices. Your iPhone sends only loudness levels, never audio. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no ads, no tracking. Your layouts sync through your own iCloud. Premium: unlock every theme, mode and soundscape with a one-time purchase, on iPhone and Apple TV. Transit data comes from the MTA and the Port Authority of NY & NJ and may not be real time. Weather by Apple Weather. Radar: NOAA/NWS. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://toussaint222.github.io/AMBIENT-WALL-PRIVACY-POLICY/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Dawnboard at none against Ambient Wall's 1. Ambient Wall's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Ambient Wall sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Dawnboard asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Dawnboard | Ambient Wall |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple TV | iPhone, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Moxiebytes LLC | TOUSSAINT SUNIL EDISON CAMPBELL |
In-app purchases
Dawnboard
No in-app purchases
Ambient Wall
- Ambient Wall Unlock$4.99








