Social media wall software, with moderation built in
A social wall puts your community on the lobby screen, the event stage or the campus TV: your own posts, a hashtag, a YouTube channel. ScreenTinker collects the posts on your server, lets you approve them first if you want, and shows them on any screen you run. Nothing unexpected appears in front of a visitor.
How it works
- A social feed collects posts from up to 10 sources: an account, a hashtag, a Facebook Page, a YouTube channel or playlist, or a search.
- A Social wall widget shows one feed on a screen, in a playlist or a layout zone like any other content.
- Screens never talk to a social network. Your ScreenTinker server fetches the posts and keeps its own copies of the images. A screen only loads the wall from your server, which is also why a wall that is already showing keeps its posts when the internet is down.
Three layouts
- One post at a time, large: a good fit for a portrait lobby screen.
- Grid: a page of cards, rotating.
- Ticker: one scrolling line, made for a strip zone under other content.
All three work in portrait and landscape. Post text is always shown as plain text, with its author and network.
Moderation
- Show new posts straight away, or approve each one first. An approved post that its author edits goes back for review.
- Blocked words. Posts whose text, author name or handle contains a blocked word are hidden as they arrive. Matching sees through accents, invisible characters and look-alike letters.
- Pictures only, and a maximum age. Hide text-only posts, and leave out old ones.
- Hidden stays hidden. A post you hide never comes back on its own, and posts their authors delete disappear from the wall.
Mastodon posts with a content warning or marked sensitive are never shown. Reposts and replies are left out everywhere.
What each network needs
| Network | Sources | What you bring |
|---|---|---|
| Bluesky | Accounts, search | Nothing |
| Mastodon | Accounts, hashtags | Nothing |
| Your professional account, hashtags | Your own Meta app and token; hashtags need Meta App Review | |
| A Page’s own posts | A Page access token from your own Meta app | |
| YouTube | Latest videos of a channel or playlist | A YouTube Data API key |
| X (Twitter) | Accounts, search (last 7 days) | Your own app’s bearer token, on a paid X API plan |
Connections belong to your organization. Tokens are stored encrypted, never shown again after saving and never sent to a screen. Instagram tokens renew themselves.
Set it up
- For Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or X, an organization owner or admin adds a connection under Settings → Social connections and presses Test. Bluesky and Mastodon need no setup.
- Under Social feeds → New feed, add your sources and choose whether new posts appear automatically or wait for approval.
- Under Widgets → New widget → Social wall, choose the feed and a layout, then add it to a playlist.
- Each network’s permissions, costs and limits are in the social walls guide.
Limits
- LinkedIn isn’t supported. Reading a company Page needs an API LinkedIn only grants to vetted partners, and its terms restrict showing content outside LinkedIn.
- TikTok isn’t supported. Its Display API only covers the signed-in user’s own videos, and a wall would show thumbnails it cannot play.
- Threads isn’t built yet. Its API access rules are still changing.
- X charges for API access. Each fetch uses your plan’s reads, so check X’s current plans.
- A wall never plays YouTube videos. It shows thumbnails and titles. To play a video, add it as a playlist item.
- Posts update every few minutes, not live. The server fetches each feed every 10 minutes by default (5 minutes to 24 hours), and screens check every 2 minutes.
- Each network’s developer terms apply to how you show its content. Showing your own account’s posts is the simplest case.
FAQ
Which social networks can a wall show?
Instagram, Facebook Pages, YouTube, X, Bluesky and Mastodon. LinkedIn and TikTok are not supported, and Threads is not built yet.
Can I approve posts before they appear?
Yes. Set a feed to approve each post first, and new posts wait until someone approves them. You can also hide posts with blocked words, show only posts with pictures, and hide a post at any time.
Do I need API keys?
Bluesky and Mastodon need none. Instagram, Facebook and X need a token from your own developer app, and YouTube needs an API key. X API access is paid.
Does the wall work for an event hashtag?
Yes. Use a hashtag on Instagram or Mastodon, or a search on X or Bluesky. Instagram hashtags need a Facebook Login connection and Meta App Review, and Instagram limits an account to 30 different hashtags in 7 days.
What happens if the venue Wi-Fi drops?
A wall that is already showing keeps its posts. A screen that restarts while offline shows the wall title until the server answers.
Put your community on the big screen
Start a 14-day Pro trial on hosted ScreenTinker: up to 15 screens, every feature, no credit card. A Bluesky or Mastodon wall needs no keys at all.
Or host it yourself, free and open source: self-hosting guide · GitHub