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Readout lives on the internet, but TVs and lights only take commands from inside your home. The home agent bridges the two: a small program on a computer at home that stays on, on the same Wi-Fi as the TVs. It connects out to Readout, so there’s nothing to set up on your router. With it, the app can:
  • switch a TV to the captions with one tap, or by itself when captioning starts
  • be a remote for the TVs, a Chromecast, a Roku, an Apple TV or a Google Nest speaker
  • run the TV schedule: reminders, messages, shows and slideshows
  • switch and flash the lights and plugs
A Raspberry Pi at the TV runs the home agent too, and is Readout’s screen for that TV. If you’re getting a Pi, you don’t need another computer.

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Set it up on a Mac or Linux computer

1

Copy the command

In the app, open TVs and phones and find Switch the TV to captions from here. It shows a command with your address filled in.
2

Paste it into Terminal

On the computer that stays on, open Terminal and paste the command. It needs Node.js 22.9 or later (nodejs.org); on a Raspberry Pi, it fetches Node.js itself.
3

Scan the QR code

It looks for TVs, then shows a QR code. Scan it with the phone or tablet you caption with, or type the code under it into the app.
4

Allow it on the local network

On a Mac, if it asks whether “node” may find devices on your local network, choose Allow. A firewall such as Little Snitch asks too: allow it, Forever.
It keeps running in the background, starts again by itself after a restart, and updates itself.

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On an Android phone

For a home with no computer that stays on, Readout’s Android app can run the agent on a phone that stays at home: Menu → Home agents → This phone → Use as the home agent.

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After it’s running

TVs and phones lists the TVs the agent found. Tap Show captions on one. Its gear opens its settings: how it shows captions (its web browser, or the input where a streaming stick or computer shows them), and Switch when captioning starts.
  • The agent looks for TVs every minute. To look now, just after turning a TV on, say, tap Look for TVs.
  • To leave out a TV you don’t use (a neighbor’s, say), tap Edit above the TVs, then Hide.
  • The agent belongs to the account, so every phone and computer signed in to it can use it.

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Moving it to another account

A paired agent shows no code, so nobody can take it by typing one. Forget it under Menu → Home agents first, then run the same command again. To remove it from a computer, run the same command with -s uninstall on the end: ... | sh -s uninstall.