Digital Signage Widgets & Connected Content

Widgets are ready-made content tools that help you add useful, changing, or connected information to your screens without designing every update from scratch. They can display content such as weather forecasts, news headlines, social posts, websites, world times, countdowns, and scrolling messages.

Inside Imagine, you choose a widget from the Widget Marketplace, create your own version of it, customise the content and appearance, and save it under My Widgets. From there, it can be added to a playlist alongside your images, videos, PDFs, promotions, and announcements.

Think of the marketplace widget as the starting point, and the version saved under My Widgets as your own configured copy.

Imagine offers a growing selection of widgets that help you add useful, automatically updating, or interactive content to your screens.

Current options include:

• News widgets: ABC News, Al Jazeera, BBC News, Bizcommunity, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, IOL, SABC News, Sky News, SowetanLIVE, and The New York Times
• Social media widgets: Facebook and Instagram
• Weather: Local conditions and multi-day forecasts for one or more locations
• Countdown timer: Count down to promotions, events, openings, launches, or recurring dates
• Ticker: Display your own scrolling messages or headlines from supported news feeds
• World clock: Show the current time in multiple cities
• Website: Display your own website or another relevant webpage

Each widget has its own templates and customisation options, which may include colours, fonts, imagery, logos, layouts, and the information shown.

Our widget offering will continue to grow as we introduce new content sources, integrations, and display options. You can visit the Widgets page to explore the latest available options, then add and configure your chosen widgets through the Widget Marketplace inside Imagine.

Open Widgets from the main Imagine navigation, then select Explore. This opens the Widget Marketplace, where you can see the widgets currently available to add to your account.

You can search by widget name and use the available sorting and pricing filters to narrow down the selection. Each marketplace card gives you a quick overview of the widget and includes an Add button when you are ready to create your own version.

If you want to compare the purpose, benefits, and use cases of the different options before adding one, visit the main Widgets page.

Adding a widget only takes a few steps:

1. Open Widgets and choose Explore.
2. Find the widget you want in the Widget Marketplace.
3. Click Add on the widget card.
4. Give your widget a clear library name.
5. Choose a landscape or portrait screen format.
6. Click Add to Library.
7. Use the customisation window to choose the content, template, colours, and other available settings.
8. Review the live preview, then save your changes.

The library name helps you recognise your saved widget later, especially when you create several versions of the same type. A name such as “Weather” or “Countdown” may be enough for one screen, but it can become confusing as your network grows.

Use a name that explains the widget’s purpose or destination, for example:

• Cape Town Reception Weather
• December Product Launch Countdown
• Head Office World Clock
• Weekend Sport News Ticker
• Instagram Summer Campaign

A clear naming system makes it easier for other users to find the correct widget and reduces the risk of adding the wrong version to a playlist.

Customisation varies because each widget serves a different purpose. A weather widget needs location and forecast settings, while a countdown needs a target date and end behaviour.

Depending on the widget, you may be able to adjust:

• The information or source being displayed
• Templates and layout
• Colours and backgrounds
• Fonts, text size, and wording
• Images, logos, headings, and calls to action
• The number of items or posts shown
• Units, dates, times, and other display formats
• What happens when a countdown or campaign reaches its end

The aim is to make the widget easy to read and visually consistent with the rest of your screen content. The individual widget pages explains the settings and use cases for that specific option.

Yes. The customisation window includes a live preview, allowing you to see how your changes affect the widget before you save it. This is useful for checking the layout, text size, colours, spacing, and overall balance.

The preview is a very good starting point, but you should also test the widget on the actual screen before a public launch. A design that looks clear on a laptop may need larger text or stronger contrast when viewed from several metres away.

If the widget will run on several screen sizes, test it on a representative display from each format.

Open Widgets, then select My Widgets. This area contains the configured widgets that have been added to your account.

You can search by name and use the available filters to narrow the list by feed name, feed category, orientation, or date created. Each widget card shows useful information such as its name, format, installation status, and the date it was added.

Selecting Customise reopens the settings for that saved widget, allowing you to review or update it without returning to the marketplace.

Yes. You can add the same marketplace widget more than once and customise each version for a different purpose, location, audience, or screen orientation.

For example, you could create:

• Separate weather widgets for Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban
• A landscape countdown for reception and a portrait version for a window display
• Different news widgets for business, sport, and entertainment areas
• Several social widgets featuring different accounts or campaigns

Give every version a specific name so that it is easy to identify under My Widgets and inside your playlists.

Yes. Find the saved item under My Widgets and select Customise. You can then update the settings available for that widget and save the revised version.

Before making a major change, check where the widget is being used. If the same saved widget appears in several playlists or locations, your edit may affect every place where that version has been added. For a campaign or branch that needs different content, it may be clearer to create a separate version with its own name.

After saving, check the widget on a screen to make sure the new information and design display as expected.

A saved widget first needs to be added to a playlist. Open the relevant playlist, add the widget as a content item, choose its position in the playback order, and set how long it should appear where that setting applies. Publish the playlist and assign it to the appropriate screen or screen group.

This allows the widget to play alongside your other content rather than replacing everything on the screen. A hotel playlist, for example, could alternate between welcome messages, venue promotions, local weather, and a world clock.

If the widget does not appear after publishing, check the playlist assignment, screen connection, and content-download status.

Yes. Many widgets support logo overlays, allowing you to reinforce your branding while displaying live information.

This is particularly useful for customer-facing displays where maintaining brand consistency is important.

Yes. Because widgets are added through playlists, you can decide which screens or groups receive each one. The whole network does not need to use the same widget or the same version.

A hotel reception might display local weather and several world times, while its conference screens show a countdown to the next session. A retailer could use social posts near an activation and business news in a customer lounge.

Build each playlist around the people who will see that particular screen. Useful content is more valuable than adding a widget simply because it moves or updates.

Yes. Once the widget has been added to a playlist or campaign, you can use Imagine’s scheduling tools to control when that content appears and which screens receive it.

For example, you could:

• Run a countdown only during the weeks before a launch
• Display a social campaign during an activation
• Show a ticker during selected trading hours
• Use a sport news feed over a weekend
• Remove event content automatically after the event ends

Scheduling controls when the widget is shown. It does not determine when an external news publisher, weather provider, or social platform releases new information.

No, they do not all update in the same way. Connected widgets, such as news, weather, websites, and social media, retrieve information from an outside source. They can show new information after that source updates and the player retrieves it.

Other widgets follow the settings you provide. A countdown changes as time passes, while a custom ticker changes when you edit its message.

The update frequency of connected content can vary between providers. Imagine can display the information supplied by the source, but it cannot make a publisher release a new story or force a third-party platform to update sooner.

Yes. Widgets can be positioned exactly where you want them to appear.

Depending on your layout, you can place widgets:

• At the top or bottom of the screen
• On the left or right-hand side
• Within custom screen zones
• As part of split-screen layouts
• Within L-shaped layouts

The screen will not simply turn black. Connected widgets need internet access to retrieve fresh information, but they can continue showing their most recently available content where caching is supported. Your downloaded playlist media, such as images and videos, can also continue playing from the player’s local storage.

While the connection is unavailable:

• News, weather, social, and website content will not receive fresh information
• Changes made in Imagine cannot reach the player
• Current monitoring information cannot return to the dashboard

Once the player reconnects, connected widgets can refresh and the screen can receive any newly published changes.

Start with the audience and the job that the screen needs to do. The best widget is the one that provides information or context people will genuinely find useful.

Ask yourself:

• Who will be looking at this screen?
• How long are they likely to see it?
• What information would help or interest them?
• Does the widget support the purpose of the space?
• Will it remain readable from the normal viewing distance?
• Does it complement the rest of the playlist?

Weather can help travellers and outdoor operations, world clocks suit international teams, social posts can strengthen activations, and countdowns can build anticipation around a launch. The main Widgets page is the best place to compare the available choices and their individual use cases.

Use the individual widget pages when you need detail about one particular option. These pages explain what the widget displays, which settings or feeds are available, how it can be used, and who is most likely to benefit from it.

This is particularly useful for news widgets because every publisher has a different geographic focus, selection of feeds, update pattern, and audience. For example, the CBS News page covers the available CBS feeds and appropriate applications, rather than treating all news sources as interchangeable.

Start with the main Widgets page, then open the individual page for the widget you are considering. The Knowledge Centre focuses on setting up and managing widgets inside Imagine, while those pages provide the content-specific detail.

Widgets are included with Imagine's Professional and Enterprise paid plans. They are not available on the free Starter plan.

If you are using an eligible plan, you can access the Widget Marketplace and add options such as news, weather, social media, countdown timers, websites, world clocks, and scrolling tickers to your library and playlists.

Visit the pricing page to compare the available plans, or contact the Imagine team if you need help choosing the right option for your screen network.

Deleting a widget permanently removes that saved version and all the customisations you made to it. This cannot be undone. You can install a fresh version of the same widget later, but its previous settings, design choices, and content selections will not be restored.

Before you confirm the deletion, Imagine checks whether the widget is being used in any playlists:

• If the widget is in use, the confirmation window lists the affected playlists. The widget will be removed from those playlists the next time they are published.
• If the widget is not being used in a playlist, deleting it will not change anything currently showing on your screens.

Check the listed playlists carefully before selecting Remove Widget. If you may need the same configuration again, keep the widget and simply remove it from your playlist so that you don't lose the configurations for future use.