Frequently asked questions

Why is Coinbase not supported?

Coinbase's market-data terms do not allow third-party apps to show their data to end users, so it is left out on purpose.

Are there price alerts?

No. TabGreater does not send price alerts or ask for notification permission. Android requires an ongoing notification for the service that updates widgets; where it appears depends on your Android version.

Why does the widget need a foreground service and exact alarms?

Widget updates use a foreground service and, when Android permits them, exact alarms to follow your chosen refresh interval. Android requires an ongoing notification for a foreground service. TabGreater does not request POST_NOTIFICATIONS; on Android 13 and later the service is still listed in Task Manager, and on Android 12 and earlier a service notification may appear in the notification shade.

Why does Android list TabGreater as running?

The foreground service keeps your widgets up to date. On Android 13 and later, Android lists this service in Task Manager even when its notification is not shown in the notification shade.

Where does the "popular pairs" list come from?

From CoinGecko's public market-cap ranking, fetched at most once a day and cached on the device. Stablecoins, fiat-pegged units and wrapped, staked or bridged tokens are filtered out of the top thirty. The five largest remaining coins by market cap appear as quick-add chips. Stock tickers are ranked on the device by the number of supported exchanges that list each one, without extra network requests.

Does TabGreater show stock prices?

Not from a stock exchange. TabGreater reads only the exchanges' public APIs, with no API key. The Stocks option lists tokenised stocks: tokens that track a share and that Binance, Gate.io, Kraken, KuCoin and MEXC list as spot pairs. Their price comes from trading on that exchange, so it can differ from the share price and from one exchange to the next. Some exchanges trade them around the clock; others do so only on weekdays. Outside trading hours, a tile shows the last available price. Coverage is mostly US large caps and ETFs.

How often do prices actually update?

While the app is open, it uses WebSocket streams from Binance, Gate.io, Kraken and KuCoin; MEXC has no public ticker socket, so it is polled over REST. Separately, a display setting controls how often tiles redraw — that is a redraw rate, not a connection rate. The connections stay live either way.

Can I trade from it?

No. TabGreater never asks for exchange API keys, holds none, and cannot place an order. It displays prices and charts. There are no links to exchanges and no referral codes anywhere in the app or on this site.

Is there a light theme?

No. TabGreater is dark only.

Can I move my lists to a new phone?

Yes. You can export your watchlists to a plain JSON file that you can read and edit by hand. Import it on another device to replace the existing watchlists or merge the imported lists with them.

Is TabGreater available on Google Play?

Yes. TabGreater is publicly available on Google Play; no closed-testing invitation is needed. The Download page also offers F-Droid and the signed APK on GitHub Releases.

Can I switch between Google Play and the FOSS build?

For updates, use the same source you installed from. The APKs from F-Droid and GitHub have matching signatures, but this does not confirm compatibility with the Google Play version. Before switching sources, export your watchlists to JSON. If the signatures differ, you may need to uninstall the app, install the other version and import your watchlists again. The Play build asks you to grant exact-alarm access and opens Android's battery settings instead of the dialog that lets you turn off battery optimisation in one tap.

Can I switch between F-Droid and the GitHub download?

Yes, without uninstalling. F-Droid builds each release from source, checks that the result matches the APK published on GitHub, and then ships that same APK, signed with the NeatCode Labs key. A new release reaches F-Droid a few days after it is tagged.

My widgets stopped updating on Samsung.

One UI's battery management is the usual cause. In the app, Settings → WIDGETS has a checklist. Here are the main steps:

1. 1 Settings → Apps → TabGreater → Battery → Unrestricted
2. 2 Battery → Background usage limits → Never sleeping apps → add TabGreater
3. 3 Battery → Background usage limits → Put unused apps to sleep → off