Bigwords.page: Your URL is the sign
Original: Show HN: Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app
Why This Matters
Serverless, stateless web tools that encode state in URLs are gaining traction for privacy-first design.
Bigwords.page turns any screen into a full-screen display using only a URL. No account, no server storage, no app install. Text, timers, slideshows, and QR codes are encoded directly in the link.
Bigwords.page is a browser-based tool that encodes an entire display—text, colors, fonts, animations, timers, and slide sequences—into a single shareable URL. The hash fragment after `#` carries the message; query parameters like `bg`, `fg`, `font`, and `interval` control appearance and behavior. Nothing is stored server-side. The link is the app.
Use cases range from airport arrivals signs held up on a phone to café Wi-Fi cards with embedded QR codes, countdown timers for quizzes, 'ON AIR' pulse animations, and New Year countdowns. Slides split with `||` auto-advance on an interval. A `{countdown}` placeholder drives live timers tied to a `until=` timestamp.
An in-browser editor lets users build displays visually and generates the URL automatically, but any link can also be crafted by hand. Fullscreen mode requires JavaScript; the docs cover the full URL schema for developers who want to generate links programmatically.