Cantio Bell

CantioBell turns ordinary Android phones into the control panel of a church bell tower. One phone stays by the amplifier and does the playing. Every other phone in the parish — the priest's, the sacristan's, the organist's — becomes a remote. Tap a tile and the bells ring. Tap it again and they stop. BELLS AND RINGING A bell is a recording. The app comes with nine, and you can import your own — the sound of your own tower, in WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A or AAC. Each bell is given the shape of a real one: how long it takes to swing up to speed, how fast it strikes at full swing, and how it slows down. Several bells can ring together, each with its own rhythm and volume, the way a parish rings for a funeral or a feast. A ringing can last a set number of minutes, or go on until somebody stops it. Stopping does not cut the sound off — the bells slow down and fall silent, as they would in the tower. SCHEDULES The Angelus at noon. The call to Mass. Whatever hours your parish keeps. Set the days and the times, and the player device rings them on its own. It keeps ringing after the phone is restarted, and it does not need the app to be open. THE PARISH The person who signs up first becomes the administrator and invites everyone else by e-mail. Only the administrator changes bells, patterns and schedules. Everyone can ring. Whatever the administrator sets appears on every phone in the parish. IT RINGS WITHOUT THE INTERNET Recordings and schedules live on the player device itself. Once the parish is set up, the noon bell rings whether or not the line is up — which is exactly when it matters, because the storm that takes the connection down is the one you want the bells for. The remote phones need a connection to reach the player. SIX LANGUAGES English, Polish, German, Spanish, Italian and French, switchable inside the app. FREE AND PRO Free: two ringing patterns, one bell each, three scheduled times, and one bell sound. PRO unlocks all nine bell sounds, your own recordings, several bells ringing together, and as many patterns and scheduled times as your parish needs. PRO is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. It belongs to the parish, so it unlocks every phone in it, not just the one that bought it. WHAT YOU NEED An amplifier and speakers, connected to the player phone by cable or Bluetooth. CantioBell does not make the sound loud — your existing system does that. The player phone should stay plugged in, and needs battery optimisation turned off so the system does not put it to sleep through the noon bell. The app tells you if that setting still needs changing.