Getting started

Help & Guide

Everything you need to know about using Zen New Tab and its mini apps.

Basics

🔍
Search
Type in the search bar and press Enter to search. Use ↑ ↓ to navigate suggestions and Tab to autocomplete.
🔗
Quick Links
Enable Quick Links in Settings, then add your favourite sites. Up to 8 links are supported. Icons are fetched automatically.
🖼️
Wallpaper
A new photo loads daily from Unsplash or Picsum. Enable Custom Wallpaper in Settings to use your own image instead — it's stored locally in your browser.
🌀
Force Refresh
Use the Refresh button in Settings → Data to immediately fetch a new background photo, quote, and weather reading.

All mini apps are freely draggable. Grab the pill handle at the top of any widget and drag it anywhere on screen. Enable or disable each one from the Mini Apps section in Settings.

Timers & Productivity

🍅
Pomodoro Timer
Switch between Focus (25 min), Short Break (5 min), and Long Break (15 min) modes. Press ▶ to start and ↺ to reset. The timer stays accurate even when the tab is in the background.
⏱
Countdown Timer
Use the preset buttons (5m–1h) or type custom minutes and seconds. An alarm plays when time's up. The browser tab title also counts down while the timer is running.
📅
Event Countdown
Track important dates like birthdays or holidays. Add events with a name and date. Events today show a "TODAY" label; future events count down in days; past events show how many days ago they passed.
📊
Day Progress
Shows how much of the current day, week, and year has elapsed as animated progress bars. Updated every minute automatically.
🫁
Breathing Exercise
A guided 4-4-4-4 box breathing exercise with an animated circle. Inhale, hold, exhale, hold — each for 4 seconds. Press ▶ to start and ⏸ to pause.
🔊
Focus Sounds
Tap a sound (Rain, Wind, Ocean, Fire, White Noise, Brown Noise) to play ambient audio generated entirely offline via Web Audio. Tap again to stop. Adjust volume with the slider.

Information

🌍
World Clock
Displays up to 8 cities with their live local time. Add cities by name in Settings → World Clock Cities — the timezone is looked up automatically.
🗓️
Calendar
View the current month with today highlighted and weekends dimmed. Navigate between months using the arrow buttons at the top of the widget.
🏖️
Public Holidays
Shows upcoming public holidays for your selected country. Change the country in Settings → Public Holidays. Hover over a holiday row to read long names in full.
✅
To-do List
A draggable checklist with persistent storage. Click a task to toggle it done, drag to reorder, and use the clear button to remove all completed items at once.

Tools

🧮
Calculator
Full arithmetic with percentage and sign toggle. Fully keyboard-driven — type numbers and operators, press Enter for equals, and Escape to clear.
📝
Sticky Notes
Click the 📝 button (top-right corner of the page) to create a note. Drag by the body to reposition, resize from the bottom-right corner, and delete with the ✕ button on hover.

Games

🎮
2048
Use ← → ↑ ↓ to slide all tiles. When two tiles with the same number collide, they merge. Reach the 2048 tile to win.
🧠
Memory Match
Click a card to reveal it, then click a second card. If they match, they stay face-up. Find all 8 pairs to win. Cards flip back if they don't match.
🐍
Snake
Use ← → ↑ ↓ to guide the snake. Eat food to grow and score points. Avoid the walls and your own tail.
🧱
Tetris
Use ← → to move, ↑ to rotate, and ↓ to drop faster. Fill complete rows to clear them and score. Game over when blocks reach the top.

Arrow keys are routed to the frontmost game. Bring a game widget to the front by clicking it, then use arrow keys freely. Other widgets won't interfere.