Getting started

1.1Overview

Muslim App brings your daily worship into one place: prayer times, the Quran, Qibla, dhikr, and dua.

Prayer times and the Qibla direction are calculated on your phone, not fetched from a server. On a plane, in the subway, or anywhere the signal drops, both keep working without a connection. The Quran text ships with the app, so you can read offline too.

What's in the app

How to use this guide

• Search the sidebar for a topic; pressing / jumps to the search field.
• On wide screens, the contents column lists the subsections of whatever you're reading.
• The # beside each heading is a direct link to it — handy when you want to send it to someone.
• The button in the page header switches between light and dark.

1.2Interface tour

Everything in the app is reached from one place: the bar along the bottom edge of the screen.

Bottom navigation bar

Five buttons. The first four open a section each; the fifth opens a list of everything else. Whichever section you're in, its icon turns green.

The "All" list

The last button on the bar puts every remaining section on a single screen:

What's on the Home screen

Reading down the screen:

• Background. The image or color filling the screen. It changes as the prayer times progress, and you can personalize it (see 1.3).
• City and date. Your current city with the Gregorian and Hijri dates. Tap the city to change it.
• Prayer card. The next prayer, the time remaining, and that prayer's alert button. Swipe across to see the other times.
• Shortcuts. One tap to the Quran, Qibla, and Dhikr.
• Quran card. The surah you last read and your Khatmah progress. Tap to continue where you left off.
• Verse of the Day. A verse that changes daily. You can read it and share it.
• Dua and hadith of the day. Short content, refreshed every day.
• Islamic-day cards. These appear on Fridays and on special religious days.

1.3Home screen background

The Home screen background changes with the prayer times. You can also set your own photo or a color instead.

How themes change through the day

A theme isn't a single fixed image. Each one is redrawn for every prayer time, so the background changes as the day goes on.

The Kaaba theme, for example, gives you five views of the same scene:

You pick the scene once; there's nothing to switch and no schedule to set. Every photo category works this way — Desert, Mosque, Nature, and Kaaba each have their own set of views.

Opening the Themes page

Three taps, the same on iPhone and Android.

1. Stay on the Home screen — the one showing today's prayer times and the countdown.
2. Tap the photo icon in the header, level with the city name. The Themes page opens.
3. Pick a category from the strip along the bottom, then tap a wallpaper.

Long-pressing the prayer card on the Home screen opens the same page.

Built-in themes

Tap a category in the strip along the bottom and the previews above switch to that category's wallpapers. Most categories have several options, so a single swipe takes you to another scene.

The categories currently on offer:

Prayer-time preview

Tap the "Preview: Prayer time" button at the top of the page and pick a time from the list — every preview redraws for that time.

Using your own photo

Your Themes, first in the category strip, starts out empty with a single + button inside. Tap it, grant photo access when your phone asks, and pick any picture from your gallery.

Your photo then sits alongside the built-in collections, and switching between them takes one tap. You can delete any photo you no longer want.

Photos you add get one extra option: time-of-day tinting. Turn it on and the photo lightens and darkens as the prayer times progress — brighter in the morning, darker at Isha.

Choosing a photo

Any picture works, but some hold up better under the interface:

• Portrait beats landscape. A portrait photo fills the screen; a landscape one gets cropped.
• Keep the top third calm. The next prayer and the countdown sit there. A bright sky or a harsh highlight in that band is the most common cause of unreadable text.
• Slightly dark photos carry white text better. Evening and indoor shots work better than a bright midday scene.
• Put faces toward the bottom. In a family photo, faces in the lower half won't sit behind the countdown.
• Avoid screenshots and text-heavy images. Two layers of text rarely work together.

If a photo still comes out too bright, use dimming rather than switching pictures.

Colors instead of a photo

The Color section offers:

• Preset colors. Solid colors that ship with the app.
• Palettes and gradients. Backgrounds where several colors blend.
• Your own color. Define any color you like.
• Color by prayer time. Set a separate color for each prayer time; the background shifts as the times change.

Filters

You can apply a filter to change the tone of your image. Filters don't alter the image itself — remove the filter and you're back to the original.

Dimming

Dimming reduces the brightness of the wallpaper so prayer names, times, and the countdown stay readable over it.

Where: in the title bar of the Themes page — the round button with a sun icon, on the right.

It helps most with a bright desert at midday, a white mosque against a pale sky, or your own photo with a busy top section — which is where the countdown sits.

Dimming applies to whichever theme is active, works the same on built-in categories and your own photos, and can be turned off at any time. The wallpaper itself never changes.

How the Home screen looks with a theme

The wallpaper sits behind the whole prayer screen. The next prayer, the countdown, the Fajr-to-Dhuhr progress bar, and the full day's times stay where they were, on a semi-transparent panel that keeps them readable.

Built-in theme vs. your own photo

Themes and adding your own photo are free. No subscription is required and there's no limit on how many times you can switch.

Themes don't change your phone's wallpaper

Themes change the look inside Muslim App only. Your phone's home screen and lock screen wallpapers are set in your phone's own settings and aren't affected.

If you want prayer times without opening the app, add a Muslim App widget to your phone's home screen (see 8.1).

1.4Permissions

The app asks for three permissions. Each one powers a specific feature, and the app still works if you decline.

Granting a permission later

You can grant a permission you declined at first. The app takes you to your phone's settings.

If location is off, a banner appears on the Home screen and the Qibla screen. Tap it to grant permission in one step.

1.5Location

Prayer times and the Qibla depend entirely on where you are, which makes location the most important setting in the app.

Automatic location

With location permission granted, the app works out where you are and shows the city name on the Home screen. Your country is also used to pick the right time settings — whichever country you're in, the calculation accepted there is used.

Choosing a city manually

If you'd rather not grant location permission, or you want prayer times for another city, you can search for one.

• Type the city name and pick it from the results.
• Cities you searched recently stay in the list.
• Your chosen city is remembered after you close and reopen the app.

When you travel

Open the app once in a new city or country and prayer times are recalculated for your new location, with notifications set to match.