What to show after WiFi login: the connected screen and redirect

Once a guest has filled in your sign-in form, the captive portal has one more chance to show them something before they go off to whatever they connected for. It can do that in two places, both set by the venue: a connected screen on the portal itself, and a redirect to a web page of your choice.

This guide covers what each one does, what to show on them by type of venue, how phones and laptops handle the sign-in window, and where the connected screen does not apply. Device behaviour comes from Apple, Google and Microsoft documentation, linked at the end. The splash page design guide covers the sign-in page itself.

The connected screen and the redirect

The connected screen is part of the portal and appears once the guest is online. The redirect is a web address, usually on your own website, that the guest is sent to afterwards. You can use either or both.

What the connected screen can show

On CaptiFi, guests see a short connected screen once they are online, with the Meraki exception covered below. With nothing set up, it shows for a moment and moves the guest on by itself. Three things can take it over.

The first is a promotion with the After connecting placement, which is part of the branded splash page on every plan. The screen shows your artwork, the headline beneath it and a button that opens your link. While a promotion is showing, the screen waits for the guest: they tap the button to open your link, or tap Continue to carry on to the internet, which means your redirect page if you have set one. The guest is already online at this point, so the offer costs nothing in sign-ins. CaptiFi also shows the promotion on the simplified sign-in sheet some phones open in place of the full page.

The second is a reward message, on the Growth plan with Rewards. When a guest joins your programme at sign-in and a reward is issued, the connected screen shows the offer and tells the guest where the reward has gone, for example "We have sent your reward to j***@gmail.com" or "to your phone ending 1234", with a Continue button. It moves on by itself after a few seconds. The code itself never appears on the splash page; it travels only by email or text.

The third is your next event, on the Growth plan with event ticketing. With Show the next event on the WiFi welcome screen switched on and your events page live, the screen carries a card for your soonest public event that is on sale and starts within the next seven days. The card gives the event name, the doors or start time and a See tickets button. A promotion set to show after connecting takes the card's place, and so does a Rewards message.

Setting the redirect after connect

The redirect lives in the Advanced section of the splash page builder, as Redirect after connect. Enter the web address you want guests sent to after login, such as your website, menu or offers page, and add a delay if you want one. When a promotion is on the connected screen, the guest reaches the redirect when they tap Continue.

The address belongs to the venue. If you copy a splash design from one venue to another with Copy design on My Locations, each venue keeps its own redirect page along with its name, location and session length. On Growth, the website_url merge tag in your emails uses the same address, which CaptiFi's documentation calls "the address guests are sent to after connecting".

Some controllers have a redirect setting of their own: CaptiFi's TP-Link Omada guide covers the Omada Redirect option, which sends guests to the original URL or a custom one. If guests land somewhere unexpected, check both.

What to show, by type of venue

The connected screen suits one offer that applies to everyone who connects that week, and the redirect suits a page with more on it.

CaptiFi's documentation sets out three rules for the artwork. Put the offer, the price and any dates in the image itself, in large type, because nothing is printed underneath it. Write the headline as what the artwork says, because it is used as the image description for screen readers and for guests whose connection is too slow to load the picture. And give the promotion a link, which must start with https://, because this placement is built around the tap. The tip under the link field suggests your booking or ticket page.

What phones and laptops do with the sign-in window

Each platform handles the sign-in page differently, and each maker documents a different part of it.

Apple's developer guidance says iOS and macOS "automatically send a probe when joining your network for the first time to detect this interception, and display the captive portal login page". That small window is often called the Captive Network Assistant. Apple's support article adds that "When you tap Cancel on the login screen, you disassociate the device from the captive Wi-Fi network", so a guest who closes the window before finishing the form loses the WiFi. Apple does not document how the window handles links or redirects after sign-in, so connect a real iPhone and tap through the connected screen and redirect yourself.

Apple also warns that when a session expires, the interception "can interfere with pages someone accesses in Safari and other apps: Safari might load the wrong page, or display a security warning." A session length in the builder's Advanced section that covers a typical visit keeps that from happening mid-visit.

Google's documentation for network operators contrasts the legacy WebView-based sign-in window with Custom Tabs on Android 12 and later, where the updated CaptivePortalLogin module opens the portal in the user's main browser if the network supports the Captive Portal API from RFC 8908 and opts in. That standard also defines venue-info-url, a page of "information that it wishes to share with the user (e.g., store info, maps, flight status, or entertainment)". Android 11 supports it: "users can open this URL if they choose to do so from a notification after logging in, or from their network settings." Both features depend on the network supporting the Captive Portal API. On a network that does not, the connected screen and the redirect are what the guest sees after login.

Where the connected screen does not apply

On venues using a Cisco Meraki controller, the After connecting promotion is not shown and the guest is sent straight through. CaptiFi's documentation gives the reason: the controller needs the browser to complete the sign-in step first. On Meraki, CaptiFi sends the guest's browser back to Meraki's one-time grant address after the form, and Meraki authorises the session. The next event card is not shown at venues on Meraki either.

On Meraki, put the offer in a promotion below the sign-in options instead, the placement CaptiFi's documentation recommends by default, where every guest sees it under the connect button.

Measuring what the screen earns

CaptiFi counts link taps for the promotion in the After connecting placement only; the other placements are not measured. Under that promotion the builder shows a line reading "Link taps: N in the last 7 days, M in the last 30 days", and the counts keep 180 days of history. Use it to compare one offer with the next: swap the artwork, wait a week, and look at the 7-day figure again.

Under the link field, Add tracking tag appends utm_source=captifi_splash to an https link, so the taps show up as splash traffic in your own website analytics. The control disappears once the link carries the tag. If you also want splash page visits in Google Analytics, add your Google Analytics ID in the Advanced section of the builder.

Mistakes to avoid

• Putting the offer only behind the link. Some guest devices cannot open other websites until after they have connected, and a guest who never taps should still see the offer in the artwork.
• A headline that reads like a title. It is what a screen reader announces and what a guest on a slow connection sees, so write what the artwork says.
• Using the Above the sign-in options placement for an everyday offer. CaptiFi's documentation says it converts worst, because every guest has to scroll past it on every visit, and keeps it for something time-critical.
• An After connecting promotion with no link, which leaves the guest nothing to tap but Continue.
• Checking changes on a phone that is already connected. Changes apply to new sessions, so reconnect a test device after every edit.

Setting it up on CaptiFi

1. In my.captifi.io, go to My Venues, My Locations, and click Edit splash on the venue's card.
2. Open the Promotions section and choose After connecting. Upload your artwork, up to 4 MB, then add a headline and an https link, and click Add tracking tag if you want the taps in your analytics. Promotions save as soon as you add them.
3. Open the Advanced section, enter the address under Redirect after connect, set a delay if you want one, and click Save changes.
4. Reconnect a phone to the guest network, sign in, and check the connected screen, the button and the redirect. Tap the button once and watch the link tap count move.

Branded splash pages, promotions and the redirect are included on every plan, from $69/mo on the pricing page. The reward message and the next event card need Rewards or event ticketing, which are on Growth. You can set all of this up on your own network with a 30-day free trial.

Sources: Apple Developer, How to modernize your captive network (22 June 2020); Apple Support, Use captive Wi-Fi networks on your iPhone or iPad (23 April 2026); IETF RFC 8908, Captive Portal API (September 2020); Android Developers, Captive portal API support; Android Open Source Project, Implement Android Custom Tabs for Captive Portal Login; Microsoft Learn, Network Connectivity Status Indicator FAQ; CaptiFi's customer documentation for the splash page builder, events, reviews and the Meraki and TP-Link setup guides, checked 3 October 2026. iPhone, iPad, Mac, iOS, macOS and Safari are trade marks of Apple Inc.; Android is a trade mark of Google LLC; Windows is a trade mark of Microsoft Corporation; Cisco Meraki, TP-Link and Omada are trade marks of their owners. CaptiFi is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.