Does Indico have a native mobile app?

No. Indico provides a responsive web timetable, but it is not a native mobile app and does not support offline access, push notifications, or personal schedules. A separate mobile layer is required for on-site attendee use.

How does a mobile app read data from Indico?

Via the Indico REST API (recommended for live sync) or via XML export from the timetable view. For public Indico events, the event URL alone is often sufficient to initiate an automated setup.

Does it work with private or institutional Indico instances?

Yes. A properly built Indico integration supports API token authentication and works with self-hosted Indico instances at CERN, DESY, INFN, IN2P3, and other labs. You generate a read-only API token in your Indico account settings and share it with the app provider.

What happens when the timetable changes in Indico during the conference?

A mobile app with live API sync reads the updated timetable from Indico automatically and can push notifications to attendees for critical changes such as room moves or cancellations. If the integration uses XML exports, each change requires a new export to be triggered manually.

Can the mobile app handle HEP papers with hundreds of authors?

Yes, if the app is designed for scientific conferences. HEP contributions from large collaborations like ATLAS or CMS can have thousands of listed authors. A purpose-built scientific conference app handles these lists without truncation or performance degradation.

Does the app render LaTeX from Indico abstracts?

It depends on the app. HEPCon renders LaTeX in abstract text. For a physics or mathematics conference where abstracts contain equations, verify that LaTeX rendering is supported before choosing a vendor.

How to Add a Mobile App to Your Indico Conference – 2026 Guide

Indico is the gold standard for scientific conference management. From CERN flagship events to departmental workshops, it handles the timetable, contributions, abstracts, and room assignments that make a complex programme work. What it doesn't include is a native mobile experience for attendees.

This guide is for Indico organisers who want to give their attendees offline access, push notifications, personal schedules, and fast search — without abandoning Indico as the source of truth or adding manual work to their team's plate.

Already decided and want to see how HEPCon connects to Indico? Go directly to: Indico Conference App solution.

What Indico Does — and Where It Stops

Indico is built for the organiser side of a conference: call for abstracts, paper management, timetable construction, room and resource booking, and the canonical programme record. These are complex tasks it does exceptionally well, and nothing in this guide suggests replacing it.

The gap opens at the attendee side. Once your programme is finalised and attendees are on site, they need to do things Indico's web interface was not built for:

Browse the full timetable offline in a hall with no Wi-Fi signal
Search across 500 contributions by keyword in under two seconds
Bookmark sessions and build a personal schedule on their phone
Receive a push notification when a room change happens during the event
Navigate between parallel tracks in a dense multi-day programme

These are attendee problems that require a dedicated mobile layer — not an improvement to Indico's timetable view.

How Indico Exports Its Data

Any mobile app you connect to Indico will read your event data in one of three ways. Understanding the differences matters because it determines how accurate, complete, and up-to-date your mobile programme will be.

1) Indico REST API (recommended)

Indico exposes a documented REST API that allows external tools to read your event timetable, contributions, rooms, speakers, and attachments in JSON format. Key endpoints include:

/api/events/{event_id}/timetable/ — full timetable with sessions and contributions
/api/events/{event_id}/contributions/ — all contributions with abstracts and authors
/api/events/{event_id}/persons/ — speaker and author profiles

A mobile app that reads Indico via the REST API can sync automatically every time your timetable changes. This is the integration pattern that eliminates manual maintenance — you update Indico, the app reflects it.

Access tokens: for public Indico events, no API token is required. For private or restricted events, you'll generate an API token in Indico under Account > API token and share it with whoever is setting up the mobile layer.

2) Indico XML Export

Indico can export your timetable as XML via the event management page: Programme > Timetable > Export. The XML contains the full session/contribution hierarchy, room assignments, timing, speaker names, and abstract text.

XML export is useful when your Indico instance is on a private network, when API access is restricted by your institution, or when you need a one-time snapshot rather than a live sync. The trade-off is that each timetable change requires a new export.

3) Direct event link (simplest)

For public Indico events, sharing the event URL is often sufficient for an automated setup. A mobile app that knows how to read the Indico event structure can derive the necessary API calls from the event URL alone — no file export required.

What to Require From a Mobile App for Indico

Use these requirements to evaluate any solution — including HEPCon. If a vendor can't answer these precisely, the integration is more fragile than they're admitting.

Reads Indico's native format without manual reformatting

The right answer is that you share the event URL or XML export and the mobile layer handles the rest. If a vendor asks you to copy-paste contributions into a spreadsheet or manually recreate your timetable in a second system, you've lost the main benefit of using Indico.

Preserves the full contribution hierarchy

Indico's data model is: Event → Tracks → Sessions → Contributions → Sub-contributions. The mobile app must preserve this structure. An app that flattens everything into a list of talks loses the context that participants need to navigate a multi-track programme.

Handles large author and speaker lists correctly

High-energy physics papers regularly have hundreds of authors. A contribution from ATLAS or CMS may list 3,000 collaborators. The mobile app must render these without truncation, without crashing, and without making every contribution page load slowly.

Renders LaTeX in abstracts

Indico abstracts in physics and maths conferences contain LaTeX — equations, Greek letters, subscripts, and notation that needs to render correctly on mobile. Plain-text rendering of LaTeX is unacceptable for a scientific audience.

Syncs automatically when Indico changes

Timetables change — especially in the days before and during an event. Room moves, speaker replacements, added contributions. The mobile app should pull from Indico automatically and propagate those changes to attendees without you having to trigger a manual re-export.

Works with private and institutional Indico instances

CERN, DESY, INFN, IN2P3, and most large HEP labs run their own Indico instances. The mobile layer must support authentication via API tokens and work with on-premise Indico deployments — not just the public CERN Indico.

Real offline access — not just cached pages

Underground laboratories, shielded experimental halls, overcrowded conference centre lobbies: this is where your attendees will actually use the app. Offline must mean the full programme — sessions, abstracts, posters, personal schedule — is available without any network connection. Not just the home screen.

Common Issues to Watch For

Time zone handling

International events in Geneva, Hamburg, or Fermilab attract participants from every time zone. Confirm that the mobile app displays session times in the venue's local time by default, with an option for attendees to convert to their local zone. A Geneva conference displayed in UTC-8 is a silent failure that only surfaces during the event.

Indico categories vs standalone events

Indico organises events inside categories. Some mobile integrations only handle standalone events, not events within category hierarchies. If your lab's Indico organises everything under a top-level category, verify the mobile layer can access events correctly regardless of their category nesting.

Attachment visibility

Indico contributions often have attached slides, papers, and supplementary materials. A good mobile layer surfaces these as downloadable or viewable within the app. Verify whether attachments are included in the integration or stripped out.

Protected or restricted contributions

Some Indico events mark individual contributions as restricted — visible only to registered participants or specific groups. Confirm how the mobile app handles access control, particularly for restricted sessions or confidential internal events.

The Setup Process in Practice

Whether you use HEPCon or another solution, the typical workflow for connecting a mobile app to Indico is:

Share your event URL or XML export. For public events on CERN Indico or your institution's instance, the event URL is usually sufficient. For private events, also provide an API token with read access.
Review the auto-generated preview. The mobile app ingests your timetable and produces a preview for you to check: sessions, rooms, contributions, speakers, tracks, and abstract text. This is where you catch any formatting or structural issues.
Confirm branding details. Logo, primary colour, cover image, sponsor tiers. These can come from your Indico event page or be provided separately.
Go live. Your event is published in the mobile app. From this point, changes you make in Indico propagate to the app automatically (or on your next export, if using XML).
Monitor during the event. Room changes, cancellations, and late additions go into Indico as usual — and arrive in attendees' apps as push notifications.

With HEPCon, this process takes 48 hours from sharing the event URL to a live preview. See: How to get started.

Which Indico Events Are a Good Fit for a Mobile App?

Not every Indico event needs a dedicated mobile layer. Here's a rough guide:

Good fit

Multi-day conferences with parallel tracks (ICHEP, CHEP, LHCP, TWEPP)
Events with 100+ contributions and dense poster sessions
Events at venues with poor or overloaded Wi-Fi
Events where room changes happen frequently during the conference
International events where attendees start planning personal schedules weeks in advance

Probably not needed

Internal seminars or small group meetings under 30 people
Single-track single-day workshops with a fixed schedule
Events where all participants are in the same room all day
Purely virtual events without on-site navigation needs

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