KDS Offline Mode

[ishaan]

As I'm sure many folks here know, internet issues and outages can cause chaos in the kitchen. Unfortunately, Square experienced an outage earlier this week that impacted many restaurants. Our team understands how disruptive this can be to your business, and we are investing in reliability as well as improving your offline product experience so you can keep your restaurant running even when your internet goes down.

We're working on a new offline mode for KDS so POS orders reach your KDS, even during an internet or Square outage. We're looking for feedback and advice from our community of Square restaurant/F&B owners and operators to help make sure that the next time there's an outage, you're prepared. This is an opportunity to help Square shape a crucial new feature.

You'll receive a $50 gift card or processing fee credits for your first $2,000 in sales, as a thank you for 30 mins of your time. If you’re open to chatting with us, please comment below!

[makedonas]

Finally! I would love to help. 

[Waterfall]

Sure - I can help.  

[TheRealChipA]

Count me in.  

[Eddiemunster]

I'd love to be involved

[DeutschEssen]

This would be a big step in the right direction. Let me know how to help. I made a post a couple of weeks ago about being able to run the system on a local network when the internet is down for precisely this reason. We need to be able to see the orders on the KDS locally when Square servers can not be reached.

[makedonas]

This upcoming feature needs to be placed on a accelerated timeline.
Another major KDS disruption happening right now. 2 hours in the middle of our biggest rush of the week. Friday night. 🙏  kitchen and servers are drowning. 

[_Violet]

Hi @makedonas - I'm sorry to hear that you've been experiencing some trouble on your KDS.

It sounds like this behavior was likely related to an issue which occurred on Friday. you can view the details here on our Status Page. This issue has since been resolved, but please let me know if you are still experiencing any disruptions.

[makedonas]

It’s been resolved, but those 2 hours felt like 14 long hours lol. 
I’m just saying that having a robust offline-direct connect KDS system will help alleviate Square server issues. 
of course, Online ordering will still get disrupted, but on a weekend night, the dine in guests are the biggest and only priority. 

[_Violet]

Thanks for following up here, @makedonas. I'm glad to hear everything is working correctly for you now.

We understand how important it is for all of our services to be running correctly for your business. Our Engineering team is actively discussing how to prevent future disruptions like this one. Thank you for your patience with us as we worked to resolve this issue.

[_Violet]

@makedonas - Additionally, if you're interested, you can opt in for outage notification via text and email here on your Dashboard.

[makedonas]

Already on it! thank you tho 

[ChillNL]

Hi @ishaan ,

Is there an update on offline KDS and when it will be rolled out or in beta?

[copper_cup]

Any updates on an offline capability for KDS?

[SVLFever]

Whatever became of this?  I don't think my KDS works in offline mode.  I'm curious to know how Square plans/planned on solving this.  Anyone using it or testing it now?

[TheRealChipA]

Tagging @nika I don't see this on the product roadmap, so we are wondering the status of this test. 

[SVLFever]

Thanks Chip.  I probably should have thought of that myself.  😇

[ryanwanner]

@SVLFever Curious about this myself.  It’s my understanding that the KDS is fed orders from the Square servers instead of directly from the point of sales, so I’m interested in how this would be accomplished with an internet outage. 

[TheRealChipA]

@ryanwanner I've always thought that feeding it from the servers is a mistake.  I understand it, sort of, if that is the case.  It allows online, Uber, DoorDash, etc, to feed the KDS.  But when we are in offline mode, I've always thought it should at least feed orders from the POS on the same network, even if the others can't be fed to it.  At least then we aren't totally dead in the water.  I'm sure @nika will enlighten us.

[nika]

Hi friends! I followed up with @ishaan to see what the deal is and where we're at with this one. Will report back. 🤞

[nika]

I'm back with an update. Good news... IT'S IN DEVELOPMENT! Looking at 2026 but not certain at what point in the year. It should be shown on the Roadmap whenever it's getting close, though. So keep an eye out 👀