Add your app to a home screen or desktop

Once your project is published, you or your users can add it straight to a phone or tablet home screen, or install it on a computer. No app store download required.

A web app manifest makes that shortcut look and feel like an app — it launches in its own window, with no browser toolbar in sight. It is optional, and the steps below work either way. How to add one is at the end of this page.

iPhone and iPad

On iOS the shortcut is created from the browser's share menu. Safari is the most reliable path and the one shown below, but Chrome and Edge for iOS also offer Add to Home Screen in their share menus, and the result is the same — every browser on iOS renders through WebKit.

1. 1

   Tap the Share button in Safari

   Open your published project URL in Safari, then tap the share icon — the square with an upward arrow — at the bottom of the screen.

   

2. 2

   Choose "Add to Home Screen"

   In the share sheet, scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen. If it is not there, scroll to the bottom and tap Edit Actions to enable it.

   

3. 3

   Name the shortcut and confirm

   Give it a name — or keep the default — then tap Add in the top-right corner.

   

Your project now sits on the home screen alongside regular apps. You can rearrange it or drop it into folders, though it will not show up in the App Library.

Android

Android is more flexible: several browsers support home screen shortcuts. Here are Chrome and Firefox.

Google Chrome

1. 1

   Open the browser menu

   Navigate to your published project URL in Chrome, then tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner.

   

2. 2

   Choose "Add to Home Screen"

   

3. 3

   Name the shortcut and tap "Add"

   

4. 4

   Place it on your home screen

   Your launcher shows a confirmation. Either drag the icon where you want it, or tap Add to Home Screen to place it automatically.

   

Mozilla Firefox

In Firefox, tap the three-dot menu, open the More section, then choose Add to Home Screen.

Just like Chrome, you can rearrange the shortcut or put it in a folder. It will not appear in the app drawer — only on the home screen.

Windows and Mac computers

On a computer, Chrome and Edge install a published project as a desktop app. It opens in its own window without the address bar, gets a Start menu or Launchpad entry you can pin to the taskbar or Dock, and uses the same website, sign-in and database as everyone else.

Chrome

Open your published project URL, then click Install at the right of the address bar. If it is not there, open the three-dot menu and choose Cast, save, and share → Install page as app.

Edge

Open your published project URL, then click App available at the right of the address bar. If it is not there, open the … menu and choose Apps → Install this site as an app.

Safari on a Mac

Open your published project URL and choose File → Add to Dock (macOS Sonoma or later).

To remove it on Windows, uninstall it like any other program from Settings → Apps, or from the app's own three-dot menu. The address bar's Install button appears once the project has a web app manifest, described in the next section.

Make it open like an app

This is not a hosting setting but a small change to your project, so ask your assistant: "Make this app installable." It adds a web app manifest — static/manifest.json, with the app's name, icons, and display: standalone — and links it from the page. Set a project icon too; it becomes the home-screen icon. Then have your assistant publish, and the change reaches your users.

A home-screen app is your website, so it updates whenever you publish, with nothing to reinstall. The icon is the exception: a phone that already added the app may keep showing the old icon after you change it. Removing the app from the home screen and adding it again picks up the new one.

Floot apps do not use a custom service worker: Floot already runs its own for push notifications, and a second one would conflict with it. The manifest alone is enough.