You don’t need Safari to add web apps to your iPhone home screen — try these browsers instead « iOS and iPhone :: Gadget Hacks

Safari isn’t the only web browser on your iPhone or iPad that lets you add progressive web app and website bookmark icons to your home screen. Apple has given developers a key to the “Add to Home Screen” feature, and your favorite iOS or iPadOS web browser may already support this feature.

Starting with iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4, third-party mobile web browsers include the tools necessary to implement Add to Home Screen. If supported, you can add a web app shortcut to your home screen that opens in your own WebView instance, whether it’s your default browser or not.

If your favorite iOS web browser supports “Add to Home Screen,” this is another reason to make it your default instead of Safari.

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Web apps and web bookmarks

For a website or web page to open as a web app on an iPhone or iPad, its manifest file must include a “standalone” or “fullscreen” display view. If true, the web app will open in its own WebView and get its own card in the iPhone or iPad’s app switcher, separate from the web browser.

Starting with iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4, web apps can also issue web push notifications just like regular apps. This is one of the reasons why “Add to Home Screen” is so useful right now.

According to Apple, if a website or web page added to the Home screen doesn’t include web app behavior in its manifest file and doesn’t have a “meta” tag to mark it as web app-enabled, it’ll be added to the default web. It will be a simple bookmark that opens as a tab. browser.

Before iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4, home screen bookmarks created in Safari open in Safari. However, now that other apps can add home screen bookmarks, home screen bookmarks will open in the browser you set as your default.

Please note that Add to Home Screen may not be supported in third-party browsers on iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 in European Union (EU) countries that use alternative browser engines other than WebKit. If you live in the US, Add to Home Screen will continue to work fine in third-party browsers if the app supports it.

Different home screen icon styles

If an icon is provided under “apple-touch-icons” in your website’s manifest file or HTML document, that icon will be used on the iPhone or iPad home screen, as shown in the left image below.

Otherwise, the icon will display a color that matches the website design and a monogram using the first letter of the web page title (not the domain name), as shown in the image below on the right. . Unfortunately, renaming a home screen icon does not change the characters used.

Prior to iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4, the home screen bookmark icon without an override icon appeared as an unsightly screenshot of a web page.

Browsers that support Add to Home Screen

Add to Home Screen (Mozilla calls it A2HS) has been available for some time for third-party browsers, so you’ll find this option available in many browser apps. If your browser supports it, you may see options in the share sheet that include his AirDrop, frequently used contacts, apps, shortcuts, and other available actions. However, developers can also add shortcuts. Here is a small list of browsers that support Add to Home Screen as of February 2024.