Installing takes less than a minute. On iPhone and iPad you use Safari's Share menu; on Android you use Chrome's menu or an install prompt.
How to install a PWA on iPhone and Android
What is a PWA?
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a website you can put on your phone's home screen and open like a regular app. It needs no App Store or Google Play, takes up almost no space and updates itself.
iPhone and iPad (Safari)
On iPhone and iPad you install through Safari's Share menu. There is no automatic install prompt, so it has to be done by hand.
1. Open the website in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up). On iOS 26, tap ⋯ next to the address bar first, then Share.
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Make sure Open as Web App is turned on. Change the name if you like.
5. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
6. The app icon is now on your home screen. Open it from there – not from Safari.
The illustration is simplified; buttons may look slightly different depending on your iOS version.
From iOS 26, every site you add to the home screen opens as a web app by default
(MacRumors). If you turn Open as Web App off, you just get a bookmark that opens in Safari.
Use Safari if you are on an older iOS version. Before iOS 16.4, other browsers such as
Chrome could not add web apps to the home screen.
Android (Chrome)
On Android you install through Chrome's menu – or with one tap if Chrome shows an
install prompt itself.
1. Open the website in Chrome.
2. If Chrome shows a message at the bottom offering to install the app, tap Install and
skip to step 5.
3. Otherwise, tap the three dots ⋮ in the top-right corner.
4. Choose Install app or Add to home screen (the name depends on your Chrome
version). If you get a choice between Install and Create shortcut, choose Install.
5. Confirm with Install.
6. The app is now on your home screen and in your app drawer.
The illustration is simplified; the menu looks a little different from phone to phone.
In Samsung Internet it is called Add page to → Home screen. Firefox only creates a
shortcut that opens in the browser, so Chrome is the best choice (TrekMail).
