Definition

short_name (manifest field)

Short definition

short_name is an optional manifest string, typically under 12 characters, used wherever screen space is limited — the home-screen label, the app switcher, or a launcher grid. When short_name is absent the browser falls back to the full name field, which may get truncated with an ellipsis.

Reviewed July 20, 2026

Android home-screen grids give roughly 12 characters before wrapping or clipping, so short_name: "InstantPWA" is safer than relying on a 30-character name.

iOS reads short_name the same way when the site is added to the home screen via the Safari share sheet, though Apple also honours a separate apple-mobile-web-app-title meta tag if present.

A manifest missing both name and short_name is invalid per the W3C spec and Chromium will not treat the site as installable: https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/#short_name-member.

Keep short_name and the app icon's visual branding consistent — testers frequently notice a mismatch between the icon glyph and an unrelated abbreviated label.

Related terms

name (manifest field)

name is a required-in-practice string field in the Web App Manifest that gives the full, human-readable title of the app. Browsers show it on the install dialog, the splash screen and in the OS app switcher. It can be up to 45 characters before some UIs truncate it.

icons (manifest field)

icons is a manifest array of objects like {"src": "/icon-512.png", "sizes": "512x512", "type": "image/png"}. Chromium requires at least a 192x192 and a 512x512 PNG for install eligibility; the browser picks the closest size for each surface (home screen, splash screen, task switcher) rather than scaling a single image.

Web App Manifest

A Web App Manifest is a JSON file (usually manifest.webmanifest) that declares your app's name, icons, start URL, theme colour and display mode. The browser reads it to render the install prompt and the home-screen icon.

start_url (manifest field)

start_url is the manifest field that sets the exact URL loaded when a user taps the installed app icon. It is resolved relative to the manifest URL, so "start_url": "/?source=pwa" launches the origin root with a query string you can use to distinguish installed-app sessions from browser-tab sessions in analytics.

scope (manifest field)

scope is a manifest field, for example "scope": "/app/", that defines the URL prefix the browser considers part of the installed app. Navigating within scope keeps the app in standalone mode; navigating outside it (such as to an external payment page) typically opens a normal browser tab or an in-app browser bar.

display (manifest field)

display is the manifest field that chooses the browser chrome level for the installed app. Accepted values are fullscreen, standalone, minimal-ui and browser. "display": "standalone" is the most common choice because it hides the address bar and tab strip while keeping the OS status bar visible.