iPhone guide
How to turn a website into an app on iPhone
Two answers, depending on why you are here: how to install a site on your own iPhone, and how to make your site installable for everyone who visits it.
Open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. It launches full screen like an app. If it is your own site, add a web app manifest, a service worker and an on-page prompt — Safari never offers installation on its own, so visitors have to be shown the way.
Install a site on your iPhone
- 1
Open the site in Safari
It must be Safari. Chrome and Firefox on iOS cannot add a site to the home screen as a standalone app.
- 2
Tap the Share button
The square with an arrow pointing up, in the bottom toolbar on iPhone or the top toolbar on iPad.
- 3
Choose Add to Home Screen
Scroll down the share sheet. On newer iOS versions it sits under the row of app icons.
- 4
Name it and tap Add
The name you type is what appears under the icon. The site’s manifest supplies the icon itself.
- 5
Launch it from the home screen
It opens full screen with no address bar, keeps its own login session, and appears in the app switcher like any other app.
Make your own site installable on iPhone
- 1
Add a web app manifest
Declare name, short_name, a 192px and 512px icon, theme colour and display: standalone. Without it iOS uses a screenshot of the page as the icon.
- 2
Add apple-touch-icon
iOS still reads <link rel="apple-touch-icon"> for the home-screen icon on older versions. Ship a 180×180 PNG with no transparency.
- 3
Register a service worker
Required for installability and for the app to open when the connection is poor.
- 4
Show a guided prompt
iOS never shows an automatic install banner. Your site has to detect iOS Safari and render a sheet that points at the Share button, or almost nobody will install.
- 5
Ask for push after install
Since iOS 16.4 an installed web app can receive push notifications, but only once installed and only after the user grants permission from inside the installed app.
InstantPWA does all five, including the iOS-specific Share-sheet walkthrough:
<script src="https://instantpwa.com/api/public/embed.js" data-widget="YOUR_ID"></script>
What iPhone web apps can and cannot do
- Launch full screen with its own icon
- Send push notifications (iOS 16.4+, once installed)
- Work offline through cached responses
- Keep a persistent logged-in session
- Show a badge on the icon on supported versions
- Appear in the App Store without packaging
- Install automatically — the Share sheet is required
- Use NFC or run long background tasks
- Be installed from Chrome or Firefox on iOS
Common questions
Why is there no install button on iPhone?
Safari does not implement the beforeinstallprompt event that Chrome uses, so there is no automatic banner and no one-tap install API. The only route is the Share sheet, which is why an on-page prompt explaining it matters so much on iOS.
Can I add a website to my iPhone home screen from Chrome?
Chrome on iOS can only create a bookmark, not a standalone app. Open the page in Safari to get the full-screen installed experience.
Do iPhone web apps support push notifications?
Yes, from iOS 16.4 onwards, and only for web apps installed to the home screen. Push in a normal Safari tab is not supported.
Does the installed app take up storage like an App Store app?
Far less. It stores the icon plus whatever your service worker caches — typically a few megabytes rather than tens or hundreds.
Will the home-screen app stay logged in?
Yes. The installed web app keeps its own storage, so a session there persists independently of Safari tabs.
Keep reading
Preview the iPhone prompt on your site
Paste your URL and see the exact sheet your visitors would get.
Try the free preview