safari progressive web app macos

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Does Mac Safari(16.1) support PWA to add website to home screen?

I have updated my safari to the latest version 16.1 on Mac and try to find the entrance to add web page to home screen. But I still couldn't find it.

Is there anyone know if Mac Safari(16.1) support to add web page to home screen currently?

Many thanks

Posted on Oct 26, 2022 3:53 AM

Posted on Oct 27, 2022 12:35 PM

he means progressive web app (PWA) and basically it is the ability to install a web app to your desktop. It then effectively acts like a standalone app with better functionality and integration. Try Squoosh.app to give it a trial go.

However, you can't with the Safari browser. Apple are sadly years behind with allowing this but if you can bring yourself to do it...

PWAs work with Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome on MacOS

Here's How Web Apps Work in macOS Sonoma

In macOS Sonoma, currently in beta, you can create individual web apps for any website that you frequent in Safari, and have them sit beside other apps in your Dock. Let's take a closer look at how it all works by turning MacRumors.com into a virtual Mac app as an example.

How to Turn MacRumors into a Web App

In macOS Sonoma developer beta, navigate to MacRumors.com in Safari.
Choose File -> Add to Dock in the menu bar.
If you want, you can change the MacRumors icon by clicking it in the Add to Dock window. You can also edit the web app's name using the title field – "MacRumors" is more succinct, for example.
Click the blue Add button.

You will now see the MacRumors web app sitting in your Dock, ready for use independently of Safari. The web app works with Mission Control and Stage Manager just like any app, and can also be opened via Launchpad or Spotlight Search.

On opening the web app, you'll notice its window includes a simplified toolbar with navigation buttons (note: Website developers can control whether these are shown). As you can see in the image, the MacRumors theme color for the site blends into the toolbar for a more seamless look.

Web developers have the ability to refine the scope of a web app to a specific path on their site if they wish. For example, MacRumors could theoretically provide a facility to make web apps dedicated to navigating only how-to articles or guides. This is something MacRumors may implement in the future.

Website Logins and Notifications

By default, Safari copies a website's cookies to its web app. So if you create a MacRumors Forums web app and you were logged into your account at the time, you will remain logged in inside the web app. Even if you weren't logged in, you can do so within the web app with minimal effort, since Apple has integrated support for Password and Passkey AutoFill.

If a website already supports web push notifications – as MacRumors does – and you have signed up to them , you will receive web app push notifications that display the corresponding MacRumors icon, giving you more context than a standard Safari notification and icon would.

The web app icon in the Dock will also show a badge when a notification is received. Web app notifications are silent by default, although developers can change them to play a sound. However, the end decision over sound and icon badges is left to the user in System Settings -> Notifications .

For those who wish to delve further into macOS Sonoma, it is currently available to download as a developer beta , although caution is warranted, as beta versions can be unstable and buggy. For those willing to wait, the official public release is expected to land in the fall.

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Top Rated Comments

This was the biggest eyeroll moment of the WWDC keynote for me. (I liked all the rest) PWA's are a thing for years and years. They even got a spokesperson and demo for pinning a webapp and made it sound like they invented something magical and revolutionary that will enrich people's lives. Can't believe it took them so long to add something that has been considered 'a basic feature' for years on other platforms and browsers.

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Web Apps on macOS Sonoma got a proper install experience

With the release of macOS Sonoma, we are excited to see Apple making a big step forward in supporting Web Apps in general and Progressive Web Applications specifically. This is great news for developers and users alike, as it means that PWAs will be more accessible on Mac than ever before.

Unfortunately, there is no built-in browsers experiences for prompting PWA installation on Safari. This is where the pwa-install component comes in. It’s a simple, lightweight, framework agnostic web-component that provides a native-like installation experience for PWAs on iOS/iPadOS and now on macOS Sonoma. It’s easy to use and works with any PWA or simple Web App, so you can get started right away.

Why does easy installation matter? Progressive Web Applications offer a lot of flexibility and user engagement. One of the main selling points is their app-like presence on your device. However, not every browser has made it easy to install them. This update is set to make the installation of PWAs feel more native, especially for users on macOS Safari.

Implementation

But how it was archived? Safari on macOS Sonoma supports the Web App Manifest, which is a JSON file that describes the Web App metadata. This includes the app’s name, description, icons, and more. The pwa-install component uses this information to create a native-like installation experience for PWAs on iOS/iPadOS and macOS Sonoma.

But here’s a catch: Safari on macOS doesn’t provide any API to detect Web Apps availability. So, we used a workaround to detect Web Apps availability on macOS platform.

Here’s how it works :

When we combine the user agent and Sonoma specific Safari feature detections, we can detect Web Apps availability on macOS platform. We run previous and current macOS version with latest Safari 17 side by side and with help of tool like this , we were able to detect the difference we can use.

Installation

This isn’t just about Safari on macOS. The component keeps the user experience consistent no matter the device.

Adding this component to your project is simple. The readme includes a one-line npm install command, import instructions, and basic HTML for adding the component to an app. Here is a live demo to show you exactly how it should look and work. Most modern frameworks can use the component as a web component. React polyfill is included.

What’s coming soon for PWA installation? Samsung Internet and Firefox Mobile are the next browsers to get the pwa-install component. This will make it even easier for users on Android devices to install PWAs from their favorite browsers.

The pwa-install component aims to improve the install process for PWAs, with the most recent update making the experience feel more native for Safari users on the new macOS Sonoma. Whether you’re aiming to reach macOS, iOS, or wider audiences, this component can play for you a vital role in creating a seamless PWA installation experience.

Jump into the demo to see the new features for yourself. If you like the progress, feel free to contribute features or translations through pull requests.

Author Profile

Gleb Khmyznikov @khmyznikov

Eastern Europe based Software Engineer who loves PC hardware, gaming handhelds, classic cars and web technologies.

DEV Community

Posted on Jun 6, 2023

Safari 17 Beta: A Game Changer for PWAs on MacOS

Safari 17 Beta is the latest version of Apple's web browser, which was released on June 5, 2023. It includes many new features and improvements for web developers, especially for those who create Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).

If you are not familiar with PWA, PWAs are web applications that offer a native app-like experience to users. They can be installed on various devices, including MacOS, and can work offline, send push notifications, and access device features.

In this blog post, I will highlight some of the new WebKit features that Safari 17 Beta supports for PWAs.

New WebKit Features for PWAs

Web Share API Level 2 : This API allows PWAs to share files with other apps on the device, such as photos, videos, or documents. It also supports sharing multiple files at once.
Web App Manifest : This is a JSON file that describes a PWA, such as its name, icons, start URL, display mode, and more. Safari 17 Beta supports more manifest properties than before, such as categories , description , and screenshots .
Web App Banner : This is a prompt that appears on Safari when a user visits a PWA that can be installed on the device. Safari 17 Beta improves the appearance and behavior of the banner, making it more consistent with native app banners.
Service Workers : These are scripts that run in the background and enable PWAs to work offline, sync data, send push notifications, and more. Safari 17 Beta improves the performance and reliability of service workers, and adds support for some new APIs, such as CacheStorage and Background Sync .
Web Push API : This API allows PWAs to send push notifications to users even when they are not using the app. Safari 17 Beta adds support for silent push notifications, which can be used to update the app's content or state without alerting the user.

Advantages of PWAs for Developers

PWAs offer many advantages for developers, and on MacOS right now, as well. Some of them are:

They are easier and cheaper to develop and maintain than native apps, as they use web technologies and standards.
They can reach a wider audience, as they are compatible with different browsers and devices.
They can leverage the features and performance of Safari, which is the default browser on MacOS and supports many PWA capabilities.
They can provide a seamless user experience, as they can adapt to different screen sizes and orientations, work offline, and update automatically.

PWAs are a great way to create engaging and reliable web applications that can run on MacOS and other platforms. If you want to learn more about PWAs, you can check out this guide from Google.

Are you interested in learning GitHub but don't know where to start? Try my course on LinkedIn Learning: Learning GitHub .

Thanks for reading this post, I hope you found it interesting!

Feel free to follow me to get notified when new articles are out 🙂

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Top comments (4).

Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use.

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I am really thinking about this a lot and could image the future with only PWA‘s where users do not install native apps on their devices anymore (at least that is what I would like for mobile).

What do you think? Will the PWA be able to fully replace native apps at some point?

Email [email protected]
Location Zurich, Switzerland
Pronouns he/him
Work Microsoft 365 Architect
Joined Jun 22, 2018

I am a big fan of PWA since the beginning... but I don't think they replace native apps completely... (but I would like 😀)

Joined Aug 17, 2023

There's no documented support for Web App Install Banners in Safari / iOS 17.

Here's the WWDC announcement: developer.apple.com/videos/play/ww...

and the beta release notes: developer.apple.com/documentation/...

Joined Jun 9, 2023

I’m sorry but I think Apple didn’t create web app banner !

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PWAs Turn Websites Into Apps: Here's How

Progressive web apps, or pwas, offer a way to turn app-like websites into website-like apps. browsers are beefing up support for these useful hybrids, and we show you how to install and use them..

Maybe you’ve encountered a website that proposes something like “install this as a web app,” as I recently did on the Google Meet webpage. That’s one example of how you can get a Progressive Web App (or PWA). The Meet PWA became available just recently in some web browsers , but several other Google services have offered the option for years. Other app-like sites such as Outlook, Spotify, and Instagram are more good examples of sites ripe for the PWA treatment. Let's delve into exactly what these PWAs are, how you can get started with them, and what benefits they offer.

What Is a Progressive Web App?

The web has increasingly become more app-like. Websites can deliver notifications, work offline, store data in local caches or persistent databases, and run in the background. Many websites behave more like applications than purely as informational sites. The Progressive Web App standard offers websites a chance to become even more like standalone apps, by discarding browser elements that only clutter their interface.

Progressive Web Apps take advantage of the same technologies that power today’s advanced websites, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But they also use a few newer and less common web standards, including Web Application Manifest (to define the app’s name, icons, URL, colors, and configurations) and Service Workers , which allow PWAs to function offline without an internet connection.

You may be wondering why the term progressive comes into play. It stems from a web development strategy called progressive enhancement . In this strategy, the developer focuses on the main content and functions first and then adds extra capabilities if the browser and platform offer more frills around the edges. Related to progressive enhancement is responsive web design, in which content is designed to resize for specific platforms, such as mobile or desktop devices.

Sadly, one of my favorite web browsers, Firefox, doesn’t support PWAs on the desktop, though it does on Android. (The same holds for the innovative Opera web browser.) Mozilla had been working on a project to add it to its excellent, privacy-respecting browser , but the organization announced a cessation of that endeavor. One can hope that situation changes sometime in the future.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at what you can gain from using PWAs (along with the drawbacks), how you can install them on several platforms, and which are my favorites.

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of PWAs?

As mentioned, PWAs let you focus on the meat of an app-like website, without all the browser interface and window borders you normally get in the browser. You just see one menu—the app's site menu—rather than both that and the browser’s menu, search box, and toolbar. Those browser elements are sometimes unnecessary distractions and simply add clutter.

You may also find PWAs include more capabilities than installed apps. “How can that be?” you ask. Well, many websites are updated constantly, while an app is only updated when you install the update. Often a web service launches new features for its website first and only later adds them to its standalone applications, if ever.

Other advantages of Progressive Web Apps are that they are more lightweight than native applications and are platform-agnostic. In other words, developers don't need a different app for mobile and desktop—as long as a browser that supports PWAs is running on the platform. On Windows, there’s no need for Registry clutter or ancillary code modules. One developer notes that the Twitter Lite PWA takes up only 3% of the storage required by its native Android app counterpart. This benefits end users as well as developers, as we'll see in a moment.

Finally, PWAs sidestep the mobile app stores, which can be restrictive, especially for developers who have to pay tribute to the platform providers. For the end user, it means installations are incredibly fast and simple.

No Silver Lining Without a Dark Cloud

One downside to a PWA is that the app is still a website underneath, and though many are designed to continue functioning offline, some won’t work fully without a connection. This web underpinning can sometimes be an advantage, however: You can hit the browser refresh hotkey (F5 on Windows, Command-R on macOS) to reload a pesky site-app, while an installed program that’s not responding is more of a pain and often requires a restart.

Some PWAs also require you to sign in frequently as you would with a website, where most apps just start functioning when you fire them up. And there are certain types of application for which PWAs aren't appropriate. Native apps coded to the metal of your system provide faster performance: You wouldn’t want to run a AAA video game or a video editor as a website.

If you have both an installed app and a PWA for the same service on your device, it could lead to confusion in getting to the one you want. My advice for that: Just uninstall the native app; this will likely save you system resources. Finally, note that, just as with browser windows, you can have multiple instances of the same web app running simultaneously; this can be viewed either as a plus (if you want more than one set of content in the app) or a minus (if you get confused by multiple windows running the same app).

Another problem with PWAs is mere discoverability. Since there’s no PWA app store, it’s hard to know which sites can be installed as this class of app. The experience also depends on how well the developer implemented PWA functionality—some offer clear setup and usage experiences while others do not.

Which PWAs Should You Use?

Certain types of web apps make a lot of sense to use as PWAs—streaming music, communication, and social media apps are good candidates. Two PWAs that I run all the time are Spotify and the web version of Outlook, but for very different reasons.

First, Spotify: I would occasionally look in my Apps and Features settings page in Windows 10 and see that Spotify was taking up over a GB of drive space. I wondered why that was necessary because I didn’t need the app to download every song as I played it. After switching to the PWA, the app takes up less than 5MB.

I use Outlook Web rather than the stock Windows Mail app simply because if offers more reliability, speed, and features. There's talk of Microsoft replacing the Windows 10 Mail app with a variation on the PWA version, and that can't happen soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

Twitter is another fine candidate for PWA usage, but it already offers excellent native apps on most platforms. I started using Twitter as a PWA because the Windows store app didn’t let me switch between my personal and work accounts easily, whereas the web version did. Google Meet, Skype , and Zoom can all be installed as Progressive Web Apps, too.

You may someday install an app without even realizing it’s a PWA, especially now that Windows is moving towards including them in the Microsoft Store, in the Start menu program list, and in the Apps and Features section where you uninstall normal applications. Chrome OS already includes PWA in its app store.

How Do You Install a Progressive Web App?

A big advantage of PWAs is how easy they are to install, and the process continues to get simpler for the PWA-supporting web browsers such as Chrome and Edge. Apple is in a peculiar position when it comes to PWAs: You can install a PWA on macOS except in Safari; on iOS, you can install PWAs only in Safari. Here’s what you need to do to install a PWA on each major operating system (in order of popularity ).

Installing PWAs on Android

In the Chrome browser: For sites that fully provide PWA functionality, you see an Install app choice in the main Chrome menu. Once you select that option, the app icon appears on your home screen. (Note that you can choose Add to Home screen for sites that don’t provide PWA features.) The long-press choices still include Uninstall, but a telltale option below that is Site Settings—something you don’t see for store-installed apps.

In Firefox: For sites that can be turned into PWAs, Firefox’s menu has a simple Install option. After you tap this choice, you see the Add to Screen dialog box. The home screen icons for Firefox-created PWAs have a small orange Firefox logo at the bottom right of the main app logo. As with Chrome-created apps, you simply choose Uninstall from the long-press context menu to get rid of one. Unlike those created in Chrome, you don’t see the Site Settings choice, for a more real-app feel.

Installing PWAs on Windows

In Edge: The default Windows web browser provides the best option for installing PWA’s on Microsoft’s desktop operating system . That’s because it puts the app in your Start menu just like any other app you install the normal ways (either with a downloaded program installer or from the Microsoft Store app). Here’s how it works:

Navigate to the website you want to install as a PWA.
If the app is capable of being installed as a PWA, you can either click on the icon on the right side of the address bar that looks like three squares and a plus sign (the hover text is “App available. Install [ app name ]) or you can choose Apps from the three-dot overflow menu and then click Install [app name]. For some PWAs, the Install box pops up automatically.
That’s it. Your new app appears in the Start menu, gets a distinctive icon in the Taskbar (not the Edge icon), and can be converted into a desktop shortcut. If you want to uninstall the PWA, you can do so from the Start Menu's right-click menu, from Windows’ Apps and Features Setting page, or from Edge’s Manage Apps page.

In Chrome browser: Just as with Edge, Chrome has a button in the address bar that pops up for sites that offer PWA functionality. (Note that the privacy and crypto-earning browser Brave has PWA support that’s nearly identical to Chrome’s.)

Click the Install App button in the address bar or choose Install [ app name ] from the three-dot overflow menu at the top right.
After this, you’ll see the app with no browser border and an icon for it in your Start menu. Note that you can uninstall Chrome-created PWAs only from their window or the Chrome browser, not from Windows’ Settings. If you choose Uninstall from the Start menu, the PWA unhelpfully takes you to the old Programs and Features control panel.

Installing PWAs on iOS and iPadOS

As mentioned above, Apple only allows Safari to create PWAs in iOS and iPadOS —third-party browsers are left out of the party. Safari doesn’t use the terms install and app, like all other browsers that support PWAs do. To install one on iOS or iPadOS, load the PWA-capable site, choose the Share up-arrow at the bottom of the screen, and select Add to Home Screen. Note you can do the same for any website, but you won’t get the offline functionality of a true PWA.

When I created a PWA for Instagram, the icon and app looked identical to the App Store version, but instead of a Remove App option in the long-press menu, I saw a Delete Bookmark choice. Note that PWA icons don’t appear in iOS 14’s App Library, so you don’t get as full of an app experience with PWAs on Apple mobile devices as you do on other platforms. I guess this should not come as a big surprise, given Apple’s antagonistic stance towards open systems.

Installing PWAs on macOS

Installing a PWA in Chrome running on macOS.

In macOS , installing PWAs works just as it does on Windows, but the default Safari browser offers no method for installing a site as a PWA. Your new app does appear in Launchpad, but not in the Applications Finder folder.

Apps created with either Chrome or Edge nicely get a top menu named for the new app rather than for the browser, and I could even make Outlook PWA my default email-handling client. You have to uninstall PWAs from within the browser, however, rather than natively in the OS.

Installing PWAs on Linux-Based OSes

In Linux, you can set up PWA in the Brave, Chrome, and Edge (beta at the moment) web browsers just as you can on other desktop OSes. You see the same Install app button in the toolbar, and simply tapping that button creates the PWA. I tested this in Ubuntu . The PWA app icon appears on the Applications page, and the distinctive app icon rather than the browser icon appears in the Activities panel.

Note that if you use Brave or the open-source Chromium browser, you won’t get those benefits. You can still create a version of the site without the browser borders, but you have to open it from the main browser app.

Installing PWAs on Chrome OS

Google’s desktop OS behaves quite a bit differently from the Chrome browser on other platforms: There’s a circled Plus sign button in the address bar of the browser as well as a menu choice to Install [ app name ]. Choosing either results in your being shunted to the Google Play app store, from which you install the app. Yes, it’s still a PWA, but it’s one you get from the app store. That was my experience with installing the Twitter PWA, but for Outlook Web, choosing the same button installed a PWA just as you’d see on a Windows PC.

It’s not a bad experience, but, as with all things in Chrome OS , I wish there were more consistency. Some confusion results because the Outlook app in the Play Store is not a PWA, while the Twitter entry is. When you install the Outlook PWA and the Google Play Store's Outlook app, you get two app icons on the app shelf.

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Making PWAs installable

One of the defining aspects of a PWA is that it can be promoted by the browser for installation on the device. Once installed, a PWA appears to users as a platform-specific app, a permanent feature of their device which they can launch directly from the operating system like any other app.

We can summarize this as follows:

Supporting browsers promote the PWA to the user for installation on the device.
The PWA can be installed like a platform-specific app, and can customize the install process.
Once installed, the PWA gets an app icon on the device, alongside platform-specific apps.
Once installed, the PWA can be launched as a standalone app, rather than a website in a browser.

We'll discuss each of these features in this guide. First, though, we'll discuss the requirements that a web app must meet for it to be promoted for installation.

Installability

For a web app to be promoted for installation by a supporting browser, it needs to meet some technical requirements. We can consider these the minimum requirements for a web app to be a PWA.

The web app manifest

A web app manifest is a JSON file that tells the browser how the PWA should appear and behave on the device. For a web app to be a PWA it must be installable, and for it to be installable it must include a manifest.

The manifest is included using a <link> element in the app's HTML:

If the PWA has more than one page, every page must reference the manifest in this way.

The manifest contains a single JSON object containing a collection of members, each of which defines some aspect of the PWA's appearance or behavior. Here's a rather minimal manifest, containing just two members: "name" and "icons" .

Required manifest members

Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome, Samsung Internet, and Microsoft Edge, require that the manifest includes the following members:

display and/or display_override

For a full description of every member, see the web app manifest reference documentation .

Secure context

For a web app to be installable, it must be served in a secure context . This usually means that it must be served over HTTPS. Local resources, such as localhost, 127.0.0.1 and file:// are also considered secure.

Service worker

For a web app to be installable, it must include a service worker with a fetch event handler that provides a basic offline experience.

Installation from an app store

Users expect to find apps in the app store for their platform, like the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

If your app meets the installability prerequisites, you can package it and distribute it through app stores. The process is specific to each app store:

How to publish a PWA to the Google Play Store
How to publish a PWA to the Microsoft Store
How to publish a PWA to the Meta Quest Store

The PWABuilder is a tool to simplify the process of packaging and publishing a PWA for various app stores. It supports the Google Play Store, Microsoft Store, Meta Quest Store, and iOS App Store.

If you have added your app to the app store, users can install it from there, just like a platform-specific app.

Installation from the web

When a supporting browser determines that a web app meets the installability criteria described earlier, it will promote the app to the user for installation. The user will be offered the chance to install the app. This means you can distribute your PWA as a website, making it discoverable through web search, and also distribute it in app stores, so users can find it there.

This is a great example of the way PWAs can offer you the best of both worlds. It's also a good example of how progressive enhancement works with PWAs: if a user encounters your PWA on the web, using a browser that can't install it, they can use it just like a normal website.

The UI for installing a PWA from the web varies from one browser to another, and from one platform to another. For example, a browser might include an "Install" icon in the URL bar when the user navigates to the page:

Chrome URL bar, showing PWA install icon

When the user selects the icon, the browser displays a prompt asking if they want to install the PWA, and if they accept, the PWA is installed.

The prompt displays the name and icon for the PWA, taken from the name and icons manifest members.

Browser support

Support for PWA installation promotion from the web varies by browser and by platform.

On desktop:

Firefox and Safari do not support installing PWAs on any desktop operating systems. See Installing sites as apps , below.
Chrome and Edge support installing PWAs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and Chromebooks.
On Android, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Samsung Internet Browser all support installing PWAs.
On iOS 16.3 and earlier, PWAs can only be installed with Safari.
On iOS 16.4 and later, PWAs can be installed from the Share menu in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Orion.

Installing sites as apps

Safari for desktop and mobile, and Edge for desktop also support installing any website as an app. However, this is not specific to PWA because the site doesn't need to meet the installability criteria described in this guide, and because the browser doesn't proactively promote the site for installation.

Triggering the install prompt

A PWA can provide its own in-page UI for the user to open the install prompt, instead of relying on the UI provided by the browser by default. This enables a PWA to provide some context and a reason for the user to install the PWA, and can help make the install user flow easier to discover.

This technique relies on the beforeinstallprompt event, which is fired on the global Window object as soon as the browser has determined that the PWA is installable. This event has a prompt() method that shows the install prompt. So a PWA can:

add its own "Install" button
listen for the beforeinstallprompt event
cancel the event's default behavior by calling preventDefault()
in the event handler for its own "Install" button, call prompt() .

This is not supported on iOS.

Customizing the installation prompt

By default, the install prompt contains the name and icon for the PWA. If you provide values for the description and screenshots manifest members, then, on Android only, these values will be shown in the install prompt, giving the user extra context and motivation to install the PWA.

The screenshot below shows what the install prompt for the PWAmp demo looks like on Google Chrome, running on Android:

Launching the app

Once the PWA is installed, its icon is shown on the device alongside any other apps that the user has installed, and clicking the icon launches the app.

You can use the display manifest member to control the display mode : that is, how the PWA appears when it is launched. In particular:

"standalone" indicates that the PWA should look and feel like a platform-specific application, with no browser UI elements
"browser" indicates that the PWA should be opened as a new browser tab or window, just like a normal website.

If the browser does not support a given display mode, display will fall back to a supported display mode according to a predefined sequence. The display_override enables you to redefine the fallback sequence.

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Web Apps on macOS Sonoma 14 Beta

By Thomas Steiner . Written on Wed Jun 07 2023 . Work

Executive summary 🔗

With macOS Sonoma, Apple goes all-in on the concept of installable web apps . They're highly integrated in the overall macOS experience and don't give away their web roots by not showing any Safari UI at all.

Testing environment 🔗

Tested on macOS Sonoma 14.0 Beta ( 23A5257q ) with Safari version 17.0 ( 19616.1.14.11.11 ). It probably doesn't matter, but the testing device was a 13-inch, M1, 2020 MacBook Pro.

Install experience 🔗

On macOS Sonoma, you can add a website—any website, not just apps with a manifest—to your Dock. Go to the Share icon and click Add to Dock , or use the menu item File > Add to Dock .

Adding an app via the Share icon.

Adding an app via the File menu.

You can adjust the name and icon if desired. The URL is the URL you're on for pages without a manifest, or the start_url for pages with a manifest. It can't be changed. For pages without an icon, Safari will create a fallback icon based on the first letter of the page's title.

👀 Observation: Unlike on iOS/iPadOS, you can't add the same app twice, unless you rename it.

App name and icon are adjustable, the URL is not.

The web app icon then appears in your Dock. Maskable icons are supported, and the typical macOS squircle shape is respected. Closing all windows of an app leaves the app running, aligned with macOS UX paradigms.

👀 Observation: Unlike on Chrome, the app doesn't launch immediately and "morph" from in-tab to in-app, but instead you remain on the tab and need to launch the app manually.

Web app added to the Dock.

When right-clicking the Dock icon, you can uncheck Keep in Dock and still launch the app via Launchpad, Spotlight Search, or even just by double-clicking the app icon in ~/Applications/ .

Launch experience 🔗

The out-of-the box launch experience of web apps is fantastic. Nowhere does it give away that this is a web app. For apps with a manifest, there's no Safari UI whatsoever, and the expectation is that such apps are single-page apps that provide their own navigation controls. If an app is well made, lay persons probably wouldn't be able to tell that something is a web app.

Web app running without any Safari UI.

👀 Observation: Different from iOS/iPadOS, credentials in cookies are copied over, so if you were logged in when running in the tab, you're logged in when you launch the app. No other storage means apart from cookies are copied. "When a user adds a website to their Dock, Safari will copy the website's cookies to the web app. That way, if someone is logged into their account in Safari, they will remain logged in within the web app. This will only work if the authentication state is stored within cookies. Safari does not copy over any other kind of local storage. After a user adds a web app to the Dock, no other website data is shared, which is great for privacy".

👀 Observation: Web Inspector (DevTools) works a little differently than, for example, in Chrome: even with the Show features for web developers checkbox in Safari checked, there's no Develop menu item nor can you right-click and Inspect Element in a web app. Instead, you debug apps via Safari's Develop > $machineName > $appName menu item (thanks, @[email protected] ). If all app windows are closed but the app isn't quit, a potential service worker will be inspectable until it gets terminated after a couple of seconds.

Debugging a web app via Safari.

👀 Observation: Extensions don't run and likewise aren't displayed. Also probably a conscious decision.

👀 Observation: Same-origin (or in- scope if a manifest exists) links are handled in-app, cross-origin (or out-of- scope if a manifest exists) links open in the default browser. A notable exception are OAuth flow links, which are handled in-app based on a heuristic. Links opened via window.open() will always open in the web app.

If a user navigates to an already installed app in Safari, a prompt is displayed that invites the user to Open in web app .

Prompt inviting the user to Open in web app .

macOS integration experience 🔗

Web apps on Mac let you focus on the websites you use all the time, separate from the rest of your browsing. Like all Mac apps, web apps work great with Stage Manager, Mission Control, and keyboard shortcuts like Command + Tab. Web apps can be opened from the Dock, Launchpad, and Spotlight Search.

Multitasking experience.

Spotlight search experience.

Launchpad experience.

Stage Manager experience.

All web apps have an About dialog.

Settings and permissions 🔗

Web apps work with AutoFill credentials from iCloud Keychain and from third-party apps that have adopted the Credential Provider Extension API . Users can grant permission to a web app to use their camera, microphone and location in the same way they grant such permissions to other Mac apps through system prompts and the Privacy & Security section of System Settings.

System settings with Camera permissions.

Web apps on Mac support web push , badging , and all the usual web standards implemented by WebKit, just like web apps on iOS and iPadOS .

👀 Observation: There seems to be a bug where the hosting Web App appears as the app requesting the Notifications permission. Notifications then work as expected, though, including using the correct icon.

Notifications permission prompt with the wrong app name and icon.

Web apps have their own Settings dialog. In General , the app name and icon can be changed and navigation controls can be toggled on or off. The theming behavior of the title bar can be changed, too.

👀 Observation: Navigation controls are toggled off when there's a manifest with "display": "standalone" . In all other cases, even if a manifest exists but with a different "display" mode, navigation controls are toggled on.

Web app Settings dialog on the General tab.

👀 Observation: There's currently a bug where web apps don't correctly report matchMedia('(display-mode: standalone)') . Added to the Dock web apps think they run in a tab.

With navigation controls enabled, there's an Open in Safari icon in the upper right corner. Despite its label, it actually respects the user's default browser.

Open in Safari icon.

Web pages get navigation affordances in the form of a back and forward button. There's no reload button.

Back and forward buttons.

👀 Observation: With navigation controls toggled to off, the title of the web app sourced from the manifest is not shown. With navigation controls toggled to on, the title sourced from the <title> is shown.

👀 Observation: When you right-click, there's a context menu with Reload or Back and Reload . This works independent from whether navigation controls are toggled on or off.

The Privacy tab allows the user to clear website data and links into the Privacy & Security Settings of the System Settings app.

Web app Settings dialog on the Privacy tab.

Technical analysis 🔗

(See comment #7 of Chromium bug 1451667 for the full details.)

All apps are stored in ~/Applications/ . The package contents of each apps are:

a _CodeSignature folder with code signature metadata
a Resources folder with just the app icons as a single ApplicationIcon.icns file
an Info.plist file.

The package contents of an app.

The Info.plist file interestingly contains an XML version of key parts of the manifest and metadata about the app.

Similar to iOS/iPadOS, web apps run in the context of a separate process called Web App.app , which resides in /System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/App/System/Library/CoreServices/Web App.app .

👀 Observation: Separating Safari and Web App allows both to run independently. You can open a Web app without opening Safari, you can close Safari without all web apps closing.

The Web App.app app in Finder.

Each web app runs as its own process of kind Web , accompanied by a number of helper processes of kind Apple . They can all be seen in Activity Monitor.

Activity Monitor showing all processes associated with a web app.

Wish list for Apple 🔗

(Also see Most wanted PWA features on iOS/iPadOS/macOS Safari .)

Add support for the File System Access API , so users can install apps and edit files directly, rather than opening them and then downloading a copy. [ 🧭 231706 ]
Add support for DataTransferItem.getAsFileSystemHandle() , so users can drag and drop files into web apps and edit the file. [ 🧭 257792 ]
Add support for the Web Share Target API , so you can share data to installed web apps. [ 🧭 194593 ]
Let web apps programmatically trigger the Add to Dock flow, since the Share icon and the File menu install ways are hard to discover. [ 🧭 255716 ]
Add support for the Window Controls Overlay API , so the gorgeous current experience can be made even more gorgeous. [ 🧭 257782 ]

Spotify native app title bar experience.

Spotify web app title bar experience.

Add support for the File Handling API , so web apps can open files from Finder by double click if the web app is registered as the default file handler for a given file type, or by right click and then Open with if the web app can handle a file type, but isn't the default file handler. [ 🧭 257783 ]
Add support for the Launch Handler API , so web apps can decide how they want to handle launch events. [ 🧭 257785 ]
Reflect the cookie-copying logic on iOS/iPadOS. It's a very frustrating experience if you have to log in twice, even more so if two-factor authentication is involved. [ 🧭 257786 ]
Allow users to turn off the Open in web app prompt.

Recommendations for Chrome 🔗

Better respect macOS' design paradigms. Currently web app icon handling looks not integrated and icon shapes are all over the place. This is tracked as crbug/1230792 . The examples below are all web apps installed via Chrome.

Web app icon shapes installed from Chrome don't respect the squircle.

Move the extension puzzle piece and the Window Controls Overlay chevron into the three dots menu. Web apps can look so much cleaner without both in plain sight.

Window Controls Overlay chevron and extension puzzle piece clutter the UI of Chrome-installed apps.

New Fugu API needs 🔗

With Chrome and Safari now allowing web apps to be installed on macOS, it would be fantastic if installed apps could respect macOS UX guidelines and populate the system-level menu. Ideally Apple and Google engage jointly on the corresponding Project Fugu 🐡 API request tracked in crbug/1295253 . The screenshots below show all menu items as per the current default.

Web app default app name menu.

Web app File menu.

Web app Edit menu.

Web app View menu.

Web app Go menu.

Web app Window menu.

Web app Help menu.

Conclusion 🔗

Web apps in macOS Sonoma 14 Beta seamlessly integrate into the macOS experience, with no or very little visible Safari UI and with support for various operating system features. There is an enormous potential for web apps on macOS to succeed, and if Apple only works on a third of the items on my wish list, the potential is even bigger.

Installation

Once the user installs your PWA, it will:

Have an icon in the launcher, home screen, start menu, or launchpad.
Appear as a result when a user searches for the app on their device.
Have a separate window within the operating system.
Have support for specific capabilities.

Installation criteria

Every browser has a criterion that marks when a website or web app is a Progressive Web App and can be installed for a standalone experience. The metadata for your PWA is set by a JSON-based file known as the Web App Manifest, which we will cover in detail in the next module .

As a minimum requirement for installability, most browsers that support it use the Web App Manifest file and certain properties such as the name of the app, and configuration of the installed experience. An exception to this is Safari for macOS, which does not support installability.

The requirements to allow installation differ among the different browsers, this article details the criteria for Google Chrome and includes links to requirements for other browsers.

Because the test that a PWA meets installability requirements can take several seconds, installability itself may not be available as soon as a URLs response is received.

Desktop installation

Desktop PWA installation is currently supported by Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge on Linux, Windows, macOS, and Chromebooks. These browsers will show an install badge (icon) in the URL bar (see the image below), stating that the current site is installable.

Chrome and Edge on desktop with the install badge in the URL bar

When a user is engaged with a site, they may see a popup such as the one below inviting users to install it as an app.

Google chrome in-product help suggesting the PWA installation.

The browser's drop-down menu also includes an "Install " item that the user can use:

Chrome and Edge menu items for PWA installation.

Only standalone and minimal-ui display modes are supported on desktop operating systems.

PWAs installed on desktops:

Have an icon in the Start menu or Start screen on Windows PCs, in the dock or desktop in Linux GUIs, in the macOS launchpad, or a Chromebook's app launcher.
Have an icon in app switchers and docks when the app is active, was recently used, or is opened in the background.
Appear in the app search, for example, search on Windows or Spotlight on macOS.
Can set a badge number on their icons, to indicate new notifications. This is done with the Badging API .
Can set a contextual menu for the icon with App Shortcuts .
Can't be installed twice with the same browser.

After installing an app on the desktop, users can navigate to about:apps , right-click on a PWA, and select "Start App when you Sign In" if they want your app to open automatically on startup.

iOS and iPadOS installation

A browser prompt to install your PWA doesn't exist On iOS and iPadOS. On these platforms PWAs are also known as home screen web apps . These apps have to be added manually to the home screen via a menu that is available only in Safari. It is recommended that you add the apple-touch-icon tag to your html. To define the icon, include the path to your icon to your HTML <head> section, like this:

Safari will use that information to create the shortcut and if you don't provide a specific icon for Apple devices, the icon on the home screen will be a screenshot of your PWA when the user installed it.

It's important to understand that PWA installation is only available if the user browses your website from Safari. Other browsers available in the App Store, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Microsoft Edge, cannot install a PWA on the home screen.

The steps to add apps to the home screen are:

Open the Share menu, available at the bottom or top of the browser.
Click Add to Home Screen .
Confirm the name of the app; the name is user-editable.
Click Add . On iOS and iPadOS, bookmarks to websites and PWAs look the same on the home screen.

On iOS and iPadOS, only the standalone display mode is supported. Therefore, if you use minimal UI mode, it will fall back to a browser shortcut; if you use fullscreen, it will fall back to standalone.

PWAs installed on iOS and iPadOS:

Appear in the home screen, Spotlight's search, Siri Suggestions, and App Library search.
Don't appear in App Gallery's categories folders.
Lack support for capabilities such as badging and app shortcuts.

Incidentally, Safari uses a native technology known as Web Clips to create the PWA icons in the operating system. They are just XML files in Apple's Property List format stored in the filesystem.

Android installation

On Android, PWA install prompts differ by device and browser. Users may see:

Variations in the wording of the menu item for install such as Install or Add to Home Screen .
Detailed installation dialogs.

In the following image you can see two different versions of an installation dialog, a simple mini-infobar (left) and a detailed installation dialog (right).

Mini info bar and installation dialogs on Android.

Depending on the device and browser, your PWA will either be installed as a WebAPK, a shortcut, or a QuickApp.

A WebAPK is an Android package (APK) created by a trusted provider of the user's device, typically in the cloud, on a WebAPK minting server . This method is used by Google Chrome on devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS) installed, and by Samsung Internet browser, but only on Samsung-manufactured devices, such as a Galaxy phone or tablet. Together, this accounts for the majority of Android users.

When a user installs a PWA from Google Chrome and a WebAPK is used, the minting server "mints" (packages) and signs an APK for the PWA. That process takes time, but when the APK is ready, the browser installs that app silently on the user's device. Because trusted providers (Play Services or Samsung) signed the APK, the phone installs it without disabling security, as with any app coming from the store. There is no need for sideloading the app.

PWAs installed via WebAPK:

Have an icon in the app launcher and home screen.
Appear on Settings, Apps.
Can have several capabilities, such as badging , app shortcuts , and capture links within the OS .
Can update the icon and app's metadata.
Can't be installed twice.

While WebAPKs provide the best experience for Android users, they can't always be created. When they can't, browsers fall back to creating a website shortcut. Because Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave, and Samsung Internet (on non-Samsung devices) don't have minting servers they trust, they'll create shortcuts. Google Chrome will too if the minting service is unavailable or your PWA doesn't meet installation requirements.

PWAs installed with shortcuts:

Have a browser-badged icon on the home screen (see the following examples).
Don't have an icon in the Launcher or on Settings, Apps .
Can't use any capabilities that require installation.
Can't update their icons and app metadata.
Can be installed many times, even using the same browser; when this happens, all will point to the same instance, and use the same storage.

A PWA installed with different browsers on the same device.

Some manufacturers, including Huawei and ZTE, offer a platform known as QuickApps to create light web apps similar to PWAs but using a different technology stack. Some browsers on these devices, like the Huawei browser, can install PWAs that get packaged as QuickApp, even if you are not using the QuickApp stack.

When your PWA is installed as a QuickApp, users will get a similar experience to the one they would have with shortcuts, but with an icon badged with the QuickApps icon (a lightning image). The app will also be available to launch from the QuickApp Center.

QuickApps on a Huawei or ZTE home screen.

Prompting for installation

In Chromium-based browsers on desktop and Android devices, it's possible to trigger the browser's installation dialog from your PWA. The Installation Prompt chapter , will cover patterns for doing so and how to implement them.

App catalogs and stores

Your PWA can also be listed in app catalogs and stores to increase its reach and let users find it in the same place they find other apps. Most app catalogs and stores support technologies that let you publish a package that doesn't include the whole web app (such as your HTML and assets). These technologies let you create just a launcher to a standalone web rendering engine that will load the app and let the service worker cache the necessary assets.

The app catalogs and stores that support publishing a PWA are:

Google Play Store for Android and ChromeOS , using a Trusted Web Activity .
Apple App Store for iOS, macOS, and iPadOS, using WKWebView and App-Bound Domains .
Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and 11 , using APPX packages.
Samsung Galaxy Store , using the Samsung WebAPK minting server.
Huawei AppGallery, using a QuickApp container for your HTML application .

If you want to learn more about how to publish a PWA to app catalogs and stores, check out BubbleWrap CLI and PWA Builder .

What does it take to be installable
WebAPKs on Android
Patterns for promoting PWA installation
Using a PWA in your Android app
List your Progressive Web App in Google Play
Submit your PWA to the Microsoft Store
Publishing a PWA to App Store
WebKit: App-Bound Domains

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License , and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License . For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies . Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2022-01-10 UTC.

Use Safari web apps on Mac

Starting with macOS Sonoma, you can use Safari to save any web page as a web app, so you can use it independently of Safari. Web apps offer a streamlined, app-like experience and easy access from the Dock.

How does a web app differ from a web page?

How to create a web app from a web page, how to change web app settings, how to use notifications with a web app, how to delete a web app.

When you use a web page as a web app, it will look and behave just like it does in Safari. Yet the experience of using a web app differs in several ways.

A web app functions independently of Safari. It shares no browsing history, cookies, website data or settings In this way, it keeps your browsing separate, similar to using a Safari profile . What you do in a web app stays in the web app.

A web app can have any name or icon you want.

For websites that send notifications, the web app’s icon in the Dock can show the number of unread notifications.

In all other ways, a web app works like any other app. You can even add it as a login item so that it opens automatically when you log in .

Requires macOS Sonoma or later

In Safari, open the web page you want to use as a web app.

Type the name you want to use for the web app, then click Add. The web app will be saved to the Applications folder of your home folder, and you can open it from the Dock, Launchpad or Spotlight.

The prompt that appears after choosing Add to Dock

Open the web app, click the app’s name in the menu bar, then choose Settings from the menu.

Application Name: Type a new name for the app.

Application URL: Type a new URL for the app, or click Set to Current Page.

Icon: Click the icon shown, then choose a new image from the file dialogue that opens.

Show navigation controls: Choose whether the toolbar shows the back button, forwards button, app name and Share button.

Show colour in title bar: Choose whether to allow the colour of the title bar to adapt to the colour of the website.

From the Privacy tab, you can open Privacy & Security settings or clear the website’s data, including cookies and caches.

If a website is designed to send you notifications about new or updated site content, it will ask for your permission to do so. If you click Allow when prompted, those notifications appear on the lock screen and in Notification Centre. Web apps support an additional notifications feature: The number of unread notifications will appear as a red badge on the app’s icon in the Dock.

To use this feature, respond to the website’s notifications request in the web app, not in Safari. The web app then appears in Notifications settings: Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click Notifications in the sidebar, then select the web app from the list of applications on the right. Web apps are listed as the name of the web app, not the URL of the website.

Web apps are saved to the Applications folder of your home folder. To delete a web app, open your home folder, such as by choosing Go > Home from the menu bar in the Finder. Then open the Applications folder and drag the web app to the Bin.

Contact Apple Support

Need more help? Save time by starting your support request online and we'll connect you to an expert.

Progressive Web App (PWA)
View page source

Progressive Web App (PWA) 

Welcome to the Kasm Workspaces Progressive Web App (PWA)! A PWA provides a similar experience to that of a mobile app installed from an App Store, with some key benefits for users:

Benefits for the user:

Small size - You aren’t installing a full application, which saves storage space on your device.

Instant updates - The PWA is still a website, so updates to the site are immediately available to the PWA.

Add to homescreen - You can add the PWA to your homescreen, making it easily accessible like any other application.

Tables window - Enjoy a clutter-free experience without the distraction of browser bars, maximizing the useful space available.

Installation 

PWA installation methods vary across platforms and even devices within platforms. Unfortunately PWA installation isn’t universal across platforms or even devices on platforms. Some platforms prompt you to install the app when you visit a site that has PWA functionality, some just show it in the browser bar, and some don’t show anything at all (iOS). Here are the installation instructions for different platforms:

Using Chrome on Android tends to give the best PWA experience, When using Chrome on Android, you will be prompted to install the PWA when you visit the site. For Firefox, click on the three dots next to the browser bar and select “Install App.” This also works with Chrome if you close the prompt and decide to install it later.

Installing on Android 

Unfortunately, iOS does not provide a direct indication that a PWA is available. You can only install a PWA using Safari on iOS by following these steps:

Open Safari and navigate to the site.

Tap the Share icon.

Scroll down until you find the option “Add to Home Screen” and tap on it.

Finally, tap the “Add” button to install the PWA.

Installing on iOS 

Desktop Browsers 

Currently, Safari on MacOS does not offer an option to install a PWA. However, other browsers support PWA installation:

Most desktop browsers show the option to install the PWA either in the browser URL bar or when you click the three dots menu.

Installing on Desktops 

Removing a PWA can vary on Android, iOS, and desktop platforms. Here are the steps to remove the PWA from each platform:

Android doesn’t have a universal system for removing PWAs, as it can vary based on the phone, launcher, browser, or even the specific version of the browser. Here are three different options you can try:

From your app drawer or home screen, open Settings .

Tap Apps & notifications and then select See all apps .

Find the PWA that you want to remove and tap the icon.

Tap Uninstall .

Alternatively:

Find the app on your homescreen.

Long press until extra information pops up.

Click on the Remove icon

Start dragging until an option to remove appears.

Drop the app into the Remove area.

Uninstalling on Android 

Removing a PWA on iOS can be done by following these steps:

Find the app on your home screen

Either long press on the background until the icons start wiggling and a minus icon appears in the top left corner on the apps, then click the minus icon, or long press on the app and click the Delete Bookmark option.

Confirm you want to delete the bookmark.

Uninstalling on iOS 

Open the Workspaces PWA.

At the top of the application find the three dots menu at the top right and click it.

Click the Uninstall option.

Click on the subsequent Remove button.

Uninstalling on Desktops 

PWAs Turn Websites Into Apps: Here's How

Progressive web apps, or pwas, offer a way to turn app-like websites into website-like apps. browsers are beefing up support for these useful hybrids, and we show you how to install and use them..

What Is a Progressive Web App?

In the meantime, let’s take a look at what you can gain from using PWAs (along with the drawbacks), how you can install them on several platforms, and which are my favorites.

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of PWAs?

No Silver Lining Without a Dark Cloud

Which PWAs Should You Use?

How Do You Install a Progressive Web App?

Installing PWAs on Android

Installing PWAs on Windows

Navigate to the website you want to install as a PWA.
If the app is capable of being installed as a PWA, you can either click on the icon on the right side of the address bar that looks like three squares and a plus sign (the hover text is “App available. Install [ app name ]) or you can choose Apps from the three-dot overflow menu and then click Install [app name]. For some PWAs, the Install box pops up automatically.
That’s it. Your new app appears in the Start menu, gets a distinctive icon in the Taskbar (not the Edge icon), and can be converted into a desktop shortcut. If you want to uninstall the PWA, you can do so from the Start Menu's right-click menu, from Windows’ Apps and Features Setting page, or from Edge’s Manage Apps page.

Click the Install App button in the address bar or choose Install [ app name ] from the three-dot overflow menu at the top right.
After this, you’ll see the app with no browser border and an icon for it in your Start menu. Note that you can uninstall Chrome-created PWAs only from their window or the Chrome browser, not from Windows’ Settings. If you choose Uninstall from the Start menu, the PWA unhelpfully takes you to the old Programs and Features control panel.

Installing PWAs on iOS and iPadOS

Installing PWAs on macOS

Installing PWAs on Linux-Based OSes

Installing PWAs on Chrome OS

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About Michael Muchmore

How to install Twitter as a Progressive Web App on Mac

Twitter has a new Mac app, but it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Want the Twitter web experience but in app form? Here’s how to install Twitter as a web app on your Mac.

Twitter’s new Mac app was built using Catalyst, an Apple technology that makes it easy for developers to bring iPad apps to the Mac instead. That’s left the app a bit un-Mac-like and rough around the edges. Without resorting to a third-party app, you can use the Twitter web interface in app form with a few quick clicks.

The secret is to turn Twitter into a Progressive Web App. Recently iDB told you about how you can install Outlook.com as a Progressive Web App on macOS. This exact same technique can also be used the same thing with Twitter.

What exactly is a Progressive Web App?

Without going into too much detail, a Progressive Web App (PWA) is an application that you can run from your browser. Being delivered through the web, it can run on any platform, work offline, and provide features similar to a downloadable app from the App Store.

As with other cross-platform solutions, the goal is to help developers build cross-platform apps more easily than they would with native apps.

A PWA is said to be responsive, faster after loading, installable without the App Store, and work and feel like any other app.

Install Twitter as a Progressive Web App

Currently, you’ll need to use a Chromium browser like Chrome or Brave. So, just open up the browser, head to Twitter , and log in.

In the address bar of your browser, you should see a plus sign on the right. If you put your cursor over it, you’ll see the label, “Install Twitter” which is exactly what you want to do, right?

Click the plus sign and then click Install in the small pop-up window.

Boom! Twitter should open right up in its own window for you.

In addition, the folder should open that now contains the Twitter app. So you can drag it or create an alias and drag that to your desktop or Dock as a shortcut if you like.

If you close the folder too quick and want to reopen it, open Finder, click Go > Go To Folder and then copy/paste the path below, replacing YourUsername with your username, into the box and click Go .

If you don’t want to create a shortcut to it, you can still open the Twitter app directly from Chrome. It will available in your collection of other Chrome Apps.

Wrapping it up

Having Twitter as a web app is handy and it works just fine. What are your thoughts? Are you going to turn in your Twitter or third-party app for the Progressive Web App instead? Let us know!

I hope Apple makes Safari usable in macOS 15

A pple's Safari is no longer my primary browser after macOS Sonoma had such a negative impact on its performance, but I hope macOS 15 brings me back. To be honest, the issues started almost four years ago with the macOS Big Sur beta .

At the time, people complained about Safari's redesign, which I loved. Still, the issue was the app would continually display duplicated tabs even after a stable version was available. Once I clicked on a tab, the duplicated one would become a blank page.

While this problem was eventually fixed, it took Apple far too long to address the Safari issue on macOS Big Sur. In addition, it was with this operating system update that the pop-up warnings that a page was draining my MacBook's battery became more frequent.

This could have been solved if Apple was blocking all those ads and trackers it promised to. Not only was that not happening, but the pop-ups made pages load more slowly as well.

Around the time that macOS Ventura rolled out, I switched from a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro to the 2021 M1 Pro MacBook Pro, but even Apple's silicon optimization wasn't enough. A few Safari tabs opened, and everything slowed down. With that, I decided to switch to Microsoft Edge .

In macOS Sonoma, I tried using Safari a few times to editing articles or browse the web, but I'd constantly get a pop-up saying that a page was consuming too much memory.

At the end of the day, I was utterly convinced that even a 2023 Mac Studio with an M2 Max and 32GB of RAM couldn't handle Safari.

I don't care about AI, but I hope macOS 15 makes Safari better

macOS 15 is expected to feature some AI improvements, but I really want a better Safari, and memory consumption isn't the only issue. Another common complaint is that Safari can't save passwords properly, especially when Apple suggests a strong password for a new credential. Even saving your credit card with Safari on macOS is a pain.

Meanwhile, I have never had any issues with Microsoft Edge. Everything works smoothly; it saves and remembers all my passwords. Still, since I'm reluctant to use Edge on iOS and iPadOS, I don't have the seamless experience I once had.

If Apple can't fix Safari, I think I might fully switch to Edge in iOS 18 and macOS 15. I can't wait for WWDC 2024 to see if Apple has heard our concerns.

The post I hope Apple makes Safari usable in macOS 15 appeared first on BGR .

3.8 • 1万件の評価

Webを超高速で閲覧でき、強力なプライバシー保護機能と強力なカスタマイズオプションを備えています。Safariでは、サイトをブラウズしたり、Webページを翻訳したり、開いているタブにiOS、iPadOS、macOSのすべてでアクセスしたりできます。機能 • iPhone、iPad、Macの間でパスワード、ブックマーク、履歴、タブなどをシームレスに同期できます • プライベートブラウズモードでは履歴が保存されないため、閲覧しているものは自分にしか見えません • インテリジェントトラッキング防止機能により、閲覧したWebサイト間でのトラッカーによる追跡が阻止されます • タブグループを使うと、複数のタブを保存および整理して、iOS、iPadOS、macOSのすべてでアクセスできます • プロファイルを使って、ブラウズ履歴やWebサイトデータなどを仕事用や個人用などのテーマごとに分けることができます • 共有タブグループは、家族や友達とタブを共有して共同作業を行うのに役立ちます • 機能拡張を使ってSafariをパーソナライズできます。ブラウザにさらに機能を追加することもできます • リーダーでは、広告、ナビゲーションやその他の気が散るものを取り除いて読みやすくしたフォーマットで記事が表示されます • プライバシーレポートには、自分を追跡することが阻止された既知のトラッカーが表示されます • リーディングリストを使うと、簡単に記事を保存してあとで読むことができます • 音声検索では、音声だけでWeb検索を行うことができます • Webページの翻訳では、Webページ全体をブラウザ内で直接ほかの言語に変換することができます • Handoffを使うと、Safariでしていることをデバイス間で簡単に引き継ぐことができます • “ホーム画面に追加”で、WebサイトやWebアプリをホーム画面から素早く開くことができます

ツリー表示と大きなスクショは旧世代の代物

iPad版のSafariのレビューです。PCとAndroidも使っている私から見て、iPadのSafariは『お気に入り』の表示の仕方が他のあらゆるブラウザ、ブックマークサービスから頭3つ差くらい抜き出ています。アプリを立ち上げた直後に48個ものブックマークとフォルダがたった１画面に見易く収まっています。「アイコンと少なめのテキストで並べる」このシンプルな構図が最も見易いです。私はブックマークを1100以上登録していますが、短いテキストでも瞬時に理解出来る様に、登録する際ショッピングサイト等のページタイトルの頭に付いている「Amazon」とか「楽天市場」とかをわざわざ省いて登録しています。そうまでしてでもブラウジングはSafariでやった方が良く、1100のブックマーク数が少なく感じる程の視認性の高さです。無意味なブックマークにタイトルを付けて区切り線の代わりにし、なるべく階層は増やさない様にもしています。現状ブラウザはツリー表示か大き過ぎるスクリーンショットのどちらかしか無く、その間を柔軟に埋められるブラウザが存在していません。ギャラリーアプリには、タイル数を柔軟に変えられる物が多いのに、ブラウザのブックマークはずっと旧世代でした。そういった現状でSafariが抜き出ているのは当然の結果だと思います。難点は他のOSでの制作を止めた事、iCloudブックマークも息をしていない事です。iPadなら持ち歩ける上に最高のブラウジングが可能になるので、スマホはAndroidですがタブレットは私の中だとiOS一択になっています。しかし、他OSとの同期が弱過ぎる点はどうしても無視出来ず、将来的には使用を止めなければならないブラウザの筆頭でもあります。残念ながらこれに依存するのはリスキーです。

フォームへの自動入力の挙動がおかしい

ある予約サイトなどのフォーム入力で、ID、ニックネーム、名前、ふりがな、電話番号、メールアドレスなどを入力する際に設定済みの連絡先けら自動入力を使って入力する際に、「連絡先を自動入力」で一括入力すると思い通りのフォーム入力にならないので、「連絡先を自動入力」の下に表示される入力候補文字列から1項目づつ選択して入力していましたが、IOS 15.4 以降の挙動がおかしくなって使いにくくなりました。第一入力項目をタップし、先ず候補から文字を選択すると、文字は正常に入力され、次の第2項目へ自動でフォーカスされるのですが、その際、本来表示される筈の文字列候補が表示されないのです。第3, 第4項目でも同様です。自動でフォーカスされるとそのような現象になる様で、一旦フォーカスを手動で他の項目へ移すなどして再度手動でその項目にフォーカスを当てると、本来の正しい文字候補は表示されます。どうやら safari 連絡先自動入力のバグと思われます。早急な改修をお願いいたします。

また人のレビュー消された

Safari以前に、このAppStoreの不具合もなんとかしろ。レビュー記入中に別アプリに切り替えて戻ってきたら、編集内容が消えるどころか元のページすら残らずに最初のApp検索のところに戻されてる。最後にも言ってるが、ユーザーの都合を考えろ。 JavaScriptの設定変更が即時反映されない件をかなり以前から不具合報告のページに投稿してにもかかわらず、それを含めて諸々の不具合や不都合な仕様その他が全く何も直ってないという旨を自分の元のレビューに追記したら抹消してきよった。ほんまここの会社、終わりやな。ユーザーの意見に耳を貸さず勝手なことばっかりやってな。ＯＳ１５からほんまにあらゆるところがひどい。開発部門の人件費削減で中学生でも雇ってるのかと思う。要らないことばかりしてきとる。ピンチインでタブ一覧になるのも迷惑な時があるし、お気に入りの並べ替えでドラッグした時にイビツな動きをして以前と違って全くスムーズじゃなくなった。なんであんなにおかしい動きをするのか。プログラミングで根本的に間違ったことをしてるとしか思えない。それにお気に入りは、編集モードがあるのに通常時に長押しドラッグで移動になる必要が全くない。ポイントサイトなどでログボのためにアクセスだけしてプレビュー見る必要もない時もあるのに、下スワイプのタイミングが早いとブックマークの場所が変わってしまって、すぐに元の位置に戻しておかないと次の時に探さないといけなくなることもある。いろいろなことがユーザーの都合無視で不便なものになっていってばかりしてる。〝人が使うもの〟ということを考えろ。お前らの勝手なくだらない仕様を押し付けてくるな。変更を加えてくればくるほど使いにくくなってる。

デベロッパである" Apple "は、アプリのプライバシー慣行に、以下のデータの取り扱いが含まれる可能性があることを示しました。詳しくは、デベロッパプライバシーポリシーを参照してください。

ユーザに関連付けられたデータ

次のデータは収集され、ユーザの識別情報に関連付けられる場合があります：

ユーザに関連付けられないデータ

次のデータは収集される場合がありますが、ユーザの識別情報には関連付けられません：

プライバシー慣行は、ご利用の機能やお客様の年齢などに応じて異なる場合があります。詳しい情報

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IMAGES

How to create Safari web apps in macOS Sonoma
PWA (Progressive Web App): O Que É e Como Criar o Seu (+3 Exemplos)
Apple releases Safari 14 for macOS ahead of Big Sur launch
Nowe funkcje wkrótce w Safari na macOS
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MacOS App import uci
Murk III
Embracing the Future: Transforming Odoo into a Progressive Web App
Safari Developer Tools in MacOS Sonoma
iPadOS 17: What's new in the Safari App
Make macos safari support gesture through CirMenu

COMMENTS

Does Mac Safari(16.1) support PWA to add …
11 points. Posted on Oct 27, 2022 12:35 PM. he means progressive web app (PWA) and basically it is the ability to install a web app to your desktop. It then effectively acts like a standalone app with better functionality and integration. Try Squoosh.app to give it a trial go. However, you can't with the Safari browser.
Here's How Web Apps Work in macOS Sonoma
In macOS Sonoma developer beta, navigate to MacRumors.com in Safari. Choose File -> Add to Dock in the menu bar. If you want, you can change the MacRumors icon by clicking it in the Add to Dock ...
PWAs Turn Websites Into Apps: Here's How
Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, offer a way to turn app-like websites into website-like apps. Browsers are beefing up support for these useful hybrids, and we show you how to install and use them.
Web Apps on macOS Sonoma got a proper install experience
Safari on macOS Sonoma supports the Web App Manifest, which is a JSON file that describes the Web App metadata. This includes the app's name, description, icons, and more. The pwa-install component uses this information to create a native-like installation experience for PWAs on iOS/iPadOS and macOS Sonoma. But here's a catch: Safari on ...
Installing and uninstalling web apps
To uninstall, open the PWA. In the top right corner of the opened app, there will be an icon that must be expanded to see more tools. Depending on the browser used to install the PWA, there will either be a link to uninstall the PWA, or a settings link that opens the browser's settings page with an uninstall link.
Progressive Web Apps
A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a web app that uses progressive enhancement to provide users with a more reliable experience, uses new capabilities to provide a more integrated experience, and can be installed. ... Apple is a crucial company for the multi-device world, owning iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari. While Apple has never used the term ...
Make your PWA feel more like an app
Make your Progressive Web App not feel like a website, but like a "real" app. Thomas Steiner. When you play Progressive Web App buzzword bingo, it is a safe bet to set on "PWAs are just websites". Microsoft's PWA documentation agrees, we say it on this very site, and even PWA nominators Frances Berriman and Alex Russell write so, too.
Safari 17 Beta: A Game Changer for PWAs on MacOS
Safari 17 Beta is the latest version of Apple's web browser, which was released on June 5, 2023. It includes many new features and improvements for web developers, especially for those who create Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). If you are not familiar with PWA, PWAs are web applications that offer a native app-like experience to users.
PWAs Turn Websites Into Apps: Here's How
Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, offer a way to turn app-like websites into website-like apps. Browsers are beefing up support for these useful hybrids, and we show you how to install and use them ...
Making PWAs installable
Progressive web apps. Guides. Making PWAs installable. Article Actions. English (US) Filter sidebar ... Firefox and Safari do not support installing PWAs on any desktop operating systems. ... Chrome and Edge support installing PWAs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and Chromebooks. On mobile: On Android, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Samsung ...
How to Create Web Apps in Safari Mac?
Go to "File" menu and select "Add to Dock…" option. Add to Dock Menu in Safari Mac. You will see a "Add to Dock" pop-up in which Safari will automatically pick the website's icon, title and the URL. If you want, change the title and click on "Add" button. Enter Name for Web App. Now the site will be added as an app in your Dock.
Progressively enhance your Progressive Web App
For example, below is desktop Safari's share sheet on macOS triggered from an article on my blog. When you click the Share Article button, you can share a link to the article with a friend, for example, via the macOS Messages app. Web Share API on desktop Safari on macOS. The code to make this happen is pretty straightforward.
5 Simple Ways to Create and Add Web Apps to Your Mac Home Screen
In the latest version of macOS (macOS 17 or later), Apple has added support for creating web apps using the Safari browser. Without using a third-party app, you can create a web app from the settings.
Progressive web apps(PWAs) are coming to a Safari near you
Progressive Web Apps(PWA) vs Native Apps ... To be honest web app manifest is optional in Safari as Safari had its own proprietary meta tags. ... Inconsistency in Apple's MacOS Design.
Web Apps on macOS Sonoma 14 Beta
Web apps in macOS Sonoma 14 Beta seamlessly integrate into the macOS experience, with no or very little visible Safari UI and with support for various operating system features. There is an enormous potential for web apps on macOS to succeed, and if Apple only works on a third of the items on my wish list, the potential is even bigger.
Dock installable web apps in Safari macOS Sonoma
The support for installing web apps, especially Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), has always been there in Chrome where a PWA can be installed as a standalone app on the desktop or mobile. So, for instance, when it's installed on your system, it can be accessed through the dock in macOS/Linux-based systems or through the Start menu in Windows.
Installation
When users use the PWA, they are not using an instance of the Safari app (like they use an instance of Chrome when doing so), they are using something known as Web.app, so you should expect slight differences between your PWA rendered in Safari and a PWA window. Both Safari and Web.app use the same core from WebKit and the same JavaScript ...
Use Safari web apps on Mac
Requires macOS Sonoma or later. In Safari, open the web page you want to use as a web app. From the menu bar, choose File > Add to Dock. Or click the Share button in the Safari toolbar, then choose Add to Dock. Type the name you want to use for the web app, then click Add. The web app will be saved to the Applications folder of your home folder ...
Progressive Web App (PWA)
Open Safari and navigate to the site. Tap the Share icon. Scroll down until you find the option "Add to Home Screen" and tap on it. Finally, tap the "Add" button to install the PWA. Installing on iOS Desktop Browsers Currently, Safari on MacOS does not offer an option to install a PWA. However, other browsers support PWA installation:
How to Use Web Apps on Mac
Open the Safari app on your Mac. Navigate to the website that you want to use as a web app. Click File from the top left corner of the Menu Bar. From the drop-down menu that appears, highlight and select Add to Dock. Enter a title for the Web App that will appear in the Dock and within Spotlight results.
PWAs Turn Websites Into Apps: Here's How
Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, offer a way to turn app-like websites into website-like apps. ... Command-R on macOS) to reload a pesky site-app, while an installed program that's not responding ...
How to install Twitter as a Progressive Web App on Mac
That's left the app a bit un-Mac-like and rough around the edges. Without resorting to a third-party app, you can use the Twitter web interface in app form with a few quick clicks. The secret is to turn Twitter into a Progressive Web App. Recently iDB told you about how you can install Outlook.com as a Progressive Web App on macOS. This exact ...
I hope Apple makes Safari usable in macOS 15
In macOS Sonoma, I tried using Safari a few times to editing articles or browse the web, but I'd constantly get a pop-up saying that a page was consuming too much memory.
Safari」をApp Storeで
Webを超高速で閲覧でき、強力なプライバシー保護機能と強力なカスタマイズオプションを備えています。. Safariでは、サイトをブラウズしたり、Webページを翻訳したり、開いているタブにiOS、iPadOS、macOSのすべてでアクセスしたりできます。. 機能. • iPhone ...

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