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I know I can use Chrome on a desktop or Android device to “Add to Home screen”. I know I can use “Add to homes screen” in Safari iOS.

But, can I use “Add to home screen” feature in Chrome for iOS?

Cody Gray - on strike
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Wayne F. Kaskie
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5 Answers5

98

No. There is no such option in Chrome for iOS. I'm using iOS 12 on iPhone X with latest Chrome and I don't see such option. Safari for iOS have "Add to home screen" for a long time now. Its just the "Service worker" support that came recently in 11.3 version .

Notably, Chrome for iOS is just an wrapping layer on top of Safari's WebKit and what it can perform at OS level is heavily restricted in that sense. Depending on when and how Apple opens its API for 3rd party WebKit based browser implementer for iOS, we can hope to see this sometime in future.

But still not an option for now (as of May 2022)

aleclarson
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Anand
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    Thanks for the definitive and informative answer. Seems like this used to be an option for iOS Chrome ... Did that change? If so, when? – Aaron Wallentine Jan 10 '19 at 19:40
  • To my knowledge, this was never an option. If they had that option, they should’ve already overcome the mentioned limitation and I don’t see why they would pull back. I’ve never seen one. Any reference on this was an option in the past ? – Anand Jan 12 '19 at 09:53
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    Probably just an error in my memory then. I'm just used to irrational anti-features and disappearing options in software, especially on iOS. Thank you for clarifying. – Aaron Wallentine Jan 13 '19 at 04:53
  • Is any reason why Chrome doesn’t support this? Is this a restriction of iOS? – Sergey Ponomarev Mar 04 '20 at 08:28
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    @SergeyPonomarev Because chrome for iOS doesn't use the same chromium engine and its just a wrapper on Safari's webkit. – Anand Mar 04 '20 at 16:15
  • But does it really matter? I just want to add my PWA to home screen and it’s not so important for me that internally it will be WebKit – Sergey Ponomarev Mar 04 '20 at 16:17
  • It's not about whether developer or end user cares about browser engine. Chrome need to have access to APIs to support Add to home screen feature, which they currently don't have due to how it sits on top of webkit in iOS. Unless there is a huge outcry from all sides blaming Apple for being so restrictive and not supporting web standards, they wont loosen their iron grip on it. After all, they made $54 Billion in 2019 alone from App store. They don't want to make this a popular option and loose that money. @SergeyPonomarev – Anand Mar 04 '20 at 22:28
  • We can do it according to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWRdBywm4Zo However, when I browse the cnet.com website I don't see that popup. I also developed some code similar to this demo eg https://a2hs.glitch.me/ but seems like it does not pop up on my iPhone X nor Android phones. So I may have to do something similar to the example from this link https://github.com/cubiq/add-to-homescreen – Blue Bamboo Aug 06 '21 at 05:35
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Actually there is an application ”Shortcuts”, it can run any action on your iPhone or iPad. You can create app shortcut. It works with Chrome.

Here is the app link

https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/shortcuts/id1462947752?l=en

Nadia Lo
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You can add a website to an iPhone or iPad Home Screen with Safari (not Chrome but maybe it's helpful):

  • Launch Safari
  • Navigate to the desired website
  • Tap the "share" button
  • Select "Add to Home Screen" icon

That's all. Hope it helps.

oscarmlage
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1

After you add the shortcut link with safari, edit that link and put the prefix "googlechromes://(YOUR URL)" and safari will ask you to open in chrome and you just do open.

gnec 08batch
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My only suggestion is to take a screen shot of the page you are trying to save and send it to the photo album. Then you can always refind the page. It is tedious, but bc Apple is selfish, we need to work around it.

Julie Meibaum
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