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You know how its possible to add a web app to the home screen of an iPhone... well now how do i detect if my app has been added to the home screen of a user's iPhone.

And if it has been added, how do i launch the app stored on the user's home screen rather than in Safari.

NOTE : its a web app simply bookmarked on the home screen of an iPhone - it is NOT a native app.

Any Ideas ?

Community
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smoizs
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  • I don't get it. Web apps only run in Safari. – dasdom Aug 10 '11 at 18:50
  • yes you are right, but i want it to run in full screen without the header address bar and the footer icons which are default in safari. is that possible ? – smoizs Aug 10 '11 at 18:52

1 Answers1

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According to Safari Web Content Guide, you have to set <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" /> in your webpage to present your content in full-screen mode.

You can also set a startup image to make it look like a native app by setting <link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="/startup.png">

Edit (Detect if run in full-screen mode)

You can add some JS-Code to your webpage to detect if it is run in full-screen mode:

<script type="text/javascript">
if ('standalone' in navigator && !navigator.standalone && (/iphone|ipod|ipad/gi).test(navigator.platform) && (/Safari/i).test(navigator.appVersion)) {
    __do something here__
}

For more information on this, this project could be of interest.

tilo
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    ok .. this works well if the app is added to the home screen .. but not in Safari. The question actually is - if there is a way to detect if an app has been added to the home screen and if it can be opened if someone visits a URL – smoizs Aug 10 '11 at 19:48
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    Hi! yes this helps .. to detect if the webpage has been added to homescreen or not! thanks a ton. I think i can work around this. – smoizs Aug 11 '11 at 08:45