Safari comes packed with useful functions on iPhone and iPad. Some include always-on desktop mode, configurable site settings, content blocker support. However, I think people often overlook Safari’s ability to add sites directly to the Home screen, especially on iPhone or iPad.
If you dismissed the Add to Home Screen option as another fancy way to bookmark sites, then you’re in for a surprise. Home screen shortcuts provide several benefits.
Why Create Home Screen Shortcuts
Safari’s ability to add sites to the Home screen has been available on iPhone and iPad for years. However, with iOS 11.3, eventual support for progressive web apps started to make more sense.
Progressive web apps are websites that are designed to work like real ‘apps’, albeit with limitations such as lack of notification support after adding them to the Home screen. Not all websites are PWAs, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting at least a few of the benefits listed below.
Access Sites Faster
Safari’s website shortcuts appear as clearly formed icons shaped after site logos and favicons, making them easily accessible and extremely hard to miss. Beats the hassle of scrolling through favorites or bookmarks in Safari when you can load it with a single tap directly from the Home screen.
But even more useful is that they appear as ‘apps’ in Search (Spotlight); this will help you cut clutter easily if you have lots of apps installed.
Stay Focused
Hate being distracted by favorites and autofill suggestions in Safari? Home screen shortcuts should help. You can easily visit sites with a single tap without looking at the Safari tab.
Even better, these shortcuts also cause certain sites to launch in a private Safari instance. This means you can opt out of distracting browser functions altogether. Its most notable feature is the tabs, address bar, navigation controls, etc. is not. Don’t worry, you can still navigate effortlessly using gestures.
Especially if you have a tendency to procrastinate when you want to do some work on the iPhone or iPad, this ‘limitation’ will probably work wonders. However, there is no way to know if a site will start in a custom Safari instance after you add it to the Home screen.
App-Like Experience
If your favorite websites don’t have companion apps in the App Store, adding them to the Home screen should serve as good alternatives.
For starters, you get convenient icons that look no different from dedicated apps. As mentioned earlier, some sites you launch using shortcuts appear without standard browser elements (tabs, address bar, etc.), thus allowing for a very app-like experience.
Also, sites that actually have PWA functionality – unfortunately not so much yet – work even better at emulating real applications. A prime example of this is Twitter. Compare both the actual app and the PWA side-by-side and you’ll only notice a few subtle differences.
See Appscope for a list of PWA sites.
Offline Functionality
The ability to work offline is a key advantage associated with sites with PWA functionality. They cache a limited amount of web content locally, so you can easily navigate a site even if your internet connection drops.
It doesn’t matter if PWA is very online focused. When it comes to Twitter PWA, you can visit past feeds or pages you’ve visited before, but that’s it.
Frees Up Storage Space
Home screen shortcuts also offer the best way to switch App Store apps and reduce storage space. For example, installing a PWA like Twitter reduces a significant amount of storage that would otherwise be consumed by the app itself – around 100-150MB. It’s pretty handy if you’re carrying an iPhone or iPad with less storage space.
PWA caches also have an upper limit of 50MB, so you don’t have to deal with temporary file occurrences and related issues.
However, you may not want to change the specific apps required just yet. PWAs work but mostly for system notifications, background refresh etc. They do not support vital functions such as
How to Add Sites to Home Screen
Decided to add a few sites to the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad? Then here’s how to do it. The steps below are for iOS 13 and iPadOS, but work the same in iOS 12 and iOS 11, aside from the visual changes to the Share Sheet.
Stage 1: Visit the site you want to add to the Home Screen and then tap the Share Page icon. Next, scroll down the Share Sheet and then tap on the option labeled Add to Home Screen.
Step 2: Enter a name for the shortcut, then tap Add. If you want to rely on Search (Spotlight) to get to your shortcuts faster, be careful what you name it.
Note: If the site does not provide a suitable Home screen icon, Safari uses a web page snapshot instead.
This much. Home screen shortcut is now added. You can start using it right away. There is no guarantee that a site will actually open in a private Safari window or have PWA functionality until you start using it.
Put Them on the Rack
Adding sites to the home screen not only allows you to get to your favorite sites faster, but also allows for a more focused experience. And if a site has real PWA support, you’re in for a real treat. Don’t expect the same level of functionality you’d normally get from a dedicated App Store app – at least not yet – and you should be fine.
Next: Although Firefox doesn’t allow you to add sites to the Home screen, it’s still a great browser for iPhone and iPad. Find out how it stacks up against Safari.
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