Web browsers make it possible to pin sites to the screen of smartphones. These are shortcuts, the look of which resembles classic mobile applications.
You’re the type to throw a game of wordle on the smartphone, but you find it annoying to have to launch the browser every day and then go to the site in question? Would you like to have a shortcut allowing you to directly join Numerama (or any other site) from the phone’s home screen?
Imagine that there is a setting in web browsers to pin a shortcut to the site you want. Just go to the address of your choice and tell your favorite browser to put a direct link in the middle of your other applications on the phone. The icon displayed will look like a classic app.
Put a site as a shortcut on the phone
The method works with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. The handling is similar, except that the layout and wording of some settings may change from browser to browser. We describe here how to do it with Chrome on Android, which is at the same time the most used browser and the most widespread operating system.
- Launch Google Chrome on your smartphone;
- Go to the website of your choice;
- Tap on the vertical ellipsis at the top right of the screen;
- Choose “Add to Home Screen”;
- Change the name if necessary and press “Add”;
- Confirm with “Add to Home Screen”;
In the grid of applications, you will then see the icon of your site appear, with a slight overlay of the associated browser icon – here Chrome. If you are using Firefox, its icon will be displayed next to it. Note that in the case of Firefox, the ellipsis is at the bottom right. The rest of the actions to be carried out are identical.
If you want to remove a shortcut from the home screen, that’s a piece of cake too. Simply press and hold the pin to remove, then drag the icon up the screen to the removal area. You are then free to put this site back later, if you change your mind.