[Feature Request] Support add website to home screen

From browser app like Chrome / FF, it's possible to add a website to home screen like a shortcut. e.g: https://www.howtogeek.com/667938/how-to-add-a-website-to-your-android-home-screen/
It would be great that this kind of shortcut will show up in app search list.

I'll see what I can do.

Hey,

so in case anyone that knows Android development (I don't) ends up here, I did a bit of digging and I think what is missing is some sort of database to handle Shortcuts, on top of declaring in the AndroidManifest.xml:

    <uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT" />
    <uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT" />

I mention the database since that seems to be how other foss launcher handle it, for example:
https://github.com/SubhamTyagi/Last-Launcher/blob/9e1f5355b457d37e4d8218e3d00a93d704367d4d/app/src/main/java/io/github/subhamtyagi/lastlauncher/utils/ShortcutUtils.java

Also by reading ShortcutManager#requestPinShortcut docs, it seems that when an app, such as firefox, attempts to "install" something the "The default launcher will receive this request" so I guess there must be a way to "listen" to these? Not sure if adding those lines in the manifest is enough for firefox to know it can install things?

Sorry for bothering whoever is subscribed to this, hope that this helps to someone.

It would be great if a solution could be found. The fact that you can't use Progressive Web Apps with Olauncher is a big drawback.

It think would cover also other apps shortcuts, link direct to weather inside google app, or to a specific contact of messenger apps. Would be great!

I desperately need that feature too! Launching webapps is crucial!

If it's not too complicated to add, I'll do my best to add this feature in the next update. I understand how important this feature is and should not have taken this long.

@tanujnotes

Hi, I'm willing to help. I never did android development but if you are willing to spend a bit of time to tutor me I'm pretty sure I could implement this @tanujnotes

I'm not a android dev, but I think the backend would be something like:
https://medium.com/android-news/nhandling-shortcuts-when-building-an-android-launcher-5908d0bb50d2
But the frontend would involve

listing the shortcuts together with the apps names
list shortcuts when holding press over a app name
What do you think?

Merge pull request #20 from jooooscha/fix_lock

Sorry to open this again. Does the merge mean that this function is now added?

How is it used? In the browser, the "Add to home screen" menu item is not available (Chrome and Kiwi). It basically appears when I define another launcher as default and there the PWA is added to the homescreen.

Anyway, thank you for your efforts!

I just installed OLauncher and this feature is desperately missing!

OLauncher is the best.
I'm also waiting for PWA support,
but until then I'll help myself with Elway's WebApp.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=md.elway.webapp&hl=de&gl=US

------------------------------ Hi Aswin Ly, It's great to hear about your refactored version with website shortcut support. Thank you for your work on this feature. We look forward to hearing more about your progress. Best regards, Fabrício

…

On Wed, May 21, 2025 at 8:22 PM Aswin Ly ***@***.***> wrote: *eXaLy* left a comment (tanujnotes/Olauncher#20) <#20 (comment)> I have by the way refactored the project in a way to have shortcuts working (which means support for PWA). Currently I use this adjustment as a launcher for a while to see if it works well (so far so good). It required some fundamental domain changes in the project. So I understand that it was not an easy feature request to work on. I need to clean up the code before I will publish it. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#20 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAJMTV2MFJK7DBCH5LA26H327UDCTAVCNFSM6AAAAABYUFJQX6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDQOJZGQ4DMOBSHE> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

I have by the way refactored the project in a way to have shortcuts working (which means support for PWA).

Currently I use this adjustment as a launcher for a while to see if it works well (so far so good).

It required some fundamental domain changes in the project. So I understand that it was not an easy feature request to work on.

I need to clean up the code before I will publish it.

Any progress on this front? I'd love to try out your version if it's ready.

@eXaLy

I have by the way refactored the project in a way to have shortcuts working (which means support for PWA).

Currently I use this adjustment as a launcher for a while to see if it works well (so far so good).

It required some fundamental domain changes in the project. So I understand that it was not an easy feature request to work on.

I need to clean up the code before I will publish it.

Nice work @eXaLy ! Are you able to publish a version so users can try it/help test it? If it basically works, you could release it as a fork, even though you still have plans to clean the code up

Chrome has two options for PWA: "Install" and "Create shortcut" I clicked both and now my app shows up in the list so it worked for me.

It's a simple pwa I made myself for budgeting. Hope this will help someone I don't have much time to investigate further rn.

Also I bought the pro launcher and did the whole process there, but I switched back to the OLauncher and the shortcut still shows up there. So there's a change the OLauncher is finding the shortcut created by the pro launcher? Idk.

Chrome has two options for PWA: "Install" and "Create shortcut" I clicked both and now my app shows up in the list so it worked for me.

Well I was able to confirm that the 'Add to Home screen' button in Chrome does indeed get the app to show up. I'm still running a forked version of the launcher, so this has to be a change on the Chrome side?

Unfortunately I'm using edge so I have plugin support, and testing the same there still seems to not work.

This has nothing to do with the launchers. On some phones, if you 'Add to home screen' using Chrome, it works. If you're not seeing the 'Add to home screen' option in Chrome, switch to the phone's stock launcher, add the website, and then switch back to Olauncher. Tested on Pixel/Android 16.

I've attempted to add shortcuts as you've described with Chrome, Edge, Edge Canary, and Firefox. They all manage to make app shortcuts on my default UI homescreen, but the only shortcuts that behave as expected after switching back to OLauncher are the shortcuts made by Chrome, which is great for those who want to use it but, not great for me, as I need browser extension support on my phone.

I wonder what the difference is...

-- edit --

I think it's that Chrome is installing some sort of PWA where the other browsers are simply adding shortcuts.

-- edit edit --

I've luckily discovered a workaround. As long as you have another chromium based browser (i.e. Edge), if you create the app shortcut using chrome, if you then disable chrome, the apps will instead launch through your default browser.

Hooray! Finally back on the mainline OLauncher.

~~Not able to use any of the workarounds on Samsung Galaxy. Maybe there's some Chrome/Pixel magic going on.~~ EDIT: nvm, I was testing with an unsupported website.

Seems like the state is: if a website supports PWA, Chrome can save it as a WebAPK to the default launcher (other browsers can't bc Google gatekeeping), and that wrapper will then be detected and shown in OLauncher when you switch back. But theres no way to save generic web shortcuts to OLauncher.

Would love full native support for PWA and web shortcuts in OLauncher! Seems like a lot of good approaches have been taken in forks, maybe just a matter of merging one?

@addiebarron

@addiebarron If you tested any forks that works well for PWAs, let me know and I'll take look.

Exploring the graph view of Olauncher forks, this commit looks interesting: feat: Add web shortcuts.

This code block in particular looks interesting, which seems to query shortcuts from any browser + launcher combination.

I have not tested it and am not too familiar with Kotlin. But perhaps that could give some inspiration for how to implement this feature?

Just adding my +1 on this feature request. Olauncher is amazing and this feature would make it EVEN MORE AMAZIER

Sorry everyone, due to my personal situation last year I had this not in my sight anymore.

But the good news is, I've used this launcher still with my latest changes with shortcuts to default browser links and PWA every day. And it was still working like a charm (like other apps in the launcher).

Especially in this day and age with all those easily AI built web apps, it is quite practical that this lovely launcher also has easy access to those apps and tools.

I said I wanted to refactor the code a bit more - to my personal likes and standards, but I'm not able to do this in the coming time.

Here is the PR at least:

Pinned Shortcut support (for example: PWA / Shortcuts to browser) #682

Feel free to fork / review / test / build by yourself. :)
I hope it makes your life a bit easier at least meanwhile 😊
Let me know if it works out for you too 👍

Screen_recording_20260208_230250.yafw.balanced.mp4

Milestone catalog: CI Build tanujnotes#20 (commit 1bb82ba, Oct 27 202…

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tanujnotes commented on Sep 20, 2020

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