On any smartphone or tablet, be it Android, iPhone or iPad and Windows Phone, it is possible to add applications on the home screen, and also websites for direct launch. In this way you can open a favorite website by touching its icon directly, without having to go to the browser, as if it were an application .
Some platforms also have extra features such as, for example, Chrome for Android which opens these websites in full-screen windows without the browser interface, or Windows 8 and Windows Phone which display live updates of some websites on the tiles.
Android
Launch Chrome for Android and open the web page or site you want to save on the Home screen.
Touch the Menu button and then where it is written add to homescreen .
Name the link and Chrome adds it to the home screen.
The icon can be moved wherever you want and the chosen site will appear, like any other app, by touching the link.
Chrome for Android, as already mentioned, loads the website as if it were a "web app" separately from the browser, in order to close it or resume it from the switcher app (the button with two small rectangles).
Almost all other browsers for Android also have this feature; for example, in Firefox for Android just touch the menu button, then Page, and Add to Home .
Finally, the NativeWrap app for Android transforms every website into a real app, to be installed on your mobile phone or tablet.
This can be useful to use, for example, Facebook from the mobile site without using the official application.
iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Start Safari on Apple iOS and access the page of the website you want to add to the Home screen.
Touch the Share button in the browser toolbar (the rectangle with an arrow pointing upwards located at the top of an iPad screen and at the bottom of the screen on an iPhone or iPod Touch) and add to the Home.
You will be asked to name the link before touching the Add button.
The link can be dragged and moved wherever you want, even within an app folder.
When you touch the icon, the site will be loaded into a normal tab within Safari.
Other browsers, like Chrome for iOS, don't have this feature due to iOS limitations.
Windows
Launch icons can be added to bookmarks on the Windows 10 Start screen or to the desktop in Windows 7 and 10.
To do this you can use Microsoft Edge, using the main menu with the three dots and the " Add to Start " option.
The same can also be done with Chrome, going to the main menu of the three dots and then to Other tools> Create shortcut.
If you are not satisfied, some programs to convert sites into applications are also reported in another article.
Windows Phone
Open the website with Internet Explorer, tap the Plus (...) button and then the Add to Start option.
Windows Phone 8.1 supports tiles with automatic update, if the site supports it.
To remove a website from the device home screen, long press the link and remove it as you would any other application icon.
