Preview: These docs are available early so you can start using them now. Some pages may still be incomplete, outdated, or change as WebLibre develops.

Web Apps (PWA)

Some websites can work more like apps on your phone. These are often called Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs.

In WebLibre, supported sites can be added to your Android home screen so you can open them more like a separate app. You can choose a custom name, pick how the shortcut stores its data, and even pin the same site multiple times for different accounts.

What a Web App Is

A web app is still a website, but it is built to feel more app-like. When you open it from your home screen, it can launch in its own app-style window instead of a normal browser tab.

This can be useful for things like messaging services, calendars, music players, maps, or other sites you open often.

Add a Site to Your Home Screen

WebLibre only shows the install option when the current site supports it.

  1. Open the website you want to install

  2. Open the browser menu for the current tab

  3. Tap Add to Home Screen

  4. In the install dialog, choose a Name, optional Storage context, and confirm

After that, Android adds a shortcut for the site to your home screen.

Customize the Shortcut Name

The install dialog lets you replace the website’s default title with any name you want. This is useful when:

  • the site’s own title is long, generic, or in a different language

  • you want a shorter label that fits on your home screen

  • you are pinning the same site more than once and need to tell shortcuts apart

You can leave the field as the default if the site’s own name is already what you want.

Choose How the Shortcut Stores Data

The install dialog also includes a Storage option that decides how cookies, logins, and site data are scoped for that shortcut.

Available choices are:

  • Default — normal browser storage, no container

  • Use an existing container — shares cookies and logins with one of your containers

  • Inherit current isolated session — reuses the storage of the isolated session you have open right now

  • New isolated context — creates a fresh isolated storage just for this shortcut

The new isolated context option is the right choice for opening a second account on the same site without having to log out of the first one.

If you install from a tab that is already inside a cookie-isolated container, that container is preselected automatically.

Multiple Shortcuts For The Same Site

You can pin the same website multiple times with different names and storage contexts. For example:

  • one shortcut for your personal account, using the default storage

  • another shortcut for your work account, using a new isolated context or a dedicated container

Each shortcut keeps its own session, so logging in or out of one does not affect the other.

Smarter PWA Launches

When you tap a PWA shortcut and that PWA is already running, WebLibre brings the existing instance to the front instead of starting a new one.

If a PWA loses its session because Android stopped the browser in the background, WebLibre’s PWA session recovery automatically restores it on the next launch instead of dropping you on the main screen or crashing.

PWAs opened from home screen shortcuts also keep your active profile and container associations, so they keep behaving like the tab they were installed from.

Better Default Icons

Shortcuts now always get an icon, even for sites that do not provide one. That makes shortcuts easier to find on the home screen and avoids blank tiles for poorly described sites.

When the Option Appears

Not every website can be installed.

In practice, the site needs to meet web app requirements such as:

  • using a secure connection (https://)

  • providing the information needed for installation

  • supporting an app-style display mode

WebLibre checks this automatically. If you do not see Add to Home Screen, that site probably does not currently support installation in a compatible way.

Web Apps and Containers

If you install a web app from a tab that is inside a container with Cookie Isolation enabled, the installed web app keeps that isolated browsing context. That means its cookies and site data stay separated just like regular tabs from that same cookie-isolated container.

You can also pick a container at install time using the Storage option, even if the original tab was not inside a container.

Web Apps and Profiles

Installed web apps also stay tied to the profile they came from.

In practice, that means a web app shortcut can reopen with the same broader browsing context, not only the same site. This is useful if you use profiles to separate work, personal, or shared-device browsing.

Taken together, profile context and container context help the installed web app behave more like a continuation of the original tab you installed it from.

Tips

  • If the site changes later, the shortcut still opens the live website, not a separate downloaded app

  • To remove a web app, delete its shortcut from Android the same way you remove other home screen shortcuts

  • Site permissions you allow still depend on the website and Android, just like when you use the site in the browser

  • Use new isolated context when you want a clean session that will not mix with anything else

  • Use existing container when you want the shortcut to share login state with related browser tabs