Running apps

This page helps you install apps to the home screen of your smartphone or tablet and also helps you run apps offline.

Tip: If you’re creating apps using Calcapp and sharing them with users, consider pointing them to this page to improve their experience.

Installing apps to your home screen

Apps produced with Calcapp can be made available from the home screen of your phone or tablet. Doing so has the added benefit of apps taking up your entire screen, like regular apps not run through a web browser.

Note: If your users are in the European Union and run iOS 17.4 or above, apps installed to a home screen start in Safari, which unfortunately prevents them from running full-screen. Here’s Apple’s statement.

This is what a standalone app created with Calcapp looks like on an iPhone and on an Android handset:

On an iPhone or an iPad, run the published app you are interested in through the Safari web browser, press the share button and then select Add to Home Screen:

On Android, run the published app through the Chrome browser and select Install app from the menu:

(If you can’t find the Install app menu item in Chrome, start by adding a bookmark to your app and then add the home screen shortcut by long-pressing a blank area of your home screen and selecting the appropriate option.)

These instructions apply to apps that have been published. If you’re building apps yourself using Calcapp Creator, you need to publish them first before you can add them to your home screen.

While you can add Calcapp Connect to your home screen to run apps full-screen that you haven’t published, you then need to select the desired app every time you open Calcapp Connect. For a more seamless experience, publish the app first.

Running apps offline

Published apps can be used offline. Be sure to run them once before going offline, to ensure that they are stored on your device. You can run published apps using your web browser when you’re offline by visiting the link you were given. If you’re running apps on your phone or tablet, though, we suggest that you add apps you intend to use offline to your home screen for ease of access.

Now that you’ve learned how to more effectively run your apps, continue reading about using the inspector »