Install your App to the home screen
What an installable App is
An installable App is a published App your visitors can add to their phone or desktop home screen and open like a native app — its own icon, its own name, and a full-screen launch with no browser address bar or tabs around it. It is the same App at the same live address; installing it just gives visitors a faster, app-like way back in.
Under the hood this is a Progressive Web App. You do not build any of that machinery — you switch it on in the editor, give your App a name, icon and colors under Format, and MotherFluxer produces the technical files a browser needs to offer installation. Installing is always the visitor's choice, made through their own browser.
Turn on install to home screen
- Open your App in its editor, choose Manage, then Publish.
- Press the Live card's status, or its Settings icon, to open the Live window.
- Under Home screen, turn on Installable.
Takes effect says when visitors see the change. Once your App is published it reads On Live at once — the install option reaches your live App the moment you switch it, with no need to publish again. Before your first publish it reads When published. Turn Installable off to stop offering installation.
The Home screen section also shows what it costs to run — it is free to you.
How visitors install your App
Once your App is published with Installable on, visitors install it through their own browser — there is nothing they set up with you first.
- On a phone, they open your App's link, then use the browser's Add to Home Screen (or Install app) option. Your App's icon appears on their home screen alongside their other apps.
- On a desktop, most browsers show an Install control in the address bar or menu while viewing your App. Choosing it adds your App to their applications and gives it its own window.
After installing, they open your App from its icon and it launches full-screen under the name and icon you set — no browser chrome. Nothing extra is required from you per visitor.
Work offline, and what still needs a connection
An installed App keeps a cached copy of itself on the visitor's device, so it still opens and shows its last content even when they have no connection. A visitor can tap the icon on a plane or in a dead zone and your App loads instead of failing.
What the cache holds is your App's own pages, the files of its code — its layout, text, and look — and the pictures, video and other files in its Assets, so every page shows offline as it does online. Publishing a changed asset replaces the stored copy the next time the visitor is online. Anything live or dynamic still needs a connection: fresh data from your App's database, a checkout, a request to another service, or an AI reply cannot happen offline and will wait until the device is back online. Build your App so it degrades gracefully — showing last-known content when offline and refreshing once a connection returns.
Where your App's installed identity comes from
An installed App wears your App's Brand, not a separate set of install settings — one home for the name and the picture your App uses everywhere. You set them in Develop › Format:
- Brand › App name (and Short name) — the label shown under the icon on the home screen and as your App's window title.
- Brand › Home-screen icon — the image used for the home-screen icon and app launcher. Leave it unset and MotherFluxer generates one for you.
- Colors — your App's primary color becomes the tint a browser puts on system surfaces such as the status bar, and your background color becomes the launch screen. Change your palette and the install follows it.
Your App's name, icon and colors are part of your App, so a change to them reaches visitors when you next publish, and installs from that point on pick up the new identity.
It only applies once your App is live
Installability is served from your App's live address, so it exists only while your App is published. Before your first publish, or while your App is unpublished, there is no page for a browser to offer an install from, and the Add to Home Screen option will not appear.
The practical rule: set your brand's name, icon and colors under Format, publish, and turn on Installable in the Live window. After that, visitors can install your App from its live link. Publish again whenever you change the name, icon or colors so their next install reflects your latest version.