Is a home-screen web app the same as a native app?

Close in daily use: it gets its own icon, opens full-screen without browser chrome, and keeps you signed in. Differences: it updates instantly every time you open it (no App Store update), and it can't do a few native-only tricks like rich push notifications on older iOS versions. For reading and writing — journaling included — most people can't tell the difference.

Do I have to use Safari to add it on iPhone?

Since iOS 16.4, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox on iPhone can also add to the home screen from their share menus — but Safari's flow is the most reliable, and on iPhone every browser uses Safari's engine underneath anyway. If a browser doesn't show the option, open the site in Safari once and add it from there.

Will I stay signed in?

Yes — the home-screen app keeps its own storage, so your session (and in Architect's case, your on-device encryption key) persists. One caveat for any app that stores keys locally: if you clear Safari's website data, you clear the app's local data too, so keep your recovery words safe.

Why doesn't Architect have a native iPhone app?

Native apps are in development. The web app ships first because it updates instantly, works identically on every platform, and keeps your encryption keys in a place you control — your browser, your device. The home-screen install gives you the native feel today.

How to Add a Web App to Your iPhone Home Screen (4 Steps, 2026)

There's a thirty-second trick most iPhone owners never learn: any web app can live on your home screen with its own icon, launching full-screen like it came from the App Store. Here's exactly how — four taps in Safari — using our own journal as the example.

Why bother?

A web app on your home screen gets its own icon, opens without the browser bars, keeps you signed in, and updates itself every time you launch it — no store, no download, no "update available" nag. For something you open daily, like a journal, it turns a URL into a habit. One honest note on why we like this model for Architect specifically: your encryption keys live in your browser's storage on your device — adding the app to your home screen keeps that arrangement exactly as it is, with a front door that feels native.

iPhone: four taps in Safari

Thirty seconds, no App Store. Works for any site — we're just partial to one.

Open architectapp.ai/app in Safari or Chrome and sign in.
Tap the Share icon — the square with an arrow pointing up. In Safari it's in the bottom toolbar, or tucked inside the ••• "More" menu on newer iPhones. In Chrome it's at the right of the address bar.
Scroll down the share sheet and tap "Add to Home Screen." If you see "Open as Web App", leave it switched on — that's the setting that makes it launch full-screen — then tap Add.
Done. The icon is on your home screen and opens full-screen, with no browser bars. If it asks you to sign in once, that's the only time.

Firefox and Edge work the same way: find Share, then "Add to Home Screen."

Android: three taps in Chrome

Open the site in Chrome, tap the ⋮ menu (top right), and choose "Add to Home screen" — or "Install app" on newer versions. Keep the web-app option on if asked. Confirm, and Android places the icon like any installed app — same full-screen launch, same persistent sign-in.

Can't find the ⋮? Scroll up a little — Chrome hides its toolbar while you scroll. On newer Chrome the address bar (and the ⋮) can sit at the bottom of the screen. If there is no address bar at all, you are in another app's built-in browser (a link opened from email or a messaging app) — tap "Open in Chrome" first. And if the address bar disappears only on our site, the app is already installed: look for Architect among your apps.

One tip specific to journals

If the app you're installing stores anything locally — Architect keeps your encryption key on your device, which is the whole point of self-custody — remember that "clear browsing data" clears local app data too. Save your twelve recovery words before you ever clean house, and the home-screen app can be rebuilt on any device in a minute.

Try it with ours — writing is free forever, no card, and your first 11 reflections come back at full power. Open architectapp.ai/app, then add it to your home screen while you're there.