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On a Moto (G60) smartphone running Android (12), I have two launchers installed. The first is the default Motorola app that comes preinstalled, called Moto App Launcher (12), and the second is called Nova Launcher Prime (7).

The problem is when I use Chrome (107) and click "Add to Home screen" in the first launcher, and then set the second launcher as default, and then switch back to the first launcher and click the website shortcut that was added to the home screen, it doesn't work and gives a message saying "Shortcut isn't available".

For instagram.com you can click in Chrome "Install app" which creates a shortcut on the home screen that works in both launchers, but for facebook.com that option is not available, and the shortcut only works in the launcher that it was created in.

Is there a way to create a website shortcut on the home screen that will work across all installed launchers?

Update:

I tried using both Hermit Browser and Kiwi Browser and neither of them worked.

The shortcuts on the home page are grayed out, the same as before when using Chrome.

Except for the Instagram shortcut that was created in Chrome using "Install app".

Is there another way, or maybe an Android app that can install any webpage as an "app" even if the webpage not a Progressive Web App (PWA)?

See picture:

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  • I cannot setup Chrome so I cannot verify my claim, but the issue you're having is likely because of this: the website shortcuts which are accessible from any of your launchers might actually be Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and as such, appears as Android apps per se. That way, all apps in your Android would be aware of their presence, not just the launcher apps per se. On the other hand, the websites which don't offer PWA for them are added sort of as a bookmark when the user adds them on the screen. Normally, such data is handled only by the launcher set as default at that time..
    – Firelord ♦
    Nov 12, 2022 at 12:30
  • ...and hence other launcher apps wouldn't be able to get that data, let alone share it. I think the actual source of this confusion is actually the browser, because it never tells the user whether the shortcut that is to be created would actually be a PWA or not. Otherwise, you could have identified the problem yourself, or at least have had some information to investigate a bit into it. // If my claim is correct, than you can't solve this problem of yours.
    – Firelord ♦
    Nov 12, 2022 at 12:31
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    Hi, yes, that makes a lot of sense. It seems that if a webpage can be installed as an "app" (because it is indeed a PWA), then in Chrome the option will be "Install app" instead of "Add to Home screen". So that seems like a way to know the difference nowadays. But yeah, maybe it's just not possible right now. Guess I'll just install the actual apps for now instead of using simple browser shortcuts across the different launchers. Of course I can still open a browser and navigate to a bookmark or type in the website address, but where's the convenience of that? Haha.
    – theMaxx
    Nov 15, 2022 at 20:20

1 Answer 1

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Google Chrome allows the "Add to homescreen" option on all webpages for a launcher only if the launcher is (1) A system App and (2) is the default launcher. You can use Kiwi Browser e.g., to create Web Page Homescreen shortcuts for other launchers.

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  • Yes, Chrome was "adding to homescreen" properly for the current system app launcher that was set as default at that moment. I did update my question about how I tried using the Kiwi Browser to add a shortcut and the shortcut it created still didn't open after switching launchers. Maybe some day Android will be able to set any webpage as an "app" so that it's available in any launcher, but that would also add them to the app drawer which is not as nice as having simple homescreen shortcuts.
    – theMaxx
    Nov 15, 2022 at 20:27

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