Web apps on OSX?

Question

I can easily create a "Web App" on my iPhone by going to the "arrow" menu and attaching a website to the home screen.

Is it possible to do this on OS X with, say, Gmail or YouTube or anything else?

robmathers · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22T20:18:20.533

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There's no built-in OS X behaviour that exactly matches that of iOS, but you can use what's often referred to as a site-specific browser to turn sites into OS X apps.

Fluid

Fluid lets you turn sites into single apps that appear like any other OS X app — in their own windows, with separate dock icons. Pretty useful for web apps like Gmail, but you can use for on pretty much any site. It's free, but for $4.99 you get some extra features.

Mailplane

Like Fluid, but specifically for Gmail. Since it's specific to Gmail, it's a bit more finely tuned, with toolbar buttons for the usual sorts of mail app actions. $24.95, with a 30 day free trial.

Automator

If you don't want a third party app, you can make a very basic site-specific browser using Automator. There's a good article from Andy Ihnatko on the subject, but the short version is:

In Automator, create a new Application.
Add a Get Specified URLs action, and enter the URL of the page you want.
Add a Website Popup action.
Save it.

That will give you a standalone app you can run to get a browser for a specific site. But it's quite limited compared to solutions like Fluid or Mailplane — as the name suggests, it's more of a popup than a standalone app.

edited Oct 22 '12 at 20:18

answered Oct 22 '12 at 17:29

robmathers

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So unfortunate. This was almost certainly a conscious decision by Apple. – MarkovCh1 Oct 22 '12 at 19:57
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Not really. The bookmark behaviour dates back to one of the first web browsers, [Mosaic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)), when there was no concept of web "apps", just static sites. It's been fairly standard behaviour ever since. The iOS behaviour makes sense on the iOS platform, since a lot of web apps are [specifically coded to make use of iOS features](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/ConfiguringWebApplications/ConfiguringWebApplications.html). That's not true with OS X however. Two different paradigms. – robmathers Oct 22 '12 at 20:06
Do any of these things work with Google Chrome? – MarkovCh1 Oct 24 '12 at 16:11
I'm not quite sure what you're asking. They're all effectively standalone browsers (although I suspect most of them are using the system version of WebKit, not their own renderer). – robmathers Oct 24 '12 at 16:37
Yes, Fluid opens apps in a Safari window without any controls or address bar (I asked because if they opened in Chrome, I would have retained my extensions in the new app window). However, Fluid still opens links in my default browser (Chrome) so this is a non-issue! Thanks! – MarkovCh1 Oct 25 '12 at 15:54

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 17 '15 at 06:52

Mozilla Labs Prism

This is my personal favorite and I've been using it for a while. Yes, it is an "inactive" project, but it still works well. It has a simple, easy to use interface:

I put up a blog post on how to use Mozilla Prism, in which I go into more detail about the various features.

Two successors to Prism

Mozilla Labs Chromeless

Mozilla Labs: Prism

This project is considered inactive.

Chromeless | Mozilla Labs comprises two 2011 blog posts: - Prism is now Chromeless - Webian Shell: A full screen web browser built on Chromeless

– and whilst Webian Shell may be of interest to readers, it's not an answer to the question.

To a 2012 question, Chromeless “inactive”?, Michael replied:

… The ideas and code for Chromeless have grown into the HTML5 Applications project. You can read all about it at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Apps …

WebRunner

Prism – MozillaWiki refers to Chromeless and WebRunner.

From Salsitistas - Salsita Software:

… Matthew Gertner CEO and Founder

… Before Salsita, Matthew led the development of a Mozilla Labs project called Prism (later WebRunner), a "single-site browser" that enabled users to turn web apps into desktop apps …

http://www.salsitasoft.com/webrunner/ no longer presents the WebRunner page. There's a February 2011 copy in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 24 '16 at 12:27

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Natifier does precisely this, for any app, for free, open source.

https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier

answered Apr 24 '16 at 12:27

chmac

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 17:15

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In Safari, add the website you're viewing as a bookmark, either to your bookmark bar, or the bookmark menu.

Click Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks
Select the option you chose (bookmark bar or menu)
Drag the bookmark to your desktop
You'll see a file with the name of your bookmark. Double-click that, and you're set.

answered Oct 22 '12 at 17:15

Jonathan

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This works, don't believe you get the custom icon though, although you can change that via various other means. – stuffe Oct 22 '12 at 17:16
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You do not need to go to the bookmarks menu, you can drag the icon directly from the address bar to the desktop. This is the behavior described in the question with the exception that the web browser does not open in a special mode the way it does on the iPhone or iPad. – Dave Nelson Oct 22 '12 at 18:55
@DaveNelson, you're correct. For some reason, that didn't seem to work for me when I was answering the question (but can do it successfully now). – Jonathan Oct 22 '12 at 19:05
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This only creates a link to the website, it doesn't really open the site in its own window without the navigation bars, address bar, and so on. – MarkovCh1 Oct 22 '12 at 19:56

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 20:59

You can create a browser chrome-free version of a page by turning it into a dashboard widget. ( full instructions here: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=273).

Creating a Browser Widget on OSX

Open the desired page in Safari. Go to file, then "Open in Dashboard"
Select the portion of the page that you'd like to be visible in the
widget, then press "Add". This will now appear as an interactive
widget, free of browser chrome, on your dashboard.

This maybe isn't exactly what you want but it's similar behavior.

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

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Google Chrome Apps, and Chrome App Launcher

… I think Chrome is able to do something like this (Fluid) natively on Windows -- I wonder if feature parity for the mac version is on its way.

Maybe this:

Google Chrome Blog: A new breed of Chrome Apps, now available for Mac (2013-12-11)

Highlights:

A few months ago … Chrome Apps … today, you can access these apps on any computer with Chrome …

… offline … update automatically … sync to any computer where you're signed into Chrome … behave and feel just like native software … by name in the Spotlight search …

… Chrome App Launcher …

From an Internet Archive Wayback Machine copy of the page:

screenshot of Chrome App Launcher on OS X

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

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answered Apr 17 '15 at 06:28

Graham Perrin

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The App Launcher feature has been removed from Chrome. https://blog.chromium.org/2016/03/retiring-chrome-app-launcher.html – James Nov 21 '16 at 15:58
Thanks @James (I rarely used, or use, Chromium or Google Chrome … so the blog post from ten months ago was news to me). It's probably timely to vote down this answer. – Graham Perrin Nov 26 '16 at 14:06