# Open WebUI as an App

Source: https://docs.openwebui.com/getting-started/open-webui-as-app

Every Open WebUI instance is a **Progressive Web App (PWA)**. You can install it as a standalone app on your phone, tablet, or desktop, directly from the browser. No separate download required.

## What You Get

- **App icon** on your home screen, taskbar, or dock
- **Full-screen experience** with no browser toolbar or address bar
- **Standalone window** on desktop, full-screen on mobile
- **Separate from the browser** with its own window and task entry
- **Browser notifications** for finished responses, channel messages and calendar reminders, once you turn on **Browser Notifications** in Settings > Notifications. They fire only while the app is open; there is no push service. If your admin enables user webhooks (and, for non-admin users, grants the webhooks feature permission), **Notification Targets** in the same tab can send chat finished or failed, channel message, calendar and file-processing-failure alerts to a webhook, either only while you are away or always.

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## Install on Your Device

### Chrome / Edge (Desktop)

1. Open your Open WebUI instance in Chrome or Edge.
2. Click the **install icon** (⊕) in the address bar, or go to **Menu → Install Open WebUI**.
3. Click **Install**.

Open WebUI now appears in your app launcher and runs in its own window.

### Chrome (Android)

1. Open your Open WebUI instance in Chrome.
2. Tap **Menu (⋮) → Add to Home Screen** or **Install app**.
3. Tap **Install**.

### Safari (iPhone / iPad)

1. Open your Open WebUI instance in Safari.
2. Tap the **Share button** (↑).
3. Scroll down and tap **Add to Home Screen**.
4. Tap **Add**.

> **info**
>
> Safari is the only browser that supports PWA installation on iOS. Chrome and Firefox on iOS cannot install PWAs.

### Firefox (Android)

1. Open your Open WebUI instance in Firefox.
2. Tap **Menu (⋮) → Install**.

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## Customizing the PWA (Admins)

Admins can white-label the PWA by pointing to a custom manifest with the [`EXTERNAL_PWA_MANIFEST_URL`](/reference/env-configuration#external_pwa_manifest_url) environment variable. This lets you set a custom app name, icon, and theme color. The server fetches that URL itself on every `/manifest.json` request, so it must be reachable from the server, not only from the browser. Without it, the manifest uses `WEBUI_NAME` as the app name (with ` (Open WebUI)` appended when it is not the default) and the Open WebUI logo as its icon.