Did you know you can make a website appear as a standalone application? It’s long been possible to make a webpage link into a document with a generic icon. However, in macOS Sonoma, Safari adds a command called Add to Dock that puts a website’s icon in the Dock and stores it in the Applications folder.
Similar to some third-party apps like Fluid, the resulting application loads as a single window experience with a consolidated interface. The optional title bar sports Back and Forward buttons and a Share button. The rest of the window is the webpage with neither browser tabs, address bar, nor other visual clutter.
Since nearly the beginning of the iPhone, it’s been possible to add an icon representing a webpage to the Home Screen. The feature was introduced in iOS 1.1.3 in 2008. However, it took Apple 22 years to add a first-party solution to macOS.
Add to Dock
To begin, open Safari and visit a webpage that you want to save as an application. Then, go to the File menu and choose Add to Dock….
In the resulting dialog, you can give the app a name and, optionally, change the URL. As noted, “An icon will be added to your Dock and Launchpad so you can quickly access this website.”
Generate an App
When you click Add, your Mac puts a new application in your Dock. You’ll see it has the same icon as the website (see Safari’s tab bar).
You’ll also find the app in the Applications folder in your Home folder and in Launchpad, and you can search for it using Spotlight or any other launcher you use.
Open the App
When you open this application, it appears the same as the website you started with but in its own window. Its menus are simple compared to full-blown Safari. In Settings, you can change the name, URL, and icon, and optionally hide the toolbar buttons.
The app supports other basic functions of Safari, like autofilling forms, Reader view, and going to the homepage (which is the website specified in the app settings). Since there’s no address bar, there’s a unique Edit menu command and keyboard shortcut for copying the link to a page, which is oddly missing from Safari itself.
You can also open the current page in your default web browser via the File menu or discover keyboard shortcuts that work in these web apps via the Help menu.
I’ve used Add to Dock to make apps for YNAB — the budgeting app Kimberley and I use — and for my Folding@home monitor.
You don’t have to keep these apps in the Dock, though. Like any application, they’re in the Dock when open, showing a dot as an indicator.
If you wish, you can remove the app from the Dock simply by dragging it out. To delete it, trash it from your Applications folder.
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