How to add browser games to your phone's home screen

Our games run in the browser, so there is nothing to download from an app store. You can still give them an icon on your phone's home screen. One tap then opens them in a window of their own, without the browser's address bar, and the games you download play even without a connection. Here is how to set it up on an iPhone and on Android, and what to expect afterwards.

Start from our games page: it is the part of the site that is ready to work as an app. The icon is our cube logo.

iPhone and iPad (Safari) #

1. Open coolapps.fyi/games in Safari, or the page of a game, such as Skimline.
2. Tap the Share button, the square with an arrow pointing up. On recent versions of iOS it can be inside the menu behind the three dots (⋯) next to the address bar.
3. Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. If you see Open as Web App, leave it on.
5. Change the name if you like, then tap Add.

The icon appears on your Home Screen, and the games open in a window of their own.

Android (Chrome) #

1. Open coolapps.fyi/games in Chrome.
2. Tap the ⋮ menu (three dots) next to the address bar.
3. Tap Install app or Add to Home screen. The wording depends on your version of Chrome.
4. If Chrome asks whether to install the app or create a shortcut, choose Install, then confirm.

The installed app opens our games page in a window of its own. You find it on your home screen and in your list of apps.

Playing offline #

Each game's page has a Download for offline play button, and the games page can download a whole category or every game at once. A download saves the game, its page and the games list in your browser, and the button shows the size first. A game you have played is saved too, the first time you play it.

What works offline:

• Games you downloaded or have already played on this device, with their pages and the games list.
• Your progress and coins. Each game saves them on your device as you play, connected or not.

What needs a connection:

• A game you have not downloaded or played yet on this device.
• Signing in, creating an account, and sending your progress to your account. If you are signed in, what you play offline goes to your account once you are back online with a game open.
• The rest of the site, including this blog.

A download follows new versions of the game: the next time you open our games with a connection, the update downloads by itself. Remove download frees the space. Clearing your browser's data for our site also removes downloads, along with a guest's progress, and Safari can clear the data of a site you have not used for a while; games added to your Home Screen are kept.

Keep your progress on every device #

As a guest, a game keeps your progress and coins on the device where you play. A free player account keeps them with your account too, so they follow you to every device where you sign in. Choose Create account the first time you open a game, or go to your account page.

On iPhone and iPad, a game opened from the Home Screen keeps its own storage, apart from Safari's. Progress you made as a guest in Safari stays in Safari, and the icon starts fresh. With an account, log in from the icon and your progress and coins load there too. On Android, the installed app and Chrome share the same saved data, so your progress is there either way.

If a device and your account both have progress, the game asks which one to keep, This device or Your account, and replaces the other.

Removing the icon #

Press and hold the icon, then choose the option to remove it. Removing the icon does not delete your player account or the progress it keeps.

New to our games? Start with Skimline, and read our Skimline tips to get further.