In iOS 26, every website you add to your iPhone’s Home Screen opens as a web app by default, but you can change it to open as a regular bookmark instead.
Choosing “Add to Dock” from Safari’s share menu on macOS Sonoma and later makes the saved website open as a web app. Apple is now bringing the same behavior to the iPhone and iPad with its iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 software.
The WebKit team confirmed the change, saying that every website added to the Home Screen of your iPhone or iPad opens as a web app. To override this change, turn off “Open as Web App” when adding a website to the Home Screen.
iOS 26: Safari opens Home Screen bookmarks as web apps
Doing so ensures that a website is added to your Home Screen as a regular bookmark (like before) which opens in your default browser as a website instead of a web app. This works even if the site is specifically configured to be a web app.
To create a Home Screen bookmark for a website, choose “Add to Home Screen” in Safari’s share menu. Doing so will add an icon to your Home Screen, so you can quickly access this website.
On iOS 18, tapping this icon opens the bookmark as a regular website in your default browser. However, iOS 26 opens the website as a web app by default unless you turn off the “Open as Web App” switch when adding the website to the Home Screen.
As mentioned earlier, on macOS Sonoma and later (macOS 29 included), adding a website to the Dock always turns it into a proper web app that launches without browser chrome and supports advanced features at runtime such as offline caching, macOS window management and more.
Other Safari changes coming this fall
As mentioned in our WWDC25 roundup, iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 bring other changes to Safari, like a compact tab bar as a new URL bar layout option joining the existing top and bottom designs.
Thanks to Apple’s Liquid Glass design overhaul, Safari on the iPhone sports an edge-to-edge design, with common actions like refresh and search always visible.
On the iPad and Mac, Safari packs a redesigned sidebar with the new iCloud Tabs and Saved sections. Also, advanced fingerprinting protection is now enabled by default in Safari in all browsing modes instead of in private-browsing mode only.
Apple is currently testing iOS 26 with its registered developers. Regular users can try out prerelease software when Apple releases public betas of iOS 26 and other upcoming operating systems sometime in July. Apple will release these operating systems publicly in September ahead of new iPhones.