Hi Brave Team,
I’d like to request the implementation of a proper “Add to Home Screen” functionality for iOS, similar to what Safari and Chrome already offer.
Currently, when using Brave on iOS, there is no way to add a website to the home screen as a standalone web app (PWA). The page simply opens inside the full Brave browser UI with all toolbars visible — which is far from the native app-like experience that users expect.
Why this matters:
• Safari on iOS supports this natively, launching websites in standalone/fullscreen mode without any browser chrome
• Chrome on iOS also supports this feature, which confirms this is not an Apple/WebKit restriction — it is purely a missing implementation on Brave’s side
• Many users rely on this for productivity apps, dashboards, and frequently visited sites they want to feel “app-like”
• This is a commonly requested feature with open threads in your community dating back to 2019 with no resolution
What I’m requesting:
• A native “Add to Home Screen” option in the Brave share menu
• The added shortcut should open the page in standalone/fullscreen mode, without Brave’s navigation bars — exactly like Safari and Chrome behave
I believe that this would significantly improve the iOS experience and bring Brave in line with other major browsers. I love Brave’s privacy focus and I’d love to use it as my primary browser for web apps too — but this missing feature is a real blocker.
Welcome to 2026. We have a lot of agentic browsing and AI available. Some people are trying to use that to do the “heavy lifting” for them on things. On top of that, I’m seeing where translation and all is done with it as well.
Not to mention with how easily offended people can be, some are pushing more to AI revisions to say what they want without it coming across the wrong way.
But yeah…definitely a lot of bots and “bad actors” out there using this stuff too. Usually they start off with “helpful” posts and then start editing in links or trying to direct to fake content after they have some history or “trust” on their accounts.
AI based translation has certainly been better, and usually can keep context intact where Google Translate botches (I like to hit the reverse button multiple times and see how mangled the translation gets, thus I never truly use it, whereas AI does help here). In this case, it’s as if the entire post was AI generated, and in that situation, I honestly don’t know if it’s what the OP wants, or what the AI wrote that it wants.
(In such a case, I’d rather a user post in their native language, as then we can chose how to translate it, or better yet, someone else helps who is a native speaker.)
Um, im not a bot but use em dashes as a matter of grammatical accuracy…? Not claiming any kind of consistency or impeccable record in that area—particularly re: transmitted text.
But that is not at all the point of the original post, which is entirely relevant and particularly important to me as well as a large number of users over the years.
Who cares if someone is using AI to write for them? I went searching for “Is there a way to create a PWA for a website in Brave on iOS?”, thinking that this still can only be done in Safari. I found this post.
I have a lot of PWAs set up, but I have to use Safari for those. I don’t want to use Safari for those. So, I completely agree with request.
I am getting ready to create another PWA right now and I’ll have to use Safari.
Just to shed some light on the situation: We initially did want to support adding PWAs to your home screen from Brave, however the main blocker here is that fullscreen PWAs that are added from third-party browsers will launch in Safari anyways (they launch without Safari chrome like when you add fullscreen PWAs from Safari, but its still Safari, not Brave loading the page.) which means losing adblock and other Brave privacy protections.
Understood. If it isn’t, then I would recommend making this clear somewhere in an FAQ or other support documentation. Sure, you could allow one to create a PWA from Brave and warn them of this issue. I personally would choose to still do it. 1) I am not having to go and manually open the website in Safari, log in, etc. and then create the PWA. 2) As it stands now, if I want the PWA bad enough, I have to do it through Safari anyway. So, Brave might as well allow me to create it from Brave (where I am already at) and at least I get the benefit of not having the Safari chrome.
Therefore, I would still vote for adding the ability, but Brave should absolutely explain basically what you did so the user is aware that Brave isn’t really what is being used. That said, for those that have Brave as their daily driver on their iPhone/iPad, they do get the convenience of creating the PWA from Brave and the benefit of no Safari chrome.
So today i made a homescreen YouTube shortcut that that opens in brave on my iphone. It was not made natively w brave, but the normal way (for me) = w brave as default browser: copy website open in brave / paste into safari / “share” that w “add to homescreen” when screen pops up, deselect “open as webapp”***
***This made all the difference for me to successfully opening in brave w all privacy + adblock.
I may be misunderstanding, but the pita inclusion of the current route thru Safari in order to make a direct shortcut to brave browser’s special youtube access is the problem, not that it is or is not a special format kind of PWA when it opens, no?
Bc all the current iOS “open as web app” shortcuts on my homescreen open as brave browser pages when brave is the default browser —YouTube was the only exception until i deselected “open as web app” toggle.
The feature i would love to see is the same option button Safari has, but in brave, to “add to homescreen” which is a “sharing” pop up screen option on safari. I am not insisting i know betted or know much of anything re: software development, but just based on the current functionality of brave shortcuts on iOS, could it be that previously described restrictions on third-party shortcuts are actually no longer in effect?
when screen pops up, deselect “open as webapp”***
Bc all the current iOS “open as web app” shortcuts on my homescreen open as brave browser pages when brave is the default browser —YouTube was the only exception until i deselected “open as web app” toggle.