How to add your digital business card to your phone home screen
Open the card’s link in your phone browser and use Add to Home Screen, which is in the Share sheet on iPhone and the browser menu on Android. It becomes an icon that opens in one tap, which matters because the moment you need your card is usually the moment you have one hand free.
Takes: Under a minute
On iPhone and iPad
Only Safari can do this. Chrome and Firefox on iOS offer a Share sheet but it has no Add to Home Screen entry, which is the commonest reason people conclude the feature does not exist.
- 1
Open the link in Safari
Paste or tap your card’s address so the page is showing. If you came from another app it may have opened in an in-app browser, which also cannot do this; use the icon that opens it in Safari proper.
- 2
Tap the Share button
The square with an arrow pointing up, in the bottom toolbar on a phone and the top toolbar on an iPad.
- 3
Scroll to Add to Home Screen
It sits well down the second group of actions, below Add Bookmark. Tap it, shorten the name to something that fits under an icon, and tap Add.
On Android
Chrome, Samsung Internet and Firefox all support this, through slightly different menus.
- 4
Open the link in your browser
Chrome is the default on most devices; Samsung Internet is on most Galaxy phones.
- 5
Open the browser menu
The three dots at the top right in Chrome and Firefox. In Samsung Internet it is the three lines at the bottom right.
- 6
Choose Add to Home screen
Chrome may word it as Install app or Add to Home screen depending on the page. Both produce the same icon. Confirm the name and tap Add.
If the option is missing
Three causes cover nearly every case. You are in an in-app browser rather than the real one, which happens when a link is opened from a messaging app. You are in Chrome or Firefox on iOS, where Apple does not permit it. Or the page has not finished loading, since the browser decides what it can install only once it has the page. Reloading in the real browser fixes the first and third.
Common questions
Is this an app?
No. It is a shortcut to a web page with its own icon. Nothing is downloaded from an app store, it takes no meaningful storage, and removing the icon removes all of it.
Will it work offline?
Generally not. The icon opens a page that still has to load, so without a connection you get a browser error. Keeping a copy of your own details saved as a contact is the offline fallback.
Can I give someone else a shortcut to my card?
You can send them the link and they can add it themselves, but you cannot place an icon on another person’s phone. For handing details over in person, the QR code is faster than anything involving a home screen.