Run the app in CanvasRunner, then pin it. It gets its own home-screen icon, opens full-screen with no browser chrome, keeps its own place in the Recents switcher, and works offline. You can give it a custom icon cropped in the app.
You have an app an assistant built for you — say a trip planner or a habit tracker. It works, but it opens like a web page: an address bar, a tab, and it is gone the moment you switch away. Here is how to make it feel installed.
Why "Add to Home screen" from a browser is not enough
Chrome can add a shortcut to a web page, but for a local file that came out of a chat there is no URL to bookmark, and the result still runs inside the browser — subject to the browser being cleared, and without a clean way to work offline or to get its own entry in Recents.
CanvasRunner handles the app as a first-class thing on the device instead.
Steps
- Bring the app into CanvasRunner. Share it from your assistant's app, or copy it and tap Paste app. Confirm the name. (Full walk-through: turning a Claude Artifact into an app.)
- Run it once to check it works.
- Pin it. Use the pin action — from the create sheet, or later from the app's menu in My Apps.
That is it. The app is now on your home screen.
What you get
- A real icon. By default it is the CanvasRunner mark with the app's name. Tap Change icon to use a photo or a logo — you frame it with a pinch-to-crop, and it lands on the home screen and in Recents.
- Full-screen launch. No address bar, no tabs. Back closes it.
- Its own Recents card. Each pinned app is its own document in the switcher, so it does not get tangled up with CanvasRunner or with your other apps. It stays there after you press Back and relaunches on a tap.
- Offline. The app runs from local files. Airplane mode changes nothing.
- Device features. If the app asks for notifications, vibration or your location, those prompts work from the pinned app too, and that data stays on the phone.
If you change the app later
Fix it through the Inspector and paste the new version back in. A pinned app updates in place — the icon and the home-screen entry stay put, the code behind them changes.