App Site Icon for my Square Online Store

[StargazerFarm]

The title of this thread has been edited by a Square Moderator from the original: "App install for my Square site/store"

The first time I tested my new Square storefront on my phone, it prompted me and asked if I wanted to install the app. To my surprise it installed an app with my own logo on my phone that went directly to my store. I loved it! I uninstalled to test the functionality and now I can't figure out how to install it again. It doesn't prompt me again. I'd actually LOVE a button on my Home Page that gave the option to install it, but can't find any documentation about it... everything is about installing the Square POS app, not the cool little app for my store. Any ideas or suggestions?

TIA! 

-Rob

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Ah.  Now I see.  It is installing a “web app” which is just a link to our online store URL.  That would be very clever if they automate that part, for sure.  For now, that’s what we tell our regulars — here’s the link for you to create a shortcut in your Favorites list.  We have a few dozen who have done this and love it.  But I’ve not see anything like Square doing it for us automatically.

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hey there @StargazerFarm 👋

I'm glad you were able to find this again. This feature is called an "App Site Icon". Like Chip mentioned, this allows your customers to add a branded site icon directly to their phones that looks like an app icon. With this enabled, customers who complete an order on your mobile website will see a small popup banner on the order confirmation page encouraging them to add the app site icon to their phone.

You can find more details here in our Support Center 🙂

[TheRealChipA]

Hey @StargazerFarm.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it sounds like you were given a super-secret sneak preview of a new feature that has not yet been announced.  I’ve never heard of any feature (yet) that creates our own white-label apps for our online stores.  Sure, it would be great, but I’ve not heard a peep about it, and I’m in the Square Champions group that usually hears about (and tests) things like this long before they are released to the public.  If I were a betting man, I’d bet that someone realized their mistake and quickly fixed it.  But, if not, I’m sure a moderator will correct me.  Ha.

[StargazerFarm]

So I somewhat duplicated it, but not with the automatic prompt. If I use the "Add to desktop" option from chrome, it prompts "Would you like to install the app" (Which is what it did automatically the first time). Then it adds an app with my store logo as its icon, to my phones app list. When I launch it, it's identical to the website, but with no address bar, forward/back buttons, clutter, etc... just a nice clean interface. Now the trick is to figure out how to add a button to install it or get that prompt back when people visit. I'd love for people to have it on their phone and not have to go to the website every time. We are several weeks from launch, so if anyone has any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.

Added an icon...

Nice clean interface for the store....

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Ah.  Now I see.  It is installing a “web app” which is just a link to our online store URL.  That would be very clever if they automate that part, for sure.  For now, that’s what we tell our regulars — here’s the link for you to create a shortcut in your Favorites list.  We have a few dozen who have done this and love it.  But I’ve not see anything like Square doing it for us automatically.

[TheRealChipA]

I heard that Android was attempting to do this automatically for websites/apps.  Just didn’t know it had come to pass.

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hey there @StargazerFarm 👋

I'm glad you were able to find this again. This feature is called an "App Site Icon". Like Chip mentioned, this allows your customers to add a branded site icon directly to their phones that looks like an app icon. With this enabled, customers who complete an order on your mobile website will see a small popup banner on the order confirmation page encouraging them to add the app site icon to their phone.

You can find more details here in our Support Center 🙂

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Thanks, @_Violet.  I learned something new today.  I’ve been giving my customers too many steps to add this to their home screens on their phones.  I see, now, that if I set up that setting at Online > Website > Site Preferences > Site Icon, then I can tell them to “install” my store app by clicking “Add to Home Screen” from their browser’s share button.  Who knew!

[_Violet]

Awesome, @TheRealChipA ! I'm glad you learned something new 💡 Hopefully, this will result in more traffic to your site 😁

[StargazerFarm]

This is great! Thank you so much.

[Technowllc]

I want you on how to recreate this, but I too have the app on my phone. 

I'm attempting to recreate it on my girlfriend's phone, but I don't know how to do it. I'm unsure that's how this works, and only the people that have the app understand. Everyone else that doesn't have the app, seems to speculate something else.

I would appreciate a clear answer on this, as I would like to recreate it.