Adding an app shortcut to the home screen is pretty simple, and this can also be done to the web pages we visit regularly or more often than any other. This in turn saves us time going through our bookmarks which might be a long list already, or the saved web page among the multitude of saved web pages.

How to add a website to your Android phone’s home screen?

Follow the steps below to add a website shortcut to your home screen.

• Launch the browser and go to the website you want to be added to the home screen. (Type the URL on the search bar and hit “Go”. If you don’t know the URL, search the name and tap on the results you find on Google search).
• After the site loads, in the top right corner of your screen, there is a “three vertical dots” button. Tap on it to launch the options bar.
• The browser options should appear. Find the Add to Home screen button. Tap on it.

You will be prompted by the next screen to name the shortcut. Choose either to stick with the default name or set or rename with the one you want or will remember.

Next, tap on Add option.

Another prompt will pop-up, suggesting you add the shortcut or drag the icon to the home screen.

Tap on Add option and the system will automatically add the shortcut to your home screen, or an empty window.

Alternatively, you can also tap and hold the icon, then drag it to the Home Screen and drop it there.

• There are some instances where the  “Add to home screen” option in the sidebar does not work for no apparent reason. This does typically occur when using an older version of chrome, and you don’t want to get the updated version for any particular reason.

To go around this issue, just follow the steps below in such cases.

• Visit the particular page you want to add to the home page
• Open a new tab and go to the Chrome homepage.
• Go to the History tab from the menu
• Revisit that particular history page to refresh it in the open tabs, then repeat the same adding process.
• Now return to the Chrome homepage once more, and you should be able to find the shortcut link of that particular web page there.

The above methods, however, are not guaranteed to work each and every time. This will prompt us to take some drastic measures/steps that might bring a solution to enjoy this simple feature available on/provided by the Android Chrome browser.

Adding Multiple Websites

There is also a way of adding multiple bookmarks to the home screen by placing the entire Bookmarks folder.

• Go to the Home Screen and access the widgets page
• Long press on an empty space on the home screen and select widgets

• Navigate among the available options and look for chrome.
• Tap and hold the “chrome bookmarks” inside a chrome widget to drop it on the homepage.

That is it, the space now will be occupied by the bookmarks’ widget.

Let us take a look at some of the fixes that might be causing some unforeseen issues if you had already tried the above methods.

Troubleshooting Add to Home Screen Shortcut Links

Restart the device

Restarting the Android or any device has always been the most effective way to rectify the apps and the system problems when it starts misbehaving. Most memory issues are fixed, as everything will be loading now from its default state.

Just do a Restart and wait to see if it fixes the problem thereafter.

Try a different website.

Create a different website shortcut using another bookmark. This will show if the current bookmark has an issue of its own. If the shortcut is created, you will now want to avoid bookmarking that particular site as it might have some bugs.

Delete the Browser Cache.

Browser cache may be causing problems, and deleting them might be the only solution needed.

To delete your browser cache:

• Open the Chrome browser
• Tap the three hamburger dots button in the top right corner.
• Go to History and navigate to the “Clear browsing data” option.

• Now tap on Clear data

Go back and check if the problem has been resolved.

Update/Reinstall/Disable and enable your browser

Look for the updates, if available, on the play store.

• Go to the Play Store
• Search for the Google Chrome browser
• Whenever there is a new update available, you will see the “Update” written on the green button. Click on the update option, and you will get the latest version of the browser. If it’s up-to-date, then it will have an “Open” option written instead.

If your browser is already in its latest version, just uninstall and reinstall it. You also have the option to disable it if it is an in-built browser.

• Go to Settings
• Navigate to the Apps & notifications option.
• Scroll down to where the Chrome browser is and tap on it to open app info.
• Now tap on Disable.
• Then tap again on Enable.

Use a third-party launcher

There are many launchers to choose from. Some allow flowless adding items on the home screen. In this example, we will be using a Lynx launcher.

• Launch the Play Store app.
• Search for Lynx Launcher.
• Hit the “Install” option. When the process is finished, launch the launcher and follow the steps to set it as default.

You can now go ahead and add shortcuts to the home screen.

Allow storage permission for your browser

Make sure the browser has storage permission.

• Launch the Settings application
• Scroll down to Apps & notifications
• Tap on the Google Chrome browser.
• Hit the Permissions option
• Now click on Storage

• Now tap on Allow if it is set to Deny.

The Chrome Browser will now be able to access the phone storage henceforth.

Install the native Android app for that particular website

If the website has an official Android app, and you still experience difficulty adding the shortcut to the homepage, utilizing the actual app will be now the last resort. Apps always tend to be resource-consuming, but if all other options do not give the desired results, we will have no other option.

Try a different browser

You can also use a different browser and try to add the shortcut to that website. If it bookmarks with no problem, then the Chrome browser is the culprit. You can try rectifying the Chrome problems using the other methods in this guide.

Conclusion

The above methods and solutions are some of the proven ways to enable the Chrome Shortcut on the Home Screen. Keep in mind that whatever browser you save the shortcut with is the one in which the page will open when you select it from the home screen. If you change browsers in the future, you’ll need to re-save your shortcuts.

If you can’t find the Add to Home screen option, it could be that the browser may not support the website shortcut or a bug in the new updates to the browser.

There is no definite reason why sometimes the shortcut links are not working. It might be problems related to the device model, Android version, the particular browser, or even the website you want to add.

Give a try to the fixes mentioned above and see if the problem is resolved.