Never though I would make any tricks since this community is full of very wise people but… here I am.
Make any AppSheet app an “standalone” app for windows desktop users using Chromium-base browsers
Some of you have been struggling with the fact that AppSheet apps run on browser, generally a tab. This is not perfect since your users can still see the bookmarks, url, etc. It’s not a full desktop app UX. But, if your users are using any Chromium-based browser, you can apply this tip.
First of all, I have to say that I’ve been doing this for some time on linux but I didn’t thought it would behave the same way on Windows. Also, I’m using Brave browser but, again, this works the same on any chromium-base one.
There are two ways of doing this:
1. Easy way:
Open the URL of your app
Click of the dots at the right side of the browser:
You will see the app opened on a window and you will see also a desktop shorcut on the desktop as well as under the windows menu → “[NameOfYourBrowser] Apps”
2. Manual but better (from my POV) way
Check for the desktop shorcut for your browser or create one. (Just the browser)
Go to properties and copy all of what’s inside “Target:”
If you are using Google Chrome, this sould look like this:
“C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
Give it a meaningfull name (Maybe your app’s name?)
Save it
There is a difference between the two methods, you can check it here:
At the left side is method 1. You can still see extensions and other info under the “menu” button that’s beside the windows buttons
At the right side is method 2. There are no extra buttons, it’s like any other desktop app.
I’m just adding an update that no one asked but I found useful
Since Method 2 is a little bit hard, you can do the following to change from Method 1 to 2 kinda easy:
Find the desktop shortcuts made by Method 1 and open it’s properties:
Change the: --app-id=whateveritsayshere
to: --app=https://www.appsheet.com/start/XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
That’s it
Hope this helps if Method 2 was a little bit scaring
Maybe I do something wrong (uses method 2).
When I open the shortcut just created, it opens up like if it was an app, and that is what I want, but after 2-3 seconds its like the window is refreshing making the app looks like when it is a normal browser view.
To me it seems like this is happening after 2-3 seconds when the ‘Sync’ also starts. Why is that changing from app view to browser view?
My shortcut target is like this:
“C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” --app=https:[www.appsheet.com](http://www.appsheet.com)start\bla-bla-bla-bla"
OKay I have no idea why my slashes are backslashes when I insert them here.
Ofcourse in my shortcut it looks like this:
“C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” --app=https://www.appsheet.com/start/94c4aea7-bla-blaa-bla
Do you know why it is refreshing after a couple of seconds and then shows the default webbrowser version? I would like to run it as ‘app’ version.
Yes I do.
But I found out what was my problem.
I have not deployed the app as I was just testing it.
After the deployment, it remains as an app. Thank you for the guide!
To be honest, that actually doesn’t make sense. The only way to make it look like a phone app is by not using the Desktop Mode preview or having it in a narrow-enough window
Actually it’s the same thing, but the second method used in this post is way more “standalone” looking.
In any case, an experienced user can do the same thing in MacOS
Yes. I’m not a Windows user so I’m not sure but I think the method I’m using on my Mac must be the Mac version of what you described for Windows. This seems to be new with Sonoma (the latest Mac OS). At any rate, it’s extremely easy to do on a Mac now. I haven’t tested it yet, but all the indications I’ve received are that I should be able to make different desktop apps for different accounts, which would further speed up app development for me.
You will need multiple profiles, one for each app in order to keep thep separated.
Think about this method as just some kind of “bookmark” or “shortcut”, it’s still linked to a profile in your browser, just opened in a new window with less decorations
Actually, you don’t need multiple profiles. They are kept separate by the Sonoma operating system. A separate “app” is saved in the users app folder for this purpose. I’m using several apps in that way now and it works very well.
I would love if we could open links to AppSheet Views inside of this standalone app.
We use Google Calendar and add the link to the AppSheet view in the description. So we can click on that and the AppSheet App opens on the right spot. But it always opens a new tab. On mobile, it opens the AppSheet App.
