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Moving out of the browser: how to install fof.lol tools as apps

Every fof.lol tool opens from a link, but it can also move out of the browser and get its own icon, its own window and a spare key: it works offline. No app store, two taps. Here’s how on every device, explained by the tools that have already moved.

By the fof.lol team · · 4 min read

Before

Tab 47 of 52. Somewhere between the news and a soup recipe.

After

My own icon! My own window! I’m never going back.

SmartBench moves out. The other 51 tabs don’t even notice.

An installed web page is called a PWA, a progressive web app. Big name, simple idea: it’s the same page, but the browser puts it on your home screen or desktop and opens it in its own window, without the address bar and someone else’s tabs. What you get:

  • Its own icon and window. One tap and you’re in the tool, not in tab 47.
  • Works offline. After your first visit the browser keeps every page in both languages, the scripts, fonts and logos: about 6 MB, roughly one or two photos from your phone.
  • Updates itself. With a connection, every launch loads the fresh version. No “Update 14 apps?” at seven in the morning.
  • Same privacy. It’s the same page with the same rules: installing adds no accounts and sends nothing anywhere.

1One tool or the whole market stall

Install the fof.lol home page and you get one app with all seventeen tools inside. Long-press its icon on Android, or right-click it on the taskbar in Windows, and you can jump straight to the tool you need.

Or install just the tools you actually use: each one has its own icon and opens straight into itself. A watermelon next to a pear on your home screen looks great, we checked.

Tip. Install from the language you want. Open the page in Ukrainian, and the app will open in Ukrainian too.

2Android

  • Chrome: open the tool, tap ⋮ in the top right corner and choose Install app. In some versions it’s Add to home screen → Install.
  • Samsung Internet: tap the install icon in the address bar, or ☰ → Add page to → Home screen.
  • Edge, Firefox and others: the menu has the same item; it may be called Install, Add to phone or Add to Home screen.

Three dots, then “Install”. That’s the whole secret.

KeyBench, now an expert in buttons other than its own.

The app shows up on the home screen and in the app list. If the browser doesn’t offer to install, check that you’re not in incognito mode: private tabs can’t install anything.

3iPhone and iPad

  1. Open the tool in Safari.
  2. Tap Share, the square with an arrow pointing up. In newer versions of iOS it may hide in the ⋯ menu next to the address.
  3. Scroll down, choose Add to Home Screen, leave Open as Web App on if you see it, and tap Add.

Since iOS 16.4 the same works from Chrome, Edge and Firefox on iPhone: Share → Add to Home Screen.

To install, tap “Share”. No, you’re not sharing anything.

Logic!

WhereBench explains Apple. Being an apple, it’s allowed to.

An iPhone peculiarity. An installed app keeps its own storage, separate from Safari. The result history you saved in Safari stays in Safari, and permission for the camera, microphone or motion sensors will be asked again inside the app. Not a bug: privacy, Apple style.

4Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS

  • Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers: click the install icon at the right end of the address bar (a monitor with an arrow). Or use the menu: in Chrome ⋮ → Cast, save and share → Install page as app, in Edge ⋯ → Apps → Install this site as an app.
  • Safari on a Mac (macOS Sonoma and newer): File → Add to Dock.
  • Firefox on a computer can’t install sites as apps in most versions. For this one job, borrow another browser.

Installed in 1.8 seconds. I timed it.

Click!

TimeBench measures everything. Absolutely everything.

The app gets its own window and an icon in the Start menu or Launchpad, on the taskbar or in the Dock. A tuner in its own window next to your recording software, or a stopwatch on top of a presentation, is exactly what this was made for.

5Offline and updates

After your first visit the browser keeps everything needed to open the tools without the internet, so the installed app starts even in airplane mode. Some jobs do need the network: the speed test, maps and addresses in WhereBench, the leak check in PassBench, connecting two devices in DropBench and DrawBench. Those parts wait for a connection; everything else just works.

Updates arrive on their own: when there is a connection, the app loads the fresh version of the page, and the saved copy is used only when there is no network. You never have to tap “Update”, and you’re never stuck with an old version.

6How to uninstall

  • Android: long-press the icon → Uninstall.
  • iPhone and iPad: long-press the icon → Delete Bookmark or Remove App → Delete.
  • Chrome and Edge on a computer: open the app, then its menu in the title bar → Uninstall.
  • Safari on a Mac: delete the app from the Applications folder in your home folder, like any other app.

The icon and the window go away; the site stays where it was, one link away.

Uninstalling is just as easy. Not that we’d want you to.

SpeedBench is fine. Totally fine. Not crying at all.

Try it now

Open any tool and give it its own icon. It takes less time than reading this sentence. Well, almost.

All tools

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