New Web App Manifest members to control what happens when the user navigates to a page within scope of an installed web app. This feature introduces the "capture_links" member, an enumeration allowing the customization of link capturing behaviour, allowing sites to: - Automatically open a new PWA window when the user clicks a link to their app. - Have a "single window mode" like mobile apps.

Motivation

After a user installs a PWA, currently the only way to open that PWA in its standalone window is to launch it directly from the system launcher, or use hard-to-discover Chrome menus to "pop out" web pages into the installed app. Site developers commonly request the ability for when the user clicks a link into their (already installed) app's scope, it automatically opens the app window. This mirrors the behaviour of apps on mobile which do this automatically. Site developers also frequently request the ability to, by default, focus an existing instance of the app rather than opening a new one. For example, a music player app doesn't make sense to open a second instance.

Status in Chromium


Consensus & Standardization

After a feature ships in Chrome, the values listed here are not guaranteed to be up to date.

Intent to Prototype url

Intent to Prototype thread

Last updated on 2021-07-25