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Web apps

A web app is a website you use like an app. It gets its own window, a shortcut you can start from outside the browser and a place in your sidebar Favorites. Install a site you open every day, such as mail or a calendar.

Install a site

From the page

  1. Open the website in a regular tab.
  2. Select the button at the start of the address field to open Page information.
  3. Choose Install as app….

A message confirms the install. On Windows it reads Installed {name}. It’s in Start and in Favorites. On a Mac it reads Installed {name}. It’s in Finder and Favorites.

From Settings

  1. Open the sites you want in tabs.
  2. Open Settings › Web apps.
  3. In the Install group each open site has a row. Choose Install on the one you want. A site that is already installed shows Installed.

If no site is open, the group says Open a website, then come back here to install it.

What you get

  • Windows: a Start menu shortcut and a desktop shortcut.
  • Mac: an app in the Acira Apps folder inside your user Applications folder.
  • A Favorite for the site in your sidebar. See Bookmarks and Favorites.
  • When you start the app, the site opens in its own Acira window instead of a tab. It uses the sign-ins of the profile you installed it in. See Profiles.

Two kinds are listed. A site with a valid app manifest installs as an App. A site without one installs as a Shortcut that opens it in its own window. Settings says A site without an app manifest installs as a shortcut that opens it in its own window.

Manage installed apps

Open Settings › Web apps › Installed apps. Each row shows the app's name, its site, whether it is an App or a Shortcut, and where it is installed, for example in Start and on the desktop.

  • Open starts the app in a new tab in its profile.
  • Uninstall removes the shortcut and the Favorite. It shows {name} removed.

The list shows the apps of the profile you are in. Another profile has its own list. With none installed it says No apps installed in this profile.

Limits

  • Private and Tor tabs cannot be installed: Private and Tor tabs can’t be installed.
  • A site must be secure to be installed. Its address starts with https://, or it is http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1. Acira refuses any other address.
  • Files on this computer cannot be installed, and neither can Acira's own pages.
  • A web app is a website in a window of its own. It runs in the session of the profile you installed it in, so the permission answers you gave that site there still apply. See Site permissions and data.
  • Installed apps need Acira to be installed. Starting one starts Acira.

Last updated October 31, 2026