Install Protocol on your phone
Add Protocol to your home screen so it opens like an app, and so notifications can reach you.
Protocol runs in your browser, but it does not have to look like it. You can add it to your phone or desktop home screen, where it opens in its own window with no address bar, keeps its own icon, and can send you notifications.
Nothing is downloaded from an app store, and there is no separate account. It is the same Protocol, in a window of its own.
What you get
- Its own icon, on your home screen or dock, next to everything else you use.
- A full screen. No browser tabs or address bar eating the top of a small phone.
- Notifications. On iPhone and iPad this is the only way to receive them. See Turn on notifications.
Android, Chrome, Edge
Protocol offers to install itself. A card appears at the bottom of the screen a few seconds after you sign in.
- Tap Install.
- Confirm in the browser’s own dialog.
If you dismissed the card and want it back, open your browser’s menu (the three dots) and choose Install app or Add to Home screen.
iPhone and iPad
Safari does not let a website offer to install itself, so this part is done by hand. Protocol shows you the steps when you tap Show me how, and they are:
- Tap the Share button in Safari’s toolbar. It is the square with an arrow pointing up, at the bottom of the screen on iPhone and at the top on iPad.
- Scroll down the share sheet and tap Add to Home Screen.
- Tap Add.
You will be asked to sign in again. That is normal.
The first time you open Protocol from your iPhone home screen, it asks for your email and password even though you were already signed in inside Safari.
Nothing is wrong. On iPhone and iPad, an installed app keeps its own private storage, separate from Safari’s, so it starts out knowing nothing about your Safari session. Sign in once inside the installed app and it stays signed in there.
Desktop
In Chrome or Edge, look for the install icon at the right-hand end of the address bar, or open the browser menu and choose Install Protocol. Safari on macOS uses File → Add to Dock.
Removing it
Delete the icon the same way you would delete any app. Your account and everything in it are untouched: you are only removing a shortcut, and Protocol keeps working in your browser.