Add OKCAC Discourse to your phone or tablet as an app

[sdm]

Hey everyone, here’s a quick tip for you mobile and tablet users. You can add this forum as a shortcut on your device Home Screen and can then launch it as an “app.” For iOS, you can also enable notifications so you’ll get pushed updates to your posts and replies. I’m sure it’s similar on Android, but I don’t have any Android devices right now.

For iOS, go to discourse.okcastro.club and click “Share.” Depending on your browser it could be in a couple different spots. Safari has a dedicated Share button, whereas in Firefox it’s in the hamburger menu with the rest of the settings. Just click Share, then Add to Home Screen.

That’s it! Now you have this forum as its own “app!” It should be roughly the same for Android.

[sdm]

Another quick tip for mobile, mostly tablets.

If you are a Portrait mode user like me, the tablet view might seem a little cramped. If that’s you, just click this button:

To change it back, use the hamburger in the upper right to expand the menu, then there’s an icon that looks like a monitor in the same spot.

[mpsurge]

Great, thanks

[NateWoollard]

On android instruction.

Open your Chrome web browser to the forum main page. Tap 3 DOTS in top right corner. There is an option to add OKCAC as APP. Select this option and it will add it as an APP to your HOME screen.

I hope this helps.

The new guy

[Tom.Graham]

Discourse already has a free native app called Discourse Hub and is available on both the iOS App Store and for Android on Google Play.

[NateWoollard]

Ok, I saw that but I didn’t think it was the right app for some reason. I will download that and check it out.

[NateWoollard]

I have the app now and attempted to add the correct site for the astro club. It showed a loading bar but only stopped before half way, never to move again Not sure what I’m doing wrong. There is no search option to try and find this page easily.

[R.Palmer]

Hmm, I installed it a few days ago, but the way you described it. My icon is just for the club’s page and not the whole site.

[sdm]

I don’t like installing apps unless I have to, and I like having this and only this as its own thing, and it has our icon. Certainly to each their own though and if the app is the best way for you to engage with the club, then I am all for it.

[Tom.Graham]

1. I agree:

Saving a shortcut to the
Discussion Forum
on a the user’s Desktop or Home Screen (with an intuitive, branded icon) will surely the best solution for almost all members. (Especially if the overall design, appearance and functionality of the application is generally better via browser than in the native apps.)

2. Navigation is no longer an issue for me:

*In my personal case, I typically use the default Safari browser in Portrait view on an iPad Pro (10.5”) and the responsive rendering of the Discourse website either placed the hamburger menu in the top right-hand corner (?!) or eliminated it completely. It was the non-standard placement of the hamburger menu in the top right-hand corner within Safari on iPad iOS that was my primary, initial stumbling block for learning navigation. (I am now reminded that here is a ‘wonky’ behavior of iPad as it tries to support both desktop mode and mobile mode.)

[Mitche]

What is the “hamburger” everyone keeps mentioning. I see nothing that looks like a hamburger.

[sdm]

The three horizontal lines is called a hamburger. Here’s a picture showing it:

[Mitche]

Ah. I see. Thanks for pointing it out! I always just thought of that as the ‘menu’ button.