Chrome lets you turn any website into an app-like shortcut on your Chromebook, so you can launch it from the shelf or launcher instead of opening a browser tab and typing a URL. This works for almost any site, not just ones built as installable Progressive Web Apps.
How to create a website shortcut
- Open the website you want a shortcut for in Chrome.
- Click the three-dot menu in the top right.
- Select Cast, save and share, then Create shortcut.
- Edit the shortcut’s name if you want something shorter or clearer than the page title, then click Create.
The shortcut now appears in your app launcher, and opens in its own window (without the address bar and tabs) rather than inside a regular Chrome tab.
Pin it to the shelf
- Open the Launcher (the circle icon in the bottom-left corner).
- Find the shortcut you just created among your apps.
- Right-click it and select Pin to shelf.
It now sits alongside your regular apps for one-click access. For more ways to organize icons once you have several pinned, see our guide on customizing and pinning apps to the Chromebook shelf.
Shortcut vs. installing a PWA
If a site is built as a full Progressive Web App, installing it (rather than just creating a shortcut) gives you a few extra benefits — offline support in some cases, its own storage quota, and sometimes push notifications. A plain shortcut, by contrast, works for literally any URL, even sites with no PWA support at all, but always requires an internet connection since it’s just a bookmarked window. See our guide on installing Progressive Web Apps on a Chromebook if the site you want offers a proper install prompt (usually shown as a small install icon in the address bar).
No desktop icons on ChromeOS
Unlike Windows or macOS, ChromeOS doesn’t let you place shortcuts on the desktop wallpaper itself — everything lives in the launcher and, if pinned, the shelf. This is intentional; Google designed ChromeOS around the shelf and launcher as the single place to find every app and shortcut.
Removing a shortcut later
Right-click the icon in the launcher or shelf and choose Uninstall. This only removes the shortcut itself, not any bookmarks or browsing data associated with the site.
