Make a Safari Shortcut on Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch Home Screen

Open Safari links quickly by placing them right on your home screen

Safari logo on iPhone

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by Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera has been a tech journalist since 2007. He has 25+ years' experience as a programmer and QA leader and several Microsoft certifications.
Updated August 11, 2019

It's possible to create shortcuts on the iOS home screen that directly open your favorite websites in the web browser. For example, you can use iPhone or iPad shortcuts to open Facebook through Safari with a single tap.

The instructions in this article apply to all iOS devices including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

How to Add Safari Shortcuts to Your iOS Home Screen

  1. Launch Safari and navigate to a website you frequently visit.

  2. Tap the Bookmark icon at the bottom of the screen (it resembles a box with an upward-pointing arrow).

  3. Tap Add to Home Screen.

  4. Accept the suggested name for the shortcut, or enter one you like better.

  5. At the top of the screen, tap Add to save the new shortcut icon to the home screen.

You'll now see the new icon next to all your other app icons. If you use several home screens, you may need to scroll through them to locate it. To use the icon, just tap it to go directly to the saved website in Safari.

Make a Bookmarks Folder for Website Icons

If you want easy access to multiple web bookmarks, you can repeat the website-icon making process with other websites and save them all in one folder. Do so by pressing and holding one of the icons until they all start to wiggle. Then touch and drag one website icon on top of another to create a folder. Add other website icons to the same folder by dragging and dropping them.