How to Turn Safari Websites Into Mac Apps

Have websites you constantly visit on your Mac, like Gmail or Netflix? Turn Safari websites into macOS apps so that you can access them outside of a web browser. Here’s how the new feature works and why you might want to use it.

Dock Web Apps Using Safari

Safari web apps are effectively containerized web pages with simplified navigation controls. There is no address bar within a web app, so you cannot navigate away from the service. This should hopefully help you focus on the task at hand and make it easier to find services that you use frequently.

Safari web apps were added to macOS 14 Sonoma, so you won’t see the option if you aren’t running Apple’s October 2023 macOS update or later. You can upgrade your Mac using System Settings > General > Software Update, just make sure to back up with Time Machine first.

To create a web app, first visit the web page that you want to use using the Safari browser. Next, head to File > Add to Dock… then give your web app a name and confirm the URL you want to use. Your app will inherit the website’s favicon automatically, or you can click on the icon to choose an alternative.

Hit “Add” to create your web app and it will be added to your macOS dock. It will also appear within Launchpad (but not as a separate entry within the Applications folder). Click on it to launch it as a separate app.

When you create a web app, cookies are shared with Safari. That means you shouldn’t need to log in again since your web app is merely an extension of your Safari session.

Web Apps Get Separate Notifications

Notifications within Safari (and other browsers) are nothing new, but standard notifications are stacked within Safari. When you click on one, the notification opens within your web browser (and steals focus from whatever you were doing at the time).

Web apps function more like standard macOS apps, with their own notification stacks. Clicking on a notification will open it within the web app, leaving your browsing session untouched. You can always use the “Back” button within the web app to get back to what you were doing.

For this to work, you’ll need to allow notifications for Safari under Settings > Notifications, then make sure that the service you’re using is allowed to deliver notifications within Safari preferences on the Privacy > Notifications tab.

How to Delete Safari Web Apps

You can delete web apps in the same way that you remove other pinned apps from your dock: by clicking, dragging out of the dock, and releasing when you see the “Remove” tooltip appear. You can also right-click on the icon then select Options > Remove from Dock.

Works Great With Web Apps You Use a Lot

This new feature is arguably most useful with web apps that you frequently use like Gmail, Spotify, Netflix, and work-related tools like Google Sheets or WordPress. Not only do you get an icon you can click on, but you can Command+Tab to see your web apps alongside your other currently running processes.

By separating the web app from the browser, you won’t have to dig through your tabs to find what you’re looking for and you should hopefully encounter fewer distractions to boot. You could even ditch your pin tabs in favor of separate web apps.

You can even slightly customize the experience by clicking on the web app name in the menu bar and selecting “Settings” to toggle the navigation bar, color-matched title bar, and manage privacy settings.

Do More With Safari

Safari is a great choice for Mac users. It’s fast, power-efficient, and it works great with other Apple devices via iCloud. You can even use iCloud+ Private Relay to anonymize web requests.

Learn more Safari tricks like how to change your default search engine (to something like DuckDuckGo) or why you might want to enable the Develop menu.