The web app manifest provides information about an application(such as name, author, icon and description) in a JSON text file. The purpose of the manifest is to install web application to the homescreen of a device, providing users with quicker access and a richer experience.

Web app manifest are part of a collection of web technologies called progressive web apps, which are web applications that can be installed to the homescreen of a device without needing the user to go through an app store, along with other capabilities such as being available offline and receiving push notification.

Deploying a manifest

Web app manifests are deployed in your HTML pages using a link tag in the head of your document.

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<link ref="manifest" href="/manifest.json" />

Example

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{
  "name": "HackerWeb",
  "short_name": "Hacker",
  "start_url": ".",
  "display": "standalone",
  "background_color": "#fff",
  "description": "A simple readable Hacker New app.",
  "icons": [{
    "src": "images/touch/homescreen48.png",
    "sizes": "72x72",
    "type": "image/png"
  }]
}