Getting Started

This walkthrough takes you from a fresh install to your first signed APK. At each step it notes what the app is actually doing under the hood, so the flow makes sense in terms of the code.

1. Install and launch

Install the WebToApp builder on a device running Android 6.0 (API 23) or newer.

On launch, WebToAppApplication starts in builder mode (SHELL_RUNTIME_ONLY = false): it initializes the i18n strings, the Room database, and the dependency graph, then shows My Apps — the home screen that lists every app you create. See Main Screen.

2. Create an app definition

At the bottom of My Apps, tap Create. A panel expands with a 3-column grid of the 12 app types:

Web · Multi-Web · HTML · Offline Pack · Frontend · PHP · WordPress · Node.js · Python · Go · Media · Gallery

Tap Web for your first app. The Web editor opens.

3. Fill in the basics

Fill in the top Basic info card:

• App name
• Target URL — e.g. https://example.com
• Icon — optional; a type-specific default is used otherwise

The rest of the editor is a long list of optional capability cards (fullscreen, splash, ad blocking, DNS, disguise, …). Ignore them for now — defaults are used. Each is covered under App Configuration.

Tap Save. Under the hood, the editor assembles a WebApp object (with appType = WEB and a webViewConfig) and writes it to the web_apps Room table. Your app now appears in the list.

4. Preview

On My Apps, tap your app's card. The preview router checks the app's appType and launches the matching runtime:

• IMAGE / VIDEO → the media player activity
• GALLERY → the gallery player activity
• everything else (including WEB) → the WebView activity

For a Web app, the WebView activity loads your URL with your configured settings — the same code the exported app will run. (Tap the card's ⋮ button instead to open the action menu.)

Preview ≠ export

Preview runs the host path (everything on the builder's classpath). Export runs the shell path, reading your config from an embedded JSON. A feature can work in preview yet vanish after export if a config field doesn't survive that trip. See Config Field Drift.

5. Build the APK

Tap ⋮ on your app's card, then Build APK. In the dialog you can:

• pick the browser engine (System WebView or GeckoView),
• optionally enable resource encryption, isolation, background run, and notifications,
• force a full rebuild (otherwise an incremental mode is chosen automatically).

Tap build. The ApkBuilder takes the shell template APK, patches its package name / icon / permissions, embeds your WebApp config as app_config.json, and signs the result (V1/V2/V3). See Build APK.

6. Install it

Open ⋮ → File Manager from the top-right of My Apps. Your APK is there — install it or share it. When you launch it, that APK runs in shell mode (SHELL_RUNTIME_ONLY = true): ShellModeManager reads your embedded app_config.json and drives the runtime, fully independent of the builder.

Next steps

• Tour the Main Screen.
• Learn what each app type does.
• Explore the per-app App Actions.
• Open the top-right ⋮ menu — see More Features.

Build from source

Requirements: Android Studio Hedgehog or newer, JDK 17. The Gradle wrapper pins Gradle 9.4.1.

git clone https://github.com/shiaho777/web-to-app.git
cd web-to-app
./gradlew assembleDebug

For release builds, configure signing through local.properties and app/build.gradle.kts.