Smartphone home screen bookmark button

Question

I'm creating a small web site that will mostly be used with modern smart phones.

Is there a standard way to make a button that would make a bookmark on the phone home screen? Similar to iOS Safari "Add to Home Screen" -option, but with a greater support (iPhone, HTC, Blackberry etc.)

Also: Is the apple-touch-favicon also used with other smart phones or is there a standard for that too?

Thanks alot for your answers!

Answer 1

No, there is no support for web browser address to home screen in Android 2.x (maybe in 4.x). You can only add a bookmark to the home screen by adding a shorcut from the home screen menu.

Not sure about the favicon, but given the "apple-touch-" naming convention I'd take a guess and say no.

Answer 2

There is actually a .js script that somewhat achieves this on both platforms.

behold: bookmark bubble

It may be a bit finicky but fine tuned it can work as a means to "direct" the user to bookmark the page based on the platform (ios, android). As near as I can tell, this is about the closest you are going to get to a one click bookmark to home screen "button"

One other alternative for android at least, is to create an actual application. Utilizing android intents it can open up the mobile site in fullscreen (or whatever you wish really). This is a bit of a process but may be worth it depending on your situation. You can just direct users to the play store for the "mobile app" version.