Install Webmail as a PWA on iOS and Android

TrekMail webmail is designed to work well on phones and tablets out of the box. The layout adapts to your screen size, the compose button sits where your thumb naturally reaches it, and you can install the whole thing as an app on your home screen — without going through an app store. This guide covers the install flow per platform, what you actually get, the limitations to know about, and the differences when your provider runs TrekMail under White Label Lite.

Using webmail in a mobile browser (no install)

Open trekmail.net/webmail/ (or your provider's branded URL — see WL Lite section below) in your mobile browser. No special setup is needed — the interface detects screen size and switches to a mobile-friendly layout automatically.

What changes on mobile:

• The folder sidebar slides in from the left when you need it and hides automatically when you don't.
• A floating + button in the bottom-right corner opens the compose window — within thumb's reach without contorting your hand.
• Settings open in a fullscreen panel instead of a sidebar popup.
• The calendar and contacts views use larger tap targets.
• Long-press on a message shows a context menu (move, mark, delete) instead of right-click.
• Swipe gestures: swipe left on a message to archive, right to mark as read/unread (configurable in Settings).

Everything else — composing, searching, folders, contacts, calendar, Drive — works the same as on desktop.

Installing webmail as a PWA

A Progressive Web App (PWA) is webmail installed as a standalone app on your device. It runs in its own window without a browser address bar, looks and behaves like a native app, and loads faster on repeat visits because the app shell is cached locally.

Installing takes about 30 seconds and requires no app store.

iPhone or iPad (Safari)

1. Open the webmail URL in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button (the box with the upward arrow, at the bottom of the screen on iPhone or in the top bar on iPad).
3. Scroll down in the share sheet and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Give it a name (defaults to your brand name if you're on a branded URL, or "TrekMail" on the canonical URL) and tap Add.

The webmail icon appears on your home screen. Tap it to open in fullscreen mode without the Safari navigation bar.

Safari only. The Add to Home Screen option only appears in Safari on iOS and iPadOS. Chrome and Firefox on iPhone use Safari's rendering engine underneath but don't expose the PWA install. Use Safari for this step; you can keep using Chrome/Firefox for general browsing afterwards.

Android (Chrome)

1. Open the webmail URL in Chrome.
2. Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner.
3. Tap Install app (or Add to Home screen on older Android versions).
4. Tap Install to confirm.

The webmail icon is added to both your home screen and your app drawer. Tap to open as a standalone app.

Tip: On some Android devices, Chrome shows a small banner at the bottom of the screen with an "Install" button shortly after you arrive at webmail. Tap that as a shortcut.

Android (other browsers)

• Brave and Edge — support PWA install via their three-dot menus, same as Chrome.
• Samsung Internet — supports PWA install ("Add page to" → "Home screen"). Works well; Samsung browser is fully PWA-capable.
• Firefox Android — has limited PWA support; it adds a home-screen shortcut but doesn't run as a true standalone app. Chrome is the cleanest experience on Android.

Desktop (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Safari 17+)

You can install webmail as a desktop PWA too:

• Chrome / Edge / Brave (Windows/Mac/Linux) — when you visit webmail, an install icon appears at the right end of the address bar (a square with a downward arrow, or a "+"). Click it → Install. The app appears as a standalone window with its own dock/taskbar icon.
• Safari (macOS 14 / Sonoma and later) — File menu → Add to Dock. Same outcome as Chrome's install.
• Firefox — no native PWA install on desktop. Use one of the above browsers.

Desktop PWAs run independently of your browser session — close every browser tab, the PWA window keeps running. Useful for keeping webmail in its own dock space, separate from general browsing.

What the PWA gives you

Important about offline: the offline screen is cosmetic — your emails still require an internet connection to load and send. TrekMail webmail does not cache your messages for offline reading. If you need to read email without a connection, use a native email client like Apple Mail or Outlook with offline sync enabled.

Push notifications — the iOS gotcha

iOS treats web-app push notifications as a privilege you have to earn:

• iOS 16.3 and earlier — no PWA push notifications at all, period.
• iOS 16.4 to 17.x — push notifications work, but only if the PWA is installed to your home screen via Safari's Add to Home Screen. Granting notification permission to webmail in plain Safari does nothing; you have to install first, then grant inside the installed PWA.
• iOS 18+ — same install requirement, plus some notification-type restrictions.

If you've installed the PWA and notifications still aren't appearing:

• Open the installed PWA (the home-screen icon).
• Go to Settings → Notifications inside webmail.
• Tap Enable push notifications. Accept the iOS permission prompt.
• Test by sending yourself an email from another mailbox.

Android doesn't have this gotcha — push notifications work whether you're in Chrome or the installed PWA, as long as you've granted the permission.

Staying logged in on mobile

TrekMail webmail sessions work the same on mobile as on desktop. Your session stays active until you log out or it expires from inactivity (typically several weeks of inactivity, depending on the device's cookie persistence).

If you have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled, you'll be asked for a code on each new session — including when the session on your phone expires and you log back in. The mobile flow is the same as desktop: enter password, get prompted for 6-digit code from your authenticator app.

Tip: On a personal phone, leave the session open — it stays active for weeks of inactivity. On a shared device, always log out when you're done. There's no "lock screen / require auth on every open" inside webmail; use your device's lock screen for that.

White Label branded PWAs

If your provider runs TrekMail under their own brand via White Label Lite, the PWA experience is fully branded:

• The webmail URL is https://app.yourbrand.com/mail instead of webmail.trekmail.net.
• The default home-screen name on install is your provider's brand name, not "TrekMail".
• The home-screen icon uses the provider's favicon (derived from their uploaded logo).
• The fullscreen app shell shows the provider's brand colours, logo, and name throughout.
• Push notifications (Android) show the provider's icon and name.

If you install the PWA from webmail.trekmail.net AND a branded URL, they're treated as two separate PWAs on your device — each gets its own icon, its own session. Pick one URL to install from and stick to it, or you'll end up flipping between two icons that both go to the same mailbox.

Sharing content into webmail

Modern PWAs can accept "shared" content from other apps via the OS share sheet:

• Android: in any app, tap Share → look for TrekMail in the share list. Picking it should open the PWA with the shared text or file ready to attach to a new compose. Support varies by Android version and app.
• iOS: PWA share-target support is limited. The TrekMail PWA does not currently appear as a share-sheet target on iOS — share to a regular email composer first, then forward in webmail if needed.

This is an OS-level limitation, not a webmail one.

Troubleshooting

The "Add to Home Screen" option does not appear (iOS):

Make sure you're using Safari, not Chrome or Firefox. Apple gates PWA install behind their own browser exclusively on iOS.

The install prompt did not appear on Android:

Try opening the menu manually (⋮ → Install app). If the option still isn't there, try visiting the webmail URL a second time — Chrome sometimes waits for repeat visits before showing the install option. If still missing, your Chrome version may be too old; update it from the Play Store.

The app icon opens in a browser tab instead of fullscreen:

Remove the icon from your home screen and re-install it. The fullscreen mode is controlled by a flag set at install time; if something went wrong during install, you get a "bookmark" instead of a "PWA". Re-installing fixes it. On iOS, hold the icon and select Remove Bookmark, then follow the install steps again.

My installed PWA is showing the old logo / name after my provider changed their brand:

The PWA caches the brand icon and name at install time. If your provider updates their White Label brand settings, the change won't propagate to already-installed PWAs. Remove the icon, clear the browser's cache for that domain, re-install — the new branding picks up.

The PWA is stuck on a stale version of webmail after a TrekMail update:

Pull-to-refresh inside webmail forces a fresh load. If that doesn't help, close the PWA completely (force-quit on iOS / swipe away in recent apps on Android) and re-open. As a last resort, uninstall and reinstall the PWA.

Push notifications are silent (Android):

Check Android Settings → Apps → (the PWA) → Notifications. Make sure they're enabled at the OS level. Inside webmail, check Settings → Notifications and confirm the push permission state. If it says "Denied", you'll need to undo that in Android settings first, then reset inside webmail.

Storage is full on my phone, and the PWA stopped working:

PWAs use a small amount of local storage for the app shell and settings. If your phone's storage is critically full, the PWA may not be able to write session info, causing repeated logout. Free up space or uninstall and reinstall.

Native calendar and contacts on your phone

If you'd rather see your TrekMail calendar and contacts in your phone's native apps (instead of, or alongside, the PWA), connect them directly using CalDAV/CardDAV:

• Connect iPhone and iPad — uses the built-in iOS Calendar and Contacts apps; no extra software needed.
• Connect Android with DAVx⁵ — Android needs a free helper app from the Play Store.

Once connected, events and contacts sync both ways and you get native phone notifications for upcoming events — independent of whether the PWA is running.