Running Vivreal From Your Phone
Vivreal is built to be run from a phone. Not a cut-down companion version with three features, the actual thing: write a post, publish it, check an order, approve a teammate's draft, edit your site.
You can add it to your home screen so it opens like any other app.
1. Open Vivreal in your phone's browser
Go to vivreal.io/app and sign in as normal.
2. Add it to your home screen
On Android, a prompt appears offering to install it. Tap Install.
On iPhone or iPad, use Safari and do it yourself, because Apple does not allow the prompt:
- Tap the Share icon
- Choose Add to Home Screen
- Open Vivreal from your home screen
3. Open it from your home screen
It launches full screen with its own icon, with no browser bars around it. To anyone using it, it is an app.
There is nothing to find in the App Store
Vivreal is not in the App Store or Play Store, and you are not missing a download. Installing from the browser gets you the same thing.
It also means there is no separate app to keep updated. You always have the current version, because there is only ever one.
About that prompt
A few things worth knowing, mostly so none of it looks broken:
- It only appears on a phone or tablet. Desktop never shows it, deliberately.
- If you already installed it, it stops asking.
- If you dismiss it, it waits a day before offering again rather than nagging you.
If you dismissed it and want it now, you do not need to wait. On iPhone use Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, your browser's menu has an install or Add to Home screen option.
What you can actually do from a phone
All of it. The parts worth knowing about:
| From your phone | Where |
|---|---|
| Write and publish a post | Quick Create |
| Approve a teammate's draft | Approvals |
| Check orders and mark them fulfilled | Your payment channel, Stripe or Square |
| Reply to Instagram comments and messages | |
| Edit your site | Studio |
Studio deserves a note. Editing a whole site on a phone screen is genuinely possible and people do it, but if you are doing a big first build, a larger screen will be less work. Studio has a mobile preview button either way, which is worth using whatever you are editing on, since most of your visitors will be on a phone.
If something is not working
- No install prompt on Android. You may have dismissed it within the last day, or it is already installed. Use your browser's menu instead.
- No prompt on iPhone. There is not one, by Apple's rules. Use Share, then Add to Home Screen.
- The Share menu has no Add to Home Screen. You are probably not in Safari. iOS only offers it there.
- You cannot find it in the App Store. It is not there. See above.
Next steps
- Dashboard tour, for what everything on the home screen does.
- Quick Create, the fastest thing to try first.