Re: [w3c/manifest] Way to detect if a web app is installed (Issue #1092)

raad-altaie left a comment (w3c/manifest#1092)

**@karlcow**  
I’ve looked into how most developers use `navigator.standalone`, especially on iOS. The majority seem to check if it's an iOS device first *and* `navigator.standalone` to show a prompt to install the native app — but that logic typically runs on the **regular website**, not the PWA itself. Once the PWA is installed and opened in standalone mode (on iOS), it generally doesn’t ask the user to download anything. So while I agree there are some compatibility risks, I think the actual real-world impact is very limited.

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**@DanielHerr**  
Yes, you're right that we shouldn't conflate "installed PWA" with "running in standalone display mode" — those are two different things. What I'm suggesting is a flag that **only** reflects whether the current app is running in a **separate window**, outside the browser UI — exactly like how Safari handles `navigator.standalone`.

If `navigator.standalone` is too ambiguous or problematic to standardize, maybe we could introduce something more explicit, like:

```js
navigator.isPWAInStandaloneMode



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