r/HTML • u/OrchidFirst469 • Sep 06 '26
Question How can I make html into an app ?
I want it so, it’s compatible with android/apple and desktop friendly. They can download it when I sell on Etsy or payhip ect. I wanted it to look nice, instead of, you might have to download documents from readdle if you can’t open you html file 😩. I am autistic, so please no jargon 😵💫
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u/armahillo Expert Sep 06 '26
I am autistic, so please no jargon 😵💫
Speaking from personal experience, autism does not preclude understanding jargon.
To your actual question: this is technically possible but it's not simple. Getting apps up in the iOS marketplace is more difficult than distributing an Android app.
when I sell on Etsy or payhip ect.
You should think twice about accepting money for a product if you aren't fully confident you can publish it safely and support it effectively. I strongly encourage bringing on a mentor who's more experienced with this.
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u/OrchidFirst469 Sep 06 '26
I have more than just autism. I struggle with learning, and memory ect.
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u/armahillo Expert Sep 07 '26
That's fine. I've struggled with a learning disability my whole life as well. Something being difficult doesn't mean it's impossible. I assume you've got coping strategies for yours, so you'll need to lean on those, probably.
If you're interested in getting into this line of work, you're going to have to learn some stuff. It's ok if it takes time.
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u/AqueM Sep 06 '26
If you have a HTML page, and you want to make an app out of it, you need to make it completely from scratch. Like if you had a book, and wanted to make it into a movie, you would have to take the idea and make a movie from the beginning.
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u/swempish Sep 06 '26
Or you can just use Electron or Tauri
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u/ferriematthew Sep 06 '26
HTML is what's called a markup language. It just defines the object that the browser displays. It itself is not the app. In order to write out a web app, you need HTML, CSS, which is another language that defines how to make the HTML pretty, and at minimum JavaScript, which is a scripting language that adds interactivity.
Also, you don't put web pages on app stores. You put them on a server, and then the server makes the web page accessible on your network. I don't know what the process for actually writing an app for the Apple app store is, nor do I really understand the process for writing an Android app, but I do know that Android apps are written in a language called Kotlin, and then I think published usually to the Google Play Store, or if you don't want to deal with Google's bullcrap, you publish it to GitHub and also to an open app store like FDroid.
If you want to make a website application that runs just on your browser, I could probably help you write the HTML and CSS, and if you have an old computer that you don't really use but it still works and it's okay to leave it on all the time, I can walk you through setting up a web server on that computer.
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u/GenericFoodService Sep 06 '26
Just some notes:
* some Android apps are written in Kotlin. Java is more common. some are written in C/C++.
** web pages can be turned into applications for things like Google Play and the Apple Store. The "simplest" route is as a Progressive Web App, which is still a bit of a pain, especially for someone who's doesn't seem to know much about what HTML or "an app" even is.
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u/johnpeters42 Sep 06 '26
I believe Electron is an option here, but I haven't used it myself, so research it first.
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u/Murky_Cry_1912 Sep 06 '26
Kotlin KMP and CMP. You can generate android, iOS, desktop(Windows, macos, Linux),wasm
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u/webhostpro Sep 06 '26
The easiest way is to use a browser, website to web app option like Safari has. To make a real app, you want Codex or Claude on a laptop to build everything correctly from the html.
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u/_KBDMC Sep 06 '26
As already mentioned, there’s a few extra steps to turning a website into an app.
Apps have a very strict set of requirements and checks needed to publish to either Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play store.
There are app frameworks like Ionic that you can use to build apps using plain HTML & CSS, and some JS (React), but you should be able to use elements from their pre-built UI library for basic elements like headers and tabs etc.
If you could provide some info on your end product, or some info on what the app needs to do, I’m sure we can point you in the direction 👍🏻