Uninstalling an installed PWA

In one line: uninstalling an installed PWA is a per-platform action — desktop Chromium browsers manage it from an apps list, iOS manages it from the Home Screen icon — and per MDN it does more than just remove a shortcut.

What it is

Per MDN’s installing-and-uninstalling guide, installing a PWA goes beyond creating a link to a page (it can register the app as a standalone window or a file handler), and MDN states uninstalling likewise does more than remove the PWA’s icon — without detailing exactly which OS-level integrations get reversed.

Where it is supported

MDN says PWAs can be uninstalled: on most mobile operating systems this works like uninstalling other applications, some mobile systems also expose an application control panel, and some desktop systems provide an uninstall action inside the opened PWA. Documented surfaces include:

• Chrome (desktop): installed PWAs are listed and managed at chrome://apps.
• Edge (desktop): installed PWAs are listed and managed at edge://apps. On some desktop operating systems, per MDN, uninstalling can also be done from inside the opened PWA itself, not only from the browser’s apps list. Per Microsoft’s own Edge PWA UX documentation, Windows also surfaces installed PWAs in the OS-level “Add or remove programs” settings, alongside native apps.
• iOS (Safari-installed): installed PWAs appear in the iOS App Library, where they can be found by search, but per MDN they are not listed in Settings alongside other installed apps. The PWA is removed the same way any Home Screen icon is removed, and the deletion confirmation indicates whether removing the icon removes a bookmark or the installed application.

How to use it

Chrome and Edge document browser-managed routes for installed PWAs. Chrome lists and manages them at chrome://apps; for Edge, Microsoft says to open edge://apps, click Open, then Details to reach the uninstall action:

Chrome: chrome://apps
Edge:   edge://apps → Open → Details → Uninstall

How to detect it at runtime

A supported and correctly configured page can check for installed related applications with getInstalledRelatedApps(), which requires the manifest to declare a matching related_applications entry and is not available on every browser or platform:

if ('getInstalledRelatedApps' in navigator) {
  const relatedApps = await navigator.getInstalledRelatedApps();
  console.log(relatedApps);
} else {
  // This installation check is unavailable here; show the documented manual routes.
  console.log('Manage the app from chrome://apps or edge://apps');
}

What goes wrong

• Do not assume every desktop browser exposes an in-app uninstall option; MDN documents that only some desktop operating systems support uninstalling from inside the opened PWA — the apps-list surface (chrome://apps, edge://apps) is the more broadly available path.
• On iOS, installed PWAs are not listed in Settings the way native apps are — instruct users to find the app in the App Library or remove the Home Screen icon, and read the deletion confirmation, since it distinguishes a bookmark from the full installed app.
• getInstalledRelatedApps() reports installed related applications only when its platform, scope, and application-relationship requirements are met; keep the documented manual management routes available as a fallback.
• MDN states uninstalling does more than remove the icon, without specifying exactly what else is reversed — do not assume a partial or manual “delete the shortcut” step is equivalent to a full uninstall.

Where to go next

• Desktop PWA installation — the install side of the OS-level integration this entry’s uninstall reverses.
• iOS Add to Home Screen — how installation (and therefore the Home Screen icon this entry removes) works on iOS.

Specifications

Specification	Status
None.