📱 Installing eHealth Forum as an 'App'

You can now install the eHealth Forum as a ‘native’ App on mobile devices, with live notifications. You simply have to open ehealthforum.nz (you can use the QR code :point_right:) on your device’s native browser.

Install prompts

Every time you use the eHealth Forum on a new device, you should be prompted by a couple of messages like this:

Do you want to install eHealth Forum on this device?

Do you want live notifications when people reply to your posts? Enable Notifications

Follow the prompts, and it should just work. Post here if you have any trouble!

Notifications

With PWAs, notifications are handled via a little differently; you need to give explicit consent to receive them. If you’ve previously turned these off inadvertently, you should be able to turn them back on in your device’s notification settings.

All notifications or just chat?

You can choose whether to have notifications for all things (the default), or just for chat messages. This is controlled here in your chat settings, via this:

image

Install the Apps Manually

If you missed those install prompts, you can still install them manually:

To manually install on :Android: Android

  1. Open ehealthforum.nz (via the QR code above) in the Chrome browser on your Android device.

  2. Select the image ‘three dots’ menu in the top right.

  3. Choose ‘Install App’ and follow the instructions to put the icon where you want it on your phone.

  4. When you run this installed app, the Forum will usually ask you at that point if you want native app notifications. Say yes to this. You can set this manually here: Enable Notifications.

To manually install on :apple: iOS

  1. Open ehealthforum.nz (via the QR code above) in the Safari browser on your iOS device.

  2. Click on the image icon in the bottom part of the screen (you may need to scroll down a long way)

  3. Choose ‘Add to Home Screen’.

  4. Enable Notifications in the Forum if not prompted to automatically

Alternative: The Discourse Hub app

If you prefer, there is a more conventional (i.e. from an App store) app you can download for :android: Android or :apple: iPhone/iPad. This particular app is designed for people who are on several Discourse Forums, so isn’t a great fit for most of our users. To set it up:

  1. Click on the meta.discourse.org text first, then click the + sign above it
  2. In the grey bar that appears type ‘ehealthforum.nz
  3. Click ‘connect’, and you will be prompted to login
  4. Authorize your device to access the platform

Any questions?

Drop them in here as a reply to this Topic

3 Likes

Hi Nathan,

Do you know about the Discourse Hub app for iOS and Android that can be used to access any Discourse site as a native app, or are you deliberately not confusing people with it? I use it and it works quite nicely on my iPhone.

Cheers,
matt

I’m deliberately not confusing people with it, as it actually adds additional complexity without additional (in fact less) functionality.

Also, it doesn’t serve up notifications (at least I don’t think it does) unless one is actually hosted with Discourse, which we are not.

But perhaps I / we should at least mention it!

You may be right - I have notifications turned on for it but I didn’t get a ping for your direct messages.

Happy for you to share this. Here are the app store links for iOS and Android: