“Is there an app?”, a lot of people keep asking me. The answer is short and simple: Nope.

I get it: We all carry our phones and tablets around all day. Wouldn’t it be super handy if a simple app icon on our home screen helps us escape our boredom whenever the Doppelkopf itch hits?

Doppelkopf Club live in the browser, and that’s bringing a few really cool advantages:

• The site works on every somewhat modern device, as long as you’ve got a browser.
• You can simply bookmark the site and visit it again and again.
• You can share it with friends, just send them a link.
• You don’t need to install anything and don’t need to wait for updates.
• Quite selfishly: I don’t need to noodle around with Apple’s and Google’s app stores, nor do I need to worry about versioning and distribution of apps.

🤫 Wanna hear a secret?

If it’s too tedious for you to type doppelkopf.club you can also use doko.club 😉

If you prefer a proper app icon so you’ve got Doppelkopf Club on quick-dial, I’ve got a little something for you. In the last few days I experimented a bit and turned the site into a Progressive Web App. Plainly speaking that means: If you open the site with a suitable browser, you can install it similarly to a native app. You get an app icon alongside your regular apps and can simply tap it to open Doppelkopf Club and continue learning and playing. It’s not quite as elegant as a proper native app installed from the app store (there’s also no offline support yet), but it’s something.

How exactly that works depends on your browser:

• Chrome shows a banner on your first visit, asking if you want to install the app. Otherwise you can open the browser menu when you’re on the site and tapp “Add to home screen”. Sometimes you’ll also see an “Install” button in the address bar.
• Safari on iOS: Tap the Share icon and select Add to home screen
• Safari on macOS: Tap File and select Add to Dock
• Firefox: Search for Add app to home screen in the browser menu when you’re on the site.
• Edge should show a little install icon in the address bar.

Have fun!

— Ham

Title image: You might miss the cultural reference of this classic piece of German culture, so here you go.