Web apps do not use custom icons or name and are not pinnable to dash (except on first launch)

[polibear]

Using Ubuntu 24.04.2.

The first time a newly created webapp launches, it shows up correctly in the dash icons; that is, it has the icon I assigned to it, the name I assigned to it, and I can right-click it to pin it to the dash.

All subsequent times I try and launch it (even by clicking on the icon I had pinned from the first launch), it does not show up as an instance of the correct assigned icon, it shows up as a duplicate of the Webapp Manager icon in the lower part of the dash, with a name like "chrome-messages.google.com__web_conversations-Default" or "chrome-app.ynab.com__-Default", and when right-clicked does not have a pin-to-dash menu option available.

[Hyrules]

I'm having the same issue here on Endeavour OS arch. Before last version I was able to pin my applications to my panel and run them but now when I click on the old icon of the app it opens a new one which is the default icon for Webapp-manager and start the app separately.

OS: EndeavourOS Linux x86_64
Host: MS-7D69 1.0
Kernel: 6.16.5-arch1-1
Uptime: 19 mins
Packages: 1758 (pacman), 17 (flatpak)
Shell: bash 5.3.3
Resolution: 3840x2160
DE: Plasma 6.4.4
WM: kwin
Theme: Breeze-Dark [GTK2], Breeze [GTK3]
Icons: Tela-purple-dark [GTK2/3]
Terminal: konsole
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (16) @ 5.271GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Memory: 9376MiB / 63894MiB

Name : webapp-manager
Version : 1.4.3-1
Description : Run websites as if they were apps
Architecture : any
URL : https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager
Licenses : GPL-3.0-or-later
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : dconf python-beautifulsoup4 python-configobj python-gobject python-pillow python-setproctitle python-tldextract xapp
Optional Deps : None
Required By : None
Optional For : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Installed Size : 5.33 MiB
Packager : Unknown Packager
Build Date : Tue Aug 26 18:12:28 2025
Install Date : Tue Aug 26 18:12:30 2025
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Install Script : No
Validated By : None

The image under is supposed to be Messenger and the W is actually messenger running.

[Angelus187]

I also have the same issue. Tried all kind of browsers with all the same result except for Thorium. Problem his, it is realy out of date. Using version 130.x of chromium.

I'm on CachyOS.

[ser-drephs]

Same issue with Arch and Brave as Web Apps Browser. All show up as one app - for me it's Teams - if the app is not started in an isolated instance.

In isolated instance mode it works as expected, but not very usefull if you plan on using Teams and the likes as these web apps.

[ser-drephs]

As this issue annoyed the hell out of me - I searched for a workaround for my specific configuration. It "works" with Chromium browser, KDE Plasma on base Arch:

1. KDE Windows rules
2. "Add new..."
3. "Detect Window Properties" of your web app
4. "Add Property..." > "Desktop file name"
5. Set it to the created WebApp-*.desktop (!)

Example: Windows class chromium chrome-outlook.office.com__mail_-Default -> Desktop file name WebApp-MicrosoftOutlook0598.desktop.

Idea Source

[Hyrules]

Seems to work for me. Here is what the rule is like in KDE :

You can detect the Window class with the tool. For me it's brave so change this for yours.

EDIT : You can ignore the position values. They are for my setup so the window is positioned properly on startup.

Thanks for this.

[Hyrules]

Well this isn't working anymore... My rule is exactly as stated and now the Desktop file name is the right one but still shows me a generic Icon for wayland apps.

OS: EndeavourOS Linux x86_64 
Host: MS-7D69 1.0 
Kernel: 6.17.6-arch1-1 
Uptime: 1 hour, 52 mins 
Packages: 1875 (pacman), 23 (flatpak) 
Shell: bash 5.3.3 
Resolution: 3840x2160 
DE: Plasma 6.5.1 
WM: kwin 
Theme: Breeze-Dark [GTK2], Breeze [GTK3] 
Icons: breeze-dark [GTK2/3] 
Terminal: konsole 
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (16) @ 5.271GHz 
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 
Memory: 10925MiB / 63893MiB 

I found another fix :

1. Edit the application in plasma Kde (right click on it in the launcher "Edit Application..."
2. change the command line argument --name by adding .desktop at the end like ser-drephs suggested.
3. Start or restart the web app

Like this :

[recrm]

I was having a similar issue and after some experimentation figured out a few things. I'm in KDE and whenever I install a browser natively the task manager icon will appear as the browser icon after loading the web app. However, if I install a flatpak version of the same browser the icon appears correctly as the icon in the desktop file.

I believe this is a KDE issue and not a webapp-manager issue as the same issue appears when running terminal applications. If you create a desktop file for a terminal application. The task bar icon will appear as the terminal icon and not the desktop icon while running.

Anyways, just leaving this here in case someone else finds this thread through search (as I did). Installing the browser as a flatpak worked for me and might work for you.