Why TrackMyRupee Lives on Your Home Screen, Not the App Store
And why that is actually a better decision for you
You might have noticed that TrackMyRupee is not on the Google Play Store. It is not on the Apple App Store either.
If your first reaction was "then how do I use it on my phone?" - this blog post is for you.
The short answer is: install it from your browser in about 30 seconds, and it sits on your home screen, looks like a native app, works offline, and takes up a fraction of the storage. No app store. No download. No waiting.
This is called a Progressive Web App, or PWA. And it was a very deliberate decision on our part.
First, What Exactly is a PWA?
A Progressive Web App is a website that behaves like a mobile app.
When you add TrackMyRupee to your home screen as a PWA, it:
- Opens in full screen with no browser address bar
- Works offline or with poor internet (common during Pune rains or Mumbai metro tunnels)
- Sends you notifications like a native app
- Loads in under 2 seconds even on older phones
- Looks and feels identical to any app you have downloaded from the Play Store
The only difference is it never went through an app store. It came directly from the web to your phone. No middleman.
Why We Chose PWA Over a Native App
This was not a lazy decision or a cost-cutting move. We thought about it carefully.
Here is our honest reasoning.
1. App Stores Are a Privacy Risk We Were Not Willing to Take
To publish on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, apps have to declare every permission they request. Location, contacts, SMS, storage, camera. The stores encourage this because more permissions mean more features which means higher ratings.
TrackMyRupee's entire philosophy is that we do not want your SMS, your contacts, your bank messages, or anything else we do not need. A native app on the Play Store would have faced constant pressure to add auto-sync features, SMS reading, and bank integrations to compete with Moneyview and ET Money.
A PWA removes that pressure entirely. We cannot read your SMS through a PWA even if we wanted to. The architecture enforces the privacy promise.
2. No App Store Means No 30% Tax on Your Subscription
Apple takes 30% of every subscription purchased through an iOS app. Google takes 15 to 30% on the Play Store.
TrackMyRupee Pro costs Rs. 499 per year. If we sold that through the App Store, Apple would take Rs. 150 and you would still pay Rs. 499. That money either reduces what we can invest in the product or forces us to raise prices.
By going PWA, the full Rs. 499 goes into making TrackMyRupee better. No commission, no middleman, no markup.
3. Updates Reach You Instantly
When we fix a bug or ship a feature, you get it the moment you open the app. No waiting for App Store review. No "Update Available" notification you ignore for three weeks. No version fragmentation where some users are on the old version and some on the new one.
We push an update at 11pm. By morning, every single TrackMyRupee user is on the latest version. That is simply not possible with native apps.
4. One Codebase, Every Device
A native Android app and a native iOS app are two separate codebases that need to be maintained separately. For a founder-built product, that means half the features get built twice, bugs get fixed twice, and the experience slowly diverges between platforms.
With a PWA, the code that runs on your iPhone is the same code that runs on your Android and on your laptop. Every improvement benefits everyone simultaneously.
5. Your Phone Storage Is Precious
The average Indian smartphone has 64GB of storage. Between WhatsApp media, photos, and a dozen apps, that fills up fast. A native finance app typically takes 80 to 200MB of storage.
TrackMyRupee as a PWA takes under 5MB. It respects your storage the same way it respects your privacy — by taking only what it needs.
What You Can Do With TrackMyRupee as a PWA
Before we get to the installation steps, here is what you actually get once it is on your home screen.
Works offline. Log expenses even without internet. The app syncs when you are back online. Useful when you are at a dhaba in the hills or in a basement parking lot.
Home screen icon. Tap it like any other app. It opens instantly without opening the browser first.
Full screen experience. No browser address bar, no browser tabs. Just the app, edge to edge.
Push notifications. Budget alerts, upcoming subscription reminders, daily logging reminders. All the notifications a native app would send.
Fast loading. Under 2 seconds on a typical 4G connection. Under 1 second on WiFi.
Auto updates. Every time you open the app, it silently checks for updates and applies them in the background.
How to Add TrackMyRupee to Your Home Screen
On Android (Chrome Browser)
Chrome is the default browser on most Android phones. If you use Samsung Internet or Firefox, the steps are slightly different but the idea is the same.
Step 1. Open Chrome on your Android phone and go to trackmyrupee.com
Step 2. Log in to your account or try the demo first at trackmyrupee.com/demo
Step 3. Look at the bottom of your Chrome browser. A small banner should appear saying "Add TrackMyRupee to Home Screen" or "Install App." Tap it.
Step 4. If the banner does not appear automatically, tap the three dots (menu) in the top right corner of Chrome.
Step 5. From the menu, tap "Add to Home Screen" or "Install App." Both options do the same thing.
Step 6. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm. Tap "Add" or "Install."
Step 7. Done. Go to your home screen and you will see the TrackMyRupee icon sitting there like any other app.
Total time: under 30 seconds.
Tip for Android users: If you are using Samsung Internet browser, the option will say "Add page to" and then "Home screen." On Mi browsers it works the same way as Chrome.
On iPhone and iPad (Safari Browser)
On iOS, only Safari supports PWA installation. Chrome and other browsers on iPhone cannot install PWAs due to Apple's restrictions. So make sure you use Safari for this.
Step 1. Open Safari on your iPhone or iPad. Not Chrome, not Firefox. Safari specifically.
Step 2. Go to trackmyrupee.com and log in to your account.
Step 3. Look at the bottom of the Safari browser. Tap the Share button. It looks like a square with an arrow pointing upward. It is in the middle of the bottom toolbar.
Step 4. A menu will slide up from the bottom of the screen with various sharing options.
Step 5. Scroll down in this menu until you see "Add to Home Screen." Tap it.
Step 6. You will see a preview of the icon and the app name. You can rename it if you want. Tap "Add" in the top right corner.
Step 7. Done. Go to your home screen and find the TrackMyRupee icon.
Total time: under 45 seconds.
Tip for iPhone users: If you are on iOS 16 or earlier, the Share button looks slightly different but is in the same location. On iPad, the Share button is in the top right corner of the Safari toolbar, not the bottom.
Important: If you open TrackMyRupee in Chrome on your iPhone and try to install it, it will not work. Apple only allows Safari to install PWAs on iOS. This is an Apple restriction, not ours.
On Desktop or Laptop (Chrome, Edge, or Brave)
Yes, you can install TrackMyRupee as a desktop app too. Useful if you want to log expenses quickly from your laptop without opening a browser tab.
Step 1. Open Chrome, Edge, or Brave on your laptop and go to trackmyrupee.com
Step 2. Look at the right end of the browser address bar. You will see a small icon that looks like a monitor with a download arrow, or a small plus sign inside a circle. Click it.
Step 3. A dialog will appear saying "Install TrackMyRupee?" Click "Install."
Step 4. TrackMyRupee will open in its own window, separate from your browser. It will also appear in your taskbar and Start Menu (Windows) or Applications folder (Mac).
Step 5. From now on, you can open it like any other desktop application.
Tip: On Mac with Chrome, if you do not see the install icon in the address bar, go to the three dots menu in the top right and look for "Cast, save and share" and then "Install Page as App."
Frequently Asked Questions
Will it work without internet?
Yes. You can log expenses offline and they will sync the next time you have a connection. The dashboard may show slightly stale data offline but logging always works.
Does it drain my battery?
No more than any other app. PWAs are actually more battery-efficient than native apps because they do not run background processes unnecessarily.
Will I lose my data if I uninstall it?
No. Your data lives on our servers, not on your device. Uninstalling the PWA is like closing a tab. Log back in from any browser and everything is exactly where you left it.
My phone asked for permission to send notifications. Should I allow it?
Yes, if you want budget alerts, subscription reminders, and daily logging nudges. You can manage these permissions anytime from your phone settings.
It is not showing up on Play Store searches. How do I find it?
You cannot find PWAs on the Play Store. That is by design. Go to trackmyrupee.com in Chrome on your Android phone and install from there. Once installed, it will appear in your app drawer and home screen exactly like any Play Store app.
Is it safe? How do I know it is the real app?
The URL will always be trackmyrupee.com. Look for the padlock icon in your browser before installing. This confirms you are on the genuine, secure website. Since TrackMyRupee is open source, you can also verify the code on GitHub at any time.
The Honest Tradeoff
We want to be transparent about what PWAs cannot do compared to native apps.
On iPhone specifically, PWAs have some limitations that Apple imposes. Background sync is more restricted than on Android. Some advanced notification features may not work on older iOS versions. Apple has been slowly improving PWA support with each iOS update, and we expect these limitations to reduce over time.
On Android, the PWA experience is nearly identical to a native app. Google has been investing heavily in PWA support and it shows.
If you are on Android, you will not feel like you are missing anything compared to a native app. If you are on iPhone, you might notice the occasional limitation, but the core experience of tracking expenses, viewing your dashboard, and seeing your financial story works beautifully.
One Last Thing
We could have built a native app. We chose not to.
Not because it was easier or cheaper. Because staying on the web means we stay honest. No app store pressures us to add SMS reading to compete. No 30% commission pressures us to raise prices. No separate codebases mean we can focus entirely on making one great product.
The PWA is not a compromise. It is the product working exactly as intended.
If you have any trouble installing it, drop us a message from the app or reach us at the contact details below. We respond personally.
Try the live demo first if you have not already: trackmyrupee.com/demo
Written by Omkar Pathak. I am the founder and developer of TrackMyRupee, a privacy-first expense tracker built in Pune for Indian salaried professionals. No SMS access. No bank login. No app store. Just your financial story, told honestly. More at omkarpathak.in