Put the ladder on your phone

Step 1

Get out of WhatsApp first

This is the step everybody misses. When you tap a link in WhatsApp it opens inside WhatsApp, not in Safari - and WhatsApp's browser cannot add anything to a home screen. Tap the three dots in the bottom right, then Open in Safari. If you opened the ladder from a text message or typed it in yourself you are already in Safari, so skip to step 2.

Step 2

Tap the share button

In Safari, at the bottom of the screen, there is a square with an arrow pointing up out of it. That is the share button. Tap it. On an iPad, and on some older iPhones, it sits at the top of the screen instead.

Step 3

Scroll down to Add to Home Screen

A grey panel slides up. Scroll it down - past Copy, past Add to Reading List - until you see Add to Home Screen, and tap that. Not there at all? Scroll to the very bottom of that list, tap Edit Actions, and switch Add to Home Screen on.

Step 4

Tap Add, and you are done

Give it a name if you like, then tap Add in the top right. The ladder is now an icon on your home screen, and opening it from there is the whole job - no link to find, no group to scroll back through.

On an Android phone

Same idea, fewer steps. If you opened the link in WhatsApp, tap the three dots and choose Open in Chrome. Then tap the three dots at the top right of Chrome and choose Add to home screen, then Install or Add.

If it still will not work

It has to be Safari on an iPhone. Chrome, Firefox and WhatsApp's own browser cannot add anything to an iPhone home screen - that is Apple's rule, not ours.

Nothing is lost either way. The ladder is an ordinary web page: you can carry on opening it from the link in the group, and everything works exactly the same. The icon just saves you looking for it.

Still stuck? Message Ian and he will sort it out.