Adding duplicate icon

[strycat]

I have an iPad Air 2. I want to have the FaceTime icon both down in the bottom bar and up top on the home screen. How do I make a copy and add it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[J. A.]

Welcome to iPF!

It's not possible to copy/duplicate apps on a stock iPad. You'll have to decide where to put the icon, it can't be on both places.

 

[dhewson777]

Once added to the bottom "frequently used" bar, it remains available no matter which of your home screens are active, so having on the home screen also is moot.

 

[twerppoet]

Well, it's not completely impossible, but you're going to have to use a very powerful utility to do something rather trivial, and it's not a one-step setup.

The Workflow app can create automated scripts to do some amazing things. One small thing it can do is launch an app. And it can do so from a icon it creates on the home screen (using Safari's ability to create links on home screens). It can even be made to look a little bit like the FaceBook icon.

But it does take a few seconds longer to launch, since it has another app and a script to run before it can launch FaceBook.

It seems like a lot of trouble to do something that, as dhewson777 pointed out, has little utility; but if you really need it and are willing to buy the Workflow app to make it happen, I'll talk you through the setup.

There might be a simpler, cheaper, or even free app that will do the same thing, but I haven't heard of it.

 

[strycat]

Thanks for the quick replies. Unfortunately the iPad is being used for the general public to reach our staff. If we don't have the icon in both places, people say they can't find it. So looks like we'll have to use this Workflow app. Thanks again!

If I figure it out, I'll post the solution here.

 

[dhewson777]

If the iPad is only being used for FaceTime, you could use Guided Access to "lock" the iPad to the FaceTime app.

 

[strycat]

Guided Access would work except we have this requirement that we also have to offer Google Hangouts as well. So we can't just lock it down to one app. Maybe my question should be how to lock it down to two apps.

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for the quick replies. Unfortunately the iPad is being used for the general public to reach our staff. If we don't have the icon in both places, people say they can't find it. So looks like we'll have to use this Workflow app. Thanks again!

If I figure it out, I'll post the solution here.

Then the Workflow app may work even better for you than I thought. It would be possible to create a workflow to automatically post to your FaceBook page.

https://workflow.is

Another thought is you could create a form that automatically adds to a Google Spreadsheet, for gathering information. There are a lot of things that would become possible with Workflow, if you have the time to learn how to set it up.

 

[dhewson777]

Hey TP, the OP needs FaceTime, not Facebook

 

[twerppoet]

Hey TP, the OP needs FaceTime, not Facebook

My mistake. But even better. There's actually an action for making FaceTime calls. You can either set the call number so it only calls the right person, or you can have it call up the Contacts lists and select the contact.

As a bonus, you can make the icon look almost exactly like the real FaceTime icon.

Here's how it looks if you add a contact selection action before the FaceTime call.

You can use a different action to select a contact, which would allow you to create a separate icon for each contact you want the customer to be able to call. And there is nothing stopping you from making multiple icons that go to the same workflow.

In other words, you could hide the real FaceTime icon and only show the customer icons for contacts you want them to call, on as many screens you you'd like.

This is a very easy workflow to create; once you understand how the app works. Only two steps.