I believe you are both right and wrong with this comment and it's the nub of the discussion. I sort of agree and disagree with you. Let me explain.
To me an app is a small programme or piece of software which can be downloaded and installed from the Google Play Store for, like me, Android users. When one does this one can view the installation progress just as one does with PC or laptop programmes. I have never encountered an app available in any other form and never found an app of this type for CycleChat. In my view there is no app and I have not installed it. I did this with a forum I helped run as Admin and we categorically didn't have an app and still doesn't today.
I have come across, and used, apps available in other ways.
Anything installed via an apk file is an app. The default way of getting those for Android is via the Google Play Store, but there are other sources.
BUT!!!!!
Perhaps 10 years ago I became tired of typing web addresses for forums I visit in to a browser. What I did then and still do to this day is add a short cut to my Home page. This can be done for any website on a phone/tablet by clicking the three dots top right and then "Add to Home Page/Screen" see BBC examples below. This adds a shortcut to the website but it does not install an app and is not an app.
Of course there is one person who can truly answer this debate and he's probably quietly smiling to himself every time the subject is raised.
OK, it looks like you have a shortcut rather than an app.
It also looks like it behaves very differently on different devices and/or versions of Chrome. Some people have the opportunity to install an app, some don't.
There is no doubt at all that I installed an app yesterday, on both my phone and my tablet. The results when tapping on the icon for it are very different to a browser shortcut.
