What is the keyboard shortcut for fullscreen?

F11 on Windows and Linux in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, and Control plus Command plus F on macOS including Safari. Pressing the same combination again exits. On laptops whose top row defaults to media keys, F11 may need the Fn key held down alongside it.

How do I exit fullscreen in a browser?

Press Escape, or use the same shortcut that entered it. When a page requested fullscreen itself rather than the browser window being expanded, some browsers require Escape to be held briefly. This is a deliberate protection against pages that try to trap the user.

Can I make a website fullscreen on an iPhone?

Safari on iPhone does not support fullscreen for ordinary page elements. The practical workaround is to add the page to the Home Screen from the share sheet and launch it from that icon, which opens it without Safari's toolbars. On iPad, element fullscreen does work.

Does fullscreen stop my screen turning off?

No. Fullscreen only changes what is displayed, not the system's power behaviour, so the display still blanks when its timeout expires. Keeping the screen on requires either a page that holds a screen wake lock or a change to the operating system's power settings.

Fullscreen Clock In Every Browser

A clock loses most of its usefulness when it shares the screen with a tab strip, an address bar, a bookmarks row and a notification badge. A fullscreen clock gets rid of all of it, leaving digits large enough to read from the back of a room or the other side of a desk. Getting there takes one keystroke on a desktop and rather more thought on a phone, and the details differ by browser and operating system.

This article covers the shortcuts on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, what the Fullscreen API is doing behind those shortcuts, how to leave fullscreen again, and the snags that catch people out. The fullscreen display mode is built for exactly this, with nothing on the page competing with the time.

What Does A Fullscreen Clock Actually Do?

A fullscreen clock asks the browser to hand one element the whole screen. The Fullscreen API lets a page request that a chosen element expand to fill the display, hiding the browser's own interface and the operating system's taskbar or dock, and the browser confirms the change with a brief on-screen notice.

There are two routes to the same appearance and they are not identical. The browser's own fullscreen command, bound to F11 on most desktop platforms, expands the entire browser window. The Fullscreen API, triggered by a control on the page, expands a single element and gives the page a signal when the state changes, which is what lets a fullscreen clock resize its digits to fill whatever space it has just been handed. For a clock the second is usually better, because the page can adapt its layout rather than merely being stretched.

How Do You Get A Fullscreen Clock In Chrome, Edge And Firefox?

Press F11 on Windows and Linux, or Control plus Command plus F on macOS. The same shortcut works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and most Chromium-based browsers, and pressing it again returns the window to its previous size and position.

The menu route exists too, and is worth knowing when a keyboard is awkward to reach. In Chrome and Edge the three-dot menu has a zoom row with a fullscreen icon at its right-hand end. In Firefox the hamburger menu carries the same control. On a laptop with a function-key row that defaults to media controls, F11 may need the Fn key held alongside it, which is the single most common reason the shortcut appears not to work.

A Fullscreen Clock In Safari On macOS

Safari uses Control plus Command plus F, the same shortcut as the other macOS browsers, and also offers the green traffic-light button at the top left of the window. Either route puts the window into its own macOS full-screen space.

That last detail is worth understanding, because macOS full screen behaves differently from the Windows equivalent. A full-screen window becomes a separate space, reachable by swiping between desktops, which is convenient for a fullscreen clock you want to keep running alongside other work but surprising if you expected the window simply to grow. Moving the mouse to the top of the screen brings the menu bar and the browser toolbar back temporarily without leaving full screen at all.

Fullscreen Clock On Mobile

A fullscreen clock on mobile is less consistent than on desktop and depends heavily on the platform. Android browsers support the Fullscreen API in the ordinary way, so a control on the page can expand it; Safari on iPhone does not offer fullscreen for ordinary page elements, so a different approach is needed there.

The options, in rough order of how well they work:

Android, Chrome or Firefox: use the page's own fullscreen control. The status bar and navigation bar both hide, giving the whole panel to the clock.
iPhone, Safari: add the page to the Home Screen from the share sheet, then launch it from the resulting icon. It opens without Safari's toolbars, which is as close to a fullscreen clock as iOS allows.
iPad, Safari: element fullscreen works, and the same Home Screen trick is available as a fallback.
Any phone left running: set the auto-lock or screen timeout to a longer value, or let the page hold a wake lock, or the display will blank within a minute regardless of how it was opened.

Rotating the phone to landscape gives a fullscreen clock noticeably larger digits, since a clock is wider than it is tall. Turn off auto-rotate afterwards so the layout does not flip when the phone is picked up.

Leaving A Fullscreen Clock And Common Snags

Escape leaves a fullscreen clock in every desktop browser, and F11 or Control plus Command plus F toggles back out. Some browsers require a deliberate press-and-hold of Escape when a page entered fullscreen itself, which is a deliberate protection against pages that trap the user.

A few other things trip people up:

Fullscreen needs a user gesture: the Fullscreen API can only be invoked in response to a click or key press, so a page cannot go fullscreen on load. This is a security rule, not a bug.
The Fn key: on many laptops the top row sends media keys by default and F11 needs Fn held with it.
The wrong monitor: fullscreen fills the display the window is currently on, so move the window before pressing the shortcut. Multi-screen setups are covered in running a clock on a second monitor.
Notifications on top: system notifications can still appear over a fullscreen window. Enable do-not-disturb before a presentation or an exam.
The screen sleeping anyway: fullscreen does not by itself keep a display awake, which is a separate request entirely.

Keeping A Fullscreen Clock Awake

Fullscreen and staying awake are two different things. A fullscreen clock will still blank when the operating system's display timeout expires, because filling the screen tells the system nothing about whether anyone is watching it.

The browser's answer is the Screen Wake Lock API, which a page can use to ask the system to keep the display on while the page is visible. It is well suited to a clock left running during a meeting or a workout. For a permanent installation it is more reliable to change the operating system's power settings, or to run the machine in kiosk mode as described in kiosk clock displays. The battery and burn-in cost of keeping a screen lit is weighed up in screen wake lock and battery.

Conclusion

A fullscreen clock is one keystroke away on any desktop: F11 on Windows and Linux, Control plus Command plus F on macOS, Escape to come back. Mobile is less uniform, with Android supporting the Fullscreen API directly and iPhone users better served by adding the page to the Home Screen. Move the window to the display you want before you press anything, silence notifications, and remember that filling the screen does not stop it sleeping. Open the fullscreen display mode or the plain live clock, and see the other displays on livetime.now.

How To Get A Fullscreen Clock In Every Browser