# Desktop app

> Find out what the Whorl desktop app is today, what it adds to the web app, and how to work in Whorl without it.

Source: https://docs.whorl.work/desktop

Whorl runs fully in a web browser, including at phone width. A desktop app also exists, built with Electron for Apple-silicon Macs. Today it is an unsigned preview that Whorl builds by hand, and there is no public download. Use Whorl in your browser unless your company gives you a preview build.

> This page describes the preview app so that you know what it does if you are given one. Nothing here is needed to use Whorl.

## What the preview adds

The desktop app opens the same Whorl you see in the browser, plus a few things a browser cannot do:

- **Ask Whorl bar.** A floating bar that works over any other app. Press ⌘⇧Space to say what you want done. It needs [Voice](/voice), an experimental feature, to be on.
- **Native notifications** for mentions, Requests and updates. See [Activity and Requests](/activity).
- **Always-on-top huddle window** when Whorl is not in front, for companies that use [Huddles](/huddles).
- **Switch Space by number.** In the desktop app, ⌘1 to ⌘9 switch Spaces, listed in **Settings → Shortcuts**.

On first use of voice features on a Mac, the app asks for microphone access. If you refused it, the app offers to open System Settings at the Microphone pane.

## Sign in

The desktop app signs you in through your browser. Choose **Sign in** in the app, finish signing in on the Whorl page that opens, and return to the app. If no page opened, choose **Sign in** again.

## Without the desktop app

Everything else is available in the browser: Threads, Captains, Notes, Files, Mail, Calendar, Conversations and Settings. [Keyboard shortcuts](/reference/shortcuts) lists the shortcuts that work in both.