Fokus

Desktop app

The same Fokus, in a native shell — with a global capture hotkey, a floating timer, and the menu-bar tray.

The desktop app runs the full Fokus experience in its own window: same views, same shortcuts, same everything. What makes it worth installing is the handful of things a web page simply can't do — reach you when Fokus isn't the app you're looking at.

This page covers only what's different from the web app. Everything else works exactly as documented in Core Views and the rest of this guide.

Get it

Download from the profile menu → Download App, for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It updates itself in the background.

Quick Capture — capture without leaving anything

The headline feature. Press Cmd/Ctrl++K anywhere on your computer — in your editor, your browser, a meeting — and a small frameless window drops in over whatever you're doing:

The Quick Capture window: a single input with Create, Autocomplete, and Close hints

It speaks the same token syntax as Spotlight — a leading . for a task, : for an event — with the tokens turning into colored chips as you type, and inline autocomplete for buckets, dates, and durations:

Quick Capture parsing '.Draft the launch tweet #Website +tomorrow 9am !high =30m' into chips, with a duration autocomplete open

Enter creates it and the window disappears. accepts the autocomplete, cancels — and clicking away closes it too. The thought is captured; you never left what you were doing.

The floating timer

Start a timer on any task and it can pop out into a small always-on-top window that follows you across apps — so time stays visible while you're deep in the actual work:

The floating timer bar showing a running task, elapsed time, pause, and stop

The task, the elapsed time, pause, and stop — nothing more. Toggle it with Cmd/Ctrl++T, drag it wherever it doesn't bother you, and it remembers the spot.

The menu-bar tray

The Fokus icon lives in your macOS menu bar (or Windows system tray) and answers "what now?" without opening the app. Its menu shows what's happening right now — the current task or meeting with its time range, a Join Meeting link when there is one, or a cheerful "⛵ Nothing scheduled right now" — plus what's Next. During a Scribe recording it shows "🔴 Recording meeting…" with a stop button.

From it you can jump to ⚡ Quick Capture, 🚢 Open Navigator (Spotlight), Preferences…, or quit.

Global shortcuts

Three shortcuts work system-wide, whatever app is in front:

ShortcutDoes
Cmd/Ctrl++KQuick Capture
Cmd/Ctrl+KOpen the Fokus Navigator (Spotlight)
Cmd/Ctrl++TToggle the floating timer

Rebind them in Settings → General → Quick Capture Shortcut (that section only appears in the desktop app).

Other desktop-only touches

  • Meeting Scribe recording. Live, bot-free meeting recording needs the desktop app, because it captures system audio — see Meeting Scribe.
  • Native notifications. Reminders and briefings arrive through your OS notification center, not a browser tab.
  • fokus:// deep links. Links from emails and the web open the right screen in the app.
  • Auto-update. New versions download in the background and install on restart.

How is this guide?

On this page