ClickUp helps your teams and team managers to plan, track and manage any type of work for your project management needs. It’s simple to use, and it offers most of the features your teams require to get things done.
But did you know ClickUp has a desktop application that includes at least one feature your teams could seriously benefit from? The app is available for Linux, macOS and Windows, and it adds native desktop notifications to the experience. That feature alone is worth installing the desktop application.
Think about it: You use ClickUp every day to stay ahead of your project’s demanding schedule. Although you can get notifications in the browser, for that to work, you have to have the ClickUp tab running and your browser configured to allow desktop notifications. If your browser doesn’t allow you to configure per-site notifications, you could easily be inundated with them.
SEE: Hiring kit: Project manager (TechRepublic Premium)
That’s why I choose to go the desktop application route. Using ClickUp this way, I can rest assured I will receive all notifications associated with my tasks, even with the ClickUp app minimized and out of my way. On top of that, using the app means I’m not adding yet another tab to my already crowded browser. That’s a benefit that can not be overlooked.
What you’ll need to install the ClickUp desktop application
The only things you’ll need for this are a valid ClickUp account and a desktop or laptop to install it on. I’m going to primarily demonstrate on Linux, because the installations for both macOS and Windows are very straightforward.
How to install the ClickUp desktop application
As I mentioned earlier, the installation for both macOS and Windows is very simple. All you need to do is download the respective installer file from the ClickUp download page, double-click on the installer file and walk through the easy-to-use installation wizard.
For Linux, the installation is a bit different, because ClickUp only offers an AppImage. That’s fine: It will run on any Linux distribution and the process for using it is the same.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Download the Linux AppImage from the ClickUp download page and save the file to your home directory.
- Open a terminal window and give the AppImage executable permission with the command
chmod u+x ClickUp*.AppImage. - Copy the AppImage into a directory contained within your user $PATH with a command like
cp ClickUp*.AppImage ~/.local/bin/clickup
Here’s what we’ve done:
- Downloaded and saved the AppImage to your home directory.
- Given the app executable permission so you can launch it.
- Copied the AppImage to a directory in your user $PATH and renamed it such that ClickUp can be run from anywhere with the command
clickup.
There are now two ways you can open ClickUp on Linux. First, you can click the AppImage file in your home directory. Second, you can issue the command clickup.
When you first run the app on Linux, you’ll be presented with a window asking if you’d like to integrate the app with the desktop. What this will do is add a ClickUp launcher to your desktop menu. When prompted (Figure A), click Integrate and Run.
Figure A
Regardless of what operating system you use, you’ll then be presented with the ClickUp login window (Figure B).
Figure B
Once you’ve logged in, you should see your projects ready to work with. You’ll also be greeted with a request to enable desktop notifications (Figure C).
Figure C
If you want to receive desktop notifications for your projects, click Enable when prompted. After taking care of that, you can start working with ClickUp as you would within your web browser — just without the extra tabs and the bonus of more reliable notifications.
A better experience
From my perspective, the desktop app for ClickUp makes for a much better overall experience. Not only am I outside of the constraints of my web browser, but I can also count on the notifications to actually appear even when my web browser is closed. Give the ClickUp desktop app a try and see if it doesn’t become your default method of interacting with your projects.
Subscribe to TechRepublic’s How To Make Tech Work on YouTube for all the latest tech advice for business pros from Jack Wallen.
