PRODUCTIVITY HACKS
5 Taps to Turn any Web-app into a Mac App with Chrome
A quick productivity hack surprisingly few people know about
If you are like me, you use a lot of web applications like Asana, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc. You also probably have a few dozen tabs open, so finding these apps can be a pain. The result is the same application is opened many times slowing your machine and if one of those tabs is a Google Meet video conference, good luck finding mute/ unmute in a reasonable time.
Aside from the hidden aspect of tabs, I also love and miss the convenience of Mac apps to just press Command + Tab to navigate between apps or to quickly tap on the Mac Dock. The move to web apps in tabs left me always frustrated that my conveniences of quick app navigation got lost.
Solution: Turn any Web App into a Mac App
It turns out there is a remarkably easy solution to this if you use the Chrome browser, yet most people I speak with don’t know about it, so I thought I’d show how I do it.
Follow these 5 easy steps once you are on the web app:
- Tap the button with the 3 dots next to your profile picture in the top right corner of Chrome
- Select “More Tools”
- Select “Create Shortcut”
- Check “Open as a Window”
- Tap “Create”
You will notice the web app will pop out into a new window, just like a native app. Right-click on it in the Dock at the bottom of your screen and select “Options” > “Keep in Dock” so it’s easy to access in the future. Even if you don’t do this you can use Spotlight to find it later.
I’ve done this for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Asana (two separate ones for personal vs work profiles), and Whisk. This also works for specific files you may want to quickly pull up. For instance, I have a Google Doc for a Stream of Quick Notes. I turned that individual document into a Mac app, so I can always tap on the taskbar and get right to my notes.
Hopefully, this productivity hack brings you as much joy as it has brought me!
