Hello there, reporters! This is another tool I’ve been aware of for quite a while (literally years), and just never really thought it was worthwhile enough for its own post.
That was until I moved abroad, and started needing to manage messages on more than half a dozen platforms, ranging from Twitter DMs to WhatsApp to Slack mentions. When I started using Instagram DMs for work, I finally put Fluid into action.
Fluid is a desktop app that makes desktop apps out of websites. That might seem pretty simple, and it is. (Remember when we would all make Desktop Shortcuts for all our new programs on Windows?)
But the key advantage to Fluid is that many services don’t have desktop apps, or you don’t have permission to install them on a computer. It would never occur to me, for instance, to open up IG for messages, but a button in my menu bar made it much easier to keep up with.
The “apps” that Fluid creates are more like self-contained websites – but you get the idea. Unfortunately, it’s Mac only.
If you’re a Chrome user, you can do something similar using the Create Shortcut feature, but I found that Fluid is more precise and lets you specify your icon. Streamline your desktop, reporters!