Desktop app

Quanta Desktop is a small native app that lives in your menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows). It runs the same timer as the web app, so a timer started on one shows up on the other, and entries it creates are marked Tracked on desktop in the list view.

Install

Updates download in the background and apply on the next restart, so there is nothing to maintain.

What it does

• Global shortcut. ⌘ ⇧ Space on Mac, Ctrl Shift Space on Windows, summons the window and toggles the timer from inside any application.
• Idle detection. Step away with the timer running and, when you come back, a prompt says No keyboard or mouse activity since 2:15 PM. The timer kept running. and offers Keep the time, Discard … and keep tracking, Split (end the entry at the idle start and begin a new one now; full time tracking only) or Stop timer at 2:15 PM. The threshold is under the settings menu → Idle detection, from 1 to 720 minutes. Detection works at the operating-system level, even while the app is tucked away in the tray.
• Real-time sync. Timers and edits flow between desktop, web and the rest of your team.
• Launch at login. A switch in the settings menu, so the timer is one click away from the moment you sit down.
• Your own shortcut and theme. Global shortcut in the settings menu records any combination with at least one modifier; the theme toggle follows or overrides the system.

Notes

• The desktop app tracks time: the entry bar with Timer and Manual modes, the same @ and # shortcuts, a week strip, the recent entries and an edit dialog. Reports, invoicing and administration stay in the web app.
• Its week strip and weekly total follow the workspace's first day of the week, and the workspace's required fields are enforced here too.
• The desktop app signs in to one workspace and has no workspace switcher. If you belong to several, use the web app for the others.
• Once you have installed it you can dismiss the Quanta Desktop promo at the bottom of the web sidebar.