Turn Asana into a native Mac app with Fluid
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If you’re like me, you might have thought, “I really wish I didn’t have to open a browser or switch browser windows every time I want to check Asana.” I hoped Asana, Inc. would make a native Mac app so I didn’t have to deal with this, but it wasn’t on their radar.
Fortunately, I discovered an incredible free piece of software called Fluid. Fluid basically turns web apps into native Mac apps that you can put right in your dock. This was important for me because as Asana became a major part of my workflow, I wanted it to behave like Things, which has been one of my favorite productivity apps for non-work tasks.
The process is simple. Download and install Fluid and when it asks for the URL of the web app, just copy and paste the link of your “My Tasks” Asana page. Fluid does the rest to create an app that you can place in your dock for all your productivity pleasure. It also works great for other web apps, like Google Analytics or Spotify.
Pro Tip: I like my dock and desktop to look nice, so I changed the icon of the resulting Asana app so that it looks like an Asana icon. Here’s how to do it:
- Download a 512×512 pixel or larger Asana (or generic productivity) .png like this one: Download
- Right-click the .png you downloaded and select “Get Info.” Click on the icon in the top left of the info window so it gets a blue highlight. Press “CMD + C” to copy. (Note: If you only see a generic .png logo instead of the icon you want to copy, open the .png in Preview, press “CMD + A” to highlight everything and then press “CMD + C” to copy)
- Right-click the Asana app and select “Get Info.” Click the icon so there’s a blue highlight, and press “CMD + V” to paste.
There you have it! A beautiful logo on your app that you can stick in your dock.
There are several alternatives to Fluid if you prefer. Our top alternatives are:
If you integrate Asana with other platforms (like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Harvest, etc.), you may need to go into the preferences and whitelist a few URLs so Fluid knows it’s OK to visit those sites as well. So as an example, if your organization tracks time using Harvest (save 50% off your first month using coupon code ASANATRAINING) then do the following:
- Click on your newly created Asana “app” and then click on the name of the app in the toolbar.
- Go to “Preferences” and then “Whitelist.”
- Add the following URLs for the services you plan to use (including asterisks):
- *google.com* (Log in through Google)
- *harvestapp.com* and *getharvest.com* (Harvest time-tracking)
- *box.com* (Box file-sharing)
- *dropbox.com* (Dropbox file-sharing)
Hope this is helpful for all the Mac Asana users out there! If you’re a Windows user, make sure you check out our article on turning Asana into a native Windows app!
Download Fluid (Free)
