Linear Mac app: what installing it actually changes

The Linear Mac app is a free download from linear.app/download, and it is not in the Mac App Store. On October 18, 2026, the download page offered version 1.32.4 for macOS, a single disk image of about 213 MB. The App Store listing called Linear Mobile is the iPhone and iPad app. Its requirements name iOS 18.0 and iPadOS 18.0 and nothing for the Mac, so searching the Mac App Store for Linear returns other products.

What matters more than where to get it is what it changes. The interface inside the desktop app is the same Linear that runs at linear.app in a browser. That carries one consequence that many older guides miss: according to Linear's own documentation, the desktop app is now the only way to get real time desktop notifications on a Mac. The rest of this article covers what the install changes, what it leaves alone, how it updates on a personal or a managed Mac, and when a browser tab is still enough.

What the download contains

Linear's Download Linear documentation states that the desktop client is available for macOS Intel, macOS Apple Silicon, and Windows. One disk image covers both kinds of Mac. There is no Linux build, and the same page says Linux is not on the roadmap for now and points Linux users to a supported browser.

Open the package contents of an installed copy and the structure is recognisable. The Frameworks folder holds Electron Framework, the bundled Chromium runtime that renders the interface, alongside Squirrel, the framework the app uses to update itself. That explains the size. Most of those 213 MB are a browser engine shipped with the app so that it does not depend on whatever browser the Mac happens to have.

It also explains why the app and the website look identical. The desktop build loads the same web application, so a new feature that ships to linear.app appears in the desktop window at the same time. The desktop shell has its own version number and release cycle, separate from the web app's deploys. A Mac can be running an older shell while still seeing the current interface inside it.

The installer itself is ordinary. Open the disk image, move Linear into the Applications folder, launch it, and sign in with the same method used on the web. Because it does not come from the App Store, there is no _MASReceipt folder inside the bundle and the App Store's Updates list will never show it.

What installing actually changes

Linear's documentation lists four benefits of the desktop app. Each one is worth reading closely, because one of them is far bigger than it looks.

Notifications

The documentation says notifications are integrated with the operating system. The notifications documentation is more specific. In its answer to whether browser notifications are supported, it says that for real time desktop notifications the desktop app should be used, and that Linear does not currently support setting up new browser push notification subscriptions.

This is the deciding fact for most readers. A Linear tab can show the inbox, but it cannot be newly set up to send push alerts to macOS. Without the desktop app, real time alerts have to come from the mobile app or Slack, while email arrives as digests on a delay. The same documentation says desktop, mobile, and Slack notifications are sent in real time, while email digests are delayed based on urgency and only sent if the inbox notification has not already been read.

The Dock badge

The app sits in the Dock and shows unread notifications there. If the red badge does not appear, Linear's answer is to check that notifications are enabled for Linear in macOS settings and that the badge option is turned on. On current macOS that is System Settings > Notifications > Linear, with Badge application icon switched on.

Keyboard shortcuts

Linear is built around the keyboard. In a browser, some of its shortcuts compete with the browser's own and with extensions. The documentation names "less risk of conflicting with browser-based presets or custom shortcuts" as a reason to use the desktop app. Anyone who has pressed a shortcut in a Linear tab and had the browser act on it instead will recognise the problem.

Tabs inside the app

The desktop app supports its own tabs. Several issues, a project, and a cycle view can stay open in one window that never mixes with the rest of the browsing session.

What installing does not change

Several things stay exactly the same, and knowing them prevents disappointment.

The plan stays the same. The desktop app costs nothing and works on every plan. Linear's pricing page on October 18, 2026 listed Free at $0 with unlimited members, 2 teams, and 250 issues; Basic at $10 per user per month and Business at $16 per user per month, both billed yearly; and Enterprise at a custom price. Installing the app does not raise the 250 issue limit or add teams.

The features stay the same. The documentation says nearly all functionality in the desktop app, including offline mode, is available on the web in most browsers, and that Linear supports the three most recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Offline behaviour stays the same, and it is narrower than the word suggests. When changes cannot reach the server, the app stores them locally and retries when the connection returns, and a "Syncing" label with a count appears next to the workspace name. The documentation calls offline mode a failsafe rather than a full feature, and warns that many edits made offline can overwrite a teammate's changes because creation dates are not checked.

Memory use does not move out of the browser. The desktop app is a second Chromium runtime running beside whatever browser is already open. Closing the Linear tab saves a little. It does not make the desktop app free.

Getting links to open in the app

Once the app is installed, the usual irritation is that Linear links from Slack, email, or GitHub still open in the browser. Linear provides three mechanisms for this.

The browser preference

In the browser version of Linear, go to Account > Preferences > Behavior and turn on Open in desktop app. Links to Linear opened in that browser then hand off to the desktop app if it is installed.

How the hand-off works

To decide whether to hand a link off, the web app checks whether the desktop app is running by sending requests to localhost. The documentation lists the ports it checks as 44450, 18450, and 33234. Security tools on some managed Macs flag this traffic, and a local firewall rule that blocks those ports will stop the hand-off from working without any error message.

Brave Shields and the linear:// scheme

Brave users need to disable Brave Shields for the linear.app domain, according to the documentation, otherwise the site cannot connect to the desktop app to open it. For scripts, launchers, and notes, the app also registers a linear:// URL scheme. Replacing https:// with linear:// at the start of a Linear URL, as in linear://linear.app/issue/ENG-123, opens that page directly in the desktop app.

How it updates, and how to stop it on a managed Mac

The Linear Mac app updates itself. The documentation says it downloads and installs updates automatically in the background, which is the Squirrel framework in the bundle at work. There is no App Store step and nothing to click.

That is convenient on a personal Mac and a problem on a managed one, which is why "Linear updates on a managed Mac" is a common question. Linear documents a preference for turning automatic updates off. In Terminal:

defaults write /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/com.linear AutoUpdateDisabled -bool YES

Quit and relaunch the app for it to take effect. Running the same command with NO turns automatic updates back on. For a fleet, the same key can be delivered as a com.linear.plist file in the user's Preferences folder through MDM, with AutoUpdateDisabled set to true. The plist is shown in full on the Download Linear documentation page.

The trade-off is that a Mac with updates disabled keeps whatever shell it has. The web content inside continues to update, because it is loaded from Linear's servers, but fixes to the shell itself, such as the Chromium runtime, wait until IT pushes a new build. A copy several versions behind the download page is the visible sign of this.

When the app appears stuck offline, the documentation suggests that it may relate to a known Chromium bug, and that turning Wi-Fi off and on again from the menu bar is the fix.

Desktop app, browser tab, or neither

For most people who use Linear every day, the desktop app is the right choice, and the notification change settles it. Here is how the three ways of opening Linear on a Mac compare.

	Linear desktop app	Linear in a browser tab	Linear Mobile
Where to get it	linear.app/download	linear.app	App Store, iPhone and iPad
Real time desktop notifications	Yes	No new browser push subscriptions	Push on the phone or tablet
Dock badge	Yes, if enabled in macOS	No	Not on the Mac
Shortcut conflicts with the browser	Fewer	Possible	Not applicable
Updates	Automatic, can be disabled by preference	Always current	Through the App Store
Disk space	About 213 MB download	None	Not on the Mac

A tab is still enough in a few situations. Someone who looks at Linear a few times a week, or who relies on Slack for alerts anyway, gains little from the install. A Mac where installing software requires an IT request may also be easier to run with the web version. And on Linux, the browser is the only choice.

The question then becomes what to do about the other tools left in the browser. Linear is one of the few work tools with a polished desktop client. Many of the dashboards, admin panels, and vendor portals open beside it have none. For those, a tool that turns a website into a standalone Mac app gives each one its own Dock icon, its own window, and its own signed in profile, built on a Chromium browser already installed on the Mac. The Supported services list shows which sites already have presets, and the Guide walks through building an app from any URL. One caution applies to Linear specifically: because Linear no longer accepts new browser push subscriptions, a wrapped Linear tab would get its own window but not real time notifications, so the official app remains the better fit for Linear itself.

What to change first

Download the desktop app from linear.app/download, turn on Open in desktop app under Account > Preferences > Behavior in the browser, and enable notifications and the badge for Linear in System Settings. Then look at the tabs that remain beside it, and for the ones without a Mac app, consider building them into standalone apps with Kagemusha.