Awesome
<div align="center"> <br> <br> <a href="https://sindresorhus.com/caprine"> <img src="media/AppIcon-readme.png" width="200" height="200"> </a> <h1>Caprine</h1> <p> <b>Elegant Facebook Messenger desktop app</b> </p> <br> <br> <p> Caprine is an unofficial and privacy-focused Facebook Messenger app with many useful features. </p> <b> Caprine is feature complete. However, we welcome contributions for improvements and bug fixes. </b> <br> <a href="https://sindresorhus.com/caprine"> Website </a> <br> <a href="https://github.com/sindresorhus/caprine/releases/latest"> <img src="media/screenshot.png" width="846"> </a> </div>Highlights
- Dark theme
- Vibrant theme*
- Privacy-focused
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Menu bar mode*
- Work Chat support
- Code blocks
- Touch Bar support*
- Custom styles
- Cross-platform
- Silent auto-updates
- Custom text size
- Emoji style setting
- Respects Do Not Disturb*
*macOS only
Install
macOS 10.12+ (Intel and Apple Silicon), Linux (x64 and arm64), and Windows 10+ (64-bit) are supported.
Download the latest version on the website or below.
macOS
Download the .dmg
file.
Or with Homebrew: $ brew install caprine
Linux
<table> <th>Distribution</th> <th>Repository</th> <th>Automatic Updates</th> <th>Maintainer</th> <th>How to install</th> <tr> <td>Arch Linux</td> <td>Community</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Frederik Schwan</td> <td><code>pacman -S caprine</code></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Debian / Ubuntu (manually)</td> <td>GitHub</td> <td align="center">❌</td> <td>Official</td> <td> <a href="https://github.com/sindresorhus/caprine/releases/latest">Download</a> the .deb file </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Debian / Ubuntu (deb-get)</td> <td>GitHub</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Official</td> <td> Follow the <a href=#installation-using-deb-get>instructions below</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Debian / Ubuntu (APT)</td> <td>Gemfury</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Lefteris Garyfalakis</td> <td> Follow the <a href=#apt-repository-gemfury>instructions below</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>RHEL / Fedora / openSUSE</td> <td>Copr</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Dušan Simić</td> <td> Follow the <a href=#copr>instructions below</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>AppImage</td> <td>GitHub</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Official</td> <td> Follow the <a href=#appimage>instructions below</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Flatpak</td> <td>Flathub</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Dušan Simić</td> <td> Visit <a href="https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.sindresorhus.Caprine">Flathub</a> and follow the instructions </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Snap</td> <td>Snapcraft</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Official</td> <td> Visit <a href="https://snapcraft.io/caprine">Snapcraft</a> and follow the instructions </td> </tr> </table>Installation using deb-get:
- Download and install deb-get.
- Run
deb-get install caprine
.
Note: deb-get is 3rd party software, not to be associated with apt-get.
APT repository (Gemfury):
Run the following command to add it:
wget -q -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sindresorhus/caprine/main/packages/deb/addRepo.sh | sudo bash
Alternatively (for advanced users):
# Add the repository
echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://apt.fury.io/lefterisgar/ * *" > \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/caprine.list
# Update the package indexes
sudo apt update
# Install Caprine
sudo apt install caprine
Copr:
For Fedora / RHEL:
sudo dnf copr enable dusansimic/caprine
sudo dnf install caprine
For openSUSE:
- Create a new file in
/etc/zypp/repos.d/caprine.repo
. - Copy the contents of this file and paste them into the file you just created.
Alternatively use the following one-liner:
curl -s https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/dusansimic/caprine/repo/opensuse-tumbleweed/dusansimic-caprine-opensuse-tumbleweed.repo | sudo tee /etc/zypp/repos.d/caprine.repo
AppImage:
Download the .AppImage
file.
Make it executable:
chmod +x Caprine-2.xx.x.AppImage
Then run it!
About immutable Linux distributions:
Fedora Silverblue, Fedora Kinoite, EndlessOS, CarbonOS and other immutable distributions only support Flatpak and/or AppImage.*
Note: On some distributions Flatpak must be pre-configured manually.
Windows
<table> <th>Method</th> <th>Repository</th> <th>Automatic Updates</th> <th>Maintainer</th> <th>How to install</th> <tr> <td>Manually</td> <td>GitHub</td> <td align="center">❌</td> <td>Official</td> <td> <a href="https://github.com/sindresorhus/caprine/releases/latest">Download</a> the .exe file </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Chocolatey</td> <td>Community</td> <td align="center">✔️</td> <td>Michael Quevillon</td> <td><code>choco install caprine</code></td> </tr> </table>For taskbar notification badges to work on Windows 10, you'll need to enable them in Taskbar Settings.
Features
Dark mode
You can toggle dark mode in the View
menu or with <kbd>Command</kbd> <kbd>d</kbd> / <kbd>Control</kbd> <kbd>d</kbd>.
Hide Names and Avatars
You can prevent others from looking at who you're chatting with by enabling the “Hide Names and Avatars” feature in the “View” menu or with <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>n</kbd>.
Vibrancy (macOS only)
On macOS, you can toggle the window vibrancy effect in the View
menu.
Privacy
<img src="media/screenshot-block-typing-indicator.png" width="626">You can choose to prevent people from knowing when you have seen a message and when you are currently typing. These settings are available under the Caprine
/File
menu.
Mute desktop notifications (macOS only)
You can quickly disable receiving notifications from the Caprine
/File
menu or the Dock on macOS.
Hide notification message preview
<div align="center"><img src="media/screenshot-hide-notification-message-location.png" width="300"></div> <div align="center"><img src="media/screenshot-hide-notification-message-before.png" width="400"></div> <div align="center"><img src="media/screenshot-hide-notification-message-after.png" width="400"></div>You can toggle the Show Message Preview in Notification
setting in the Caprine
/File
menu.
Prevents link tracking
Links that you click on will not be tracked by Facebook.
Jump to conversation hotkey
You can switch conversations similar to how you switch browser tabs: <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>n</kbd> (where n
is 1
through 9
).
Compact mode
The interface adapts when resized to a small size.
<div align="center"><img src="media/screenshot-compact.png" width="512"></div>Desktop notifications
Desktop notifications can be turned on in Preferences
.
Always on Top
You can toggle whether Caprine stays on top of other windows in the Window
/View
menu or with <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>t</kbd>.
Work Chat support
Support for Work Chat: Messenger for Workplace. You can switch to it in the Caprine
/File
menu.
Code blocks
You can send code blocks by using Markdown syntax.
<div align="center"><img src="media/screenshot-codeblocks-dark.png" width="784"></div> <div align="center"><img src="media/screenshot-codeblocks-light.png" width="784"></div>Background behavior
When closing the window, the app will by default continue running in the background, in the dock on macOS and the tray on Linux/Windows. Right-click the dock/tray icon and choose Quit
to completely quit the app. On macOS, click the dock icon to show the window. On Linux, right-click the tray icon and choose Toggle
to toggle the window. On Windows, click the tray icon to toggle the window.
Note that you can change the behavior of Caprine so that the app closes when the window is closed. For this, you'll need to go to the settings and click on Quit on Window Close
.
Quick access to conversations from the Dock menu (macOS only)
<img src="media/screenshot-dock-menu.png" width="319" height="404">Touch Bar support (macOS only)
<img src="media/screenshot-touchbar.png" width="1085">Custom languages for spell-check (Not for macOS)
Users can select supported languages from Conversation
→ Spell Checker Language
.
macOS detects the language automatically.
Custom styles
Advanced users can modify the colors/styles of Caprine. Click the menu item Caprine
/File
→ Caprine Settings
→ Advanced
→ Custom Styles
and a CSS file will open up in your default editor.
Menu Bar Mode (macOS only) <img src="media/screenshot-menu-bar-mode.png" width="20">
<img src="media/screenshot-menu-bar-menu.png" width="140" align="right">You can enable Show Menu Bar Icon
in the Caprine Preferences
menu to have a Caprine icon in the menu bar. The icon will indicate when you have unread notifications and you can click it to toggle the Caprine window. You can also toggle the Caprine window with the global shortcut <kbd>Command</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>y</kbd>.
You can also remove Caprine from the Dock and task switcher by clicking Hide Dock Icon
menu item from the menu bar icon. There will then no longer be any menus for the window, but you can access those from the Menu
item in the menu bar icon menu.
Keyboard shortcuts
Description | Keys |
---|---|
New conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>n</kbd> |
Search conversations | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>k</kbd> |
Toggle "Dark mode" | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>d</kbd> |
Hide Names and Avatars | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>n</kbd> |
Next conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>]</kbd> or <kbd>Control</kbd> <kbd>Tab</kbd> |
Previous conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>[</kbd> or <kbd>Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>Tab</kbd> |
Jump to conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>1</kbd>…<kbd>9</kbd> |
Insert GIF | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>g</kbd> |
Insert sticker | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>s</kbd> |
Insert emoji | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>e</kbd> |
Attach files | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>t</kbd> |
Focus text input | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>i</kbd> |
Search in conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>f</kbd> |
Mute conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>m</kbd> |
Hide conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>h</kbd> |
Delete conversation | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>d</kbd> |
Toggle "Always on Top" | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>t</kbd> |
Toggle window menu | <kbd>Alt</kbd> (Windows/Linux only) |
Toggle main window | <kbd>Command</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>y</kbd> (macOS only) |
Toggle sidebar | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>s</kbd> |
Switch to Messenger | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>1</kbd> |
Switch to Workchat | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>2</kbd> |
Preferences | <kbd>Command/Control</kbd> <kbd>,</kbd> |
Tip
On macOS, you can change these in the System Preferences and you can even add your own keyboard shortcuts for menu items without a predefined keyboard shortcut.
FAQ
Can I contribute localizations?
The main app interface is already localized by Facebook. The app menus are not localized, and we're not interested in localizing those.
Dev
Built with Electron.
Run
npm install && npm start
Build
See the electron-builder
docs.
Publish
npm run release
Then edit the automatically created GitHub Releases draft and publish.
Maintainers
Former
Links
Press
- The Essential Windows Apps for 2018 - Lifehacker
- Caprine review: Customize Facebook Messenger on Windows 10 - Windows Central
Disclaimer
Caprine is a third-party app and is not affiliated with Facebook.