Desktop app

Sila for macOS and Windows: the web app in a native window, with a dock badge, notifications, shortcuts, sila:// links, and auto-update.

Sila for desktop runs on macOS 12 or later (Apple silicon and Intel) and Windows 10 or later (x64 and ARM). Download it from silahq.com/download, or hover Download Sila in the left rail, where your own device is listed first, and pick the installer for your machine.

The desktop app is the Sila web app in a native window, so every screen is identical to the browser and every update to Sila reaches it immediately. What it adds is what a browser tab can’t do.

What the desktop app adds

• Unread badge on the dock or taskbar icon. When a notification arrives while Sila is in the background, the icon bounces (macOS) or flashes (Windows).
• Notifications that bring the Sila window to the front when you click them.
• Native menus and shortcuts: Settings (Cmd+, / Ctrl+,), Search (Cmd+K / Ctrl+K), Next Unread (Cmd+Shift+A / Ctrl+Shift+A), Toggle Dark Mode (Cmd+Shift+L / Ctrl+Shift+L), and New Conversation (Cmd+N / Ctrl+N).
• Sila links. An invite link opened in your computer’s browser offers Open in the Sila app. Choose it once and that browser opens invite links in the app from then on; Continue in browser forgets the choice.
• Picks up where you left off. The window remembers its size and position and reopens on the conversation you were in. If Sila can’t be reached, an offline page keeps trying and returns you to the same place when the connection is back.
• Automatic updates. Updates download in the background and install when your screen locks or the computer has been idle, never during a call or over an unsent message. If an update has been waiting a day, an Update card in the bottom left lets you restart into it.
• Downloads save to your Downloads folder, show progress on the dock or taskbar icon, and are revealed in Finder or Explorer when they finish.
• Launch at login, and on Windows Close to tray, from the app’s menu.
• Screen sharing in calls opens a picker for a whole screen or a single window. Sharing a screen can include your computer’s audio on Windows and on macOS 14.2 or later (macOS asks for the System Audio Recording permission the first time).
• Sync Contacts on a Mac reads your address book, so people you know appear when you choose + and can be invited with one tap. See Invite people.

Signing in with Google or Microsoft works inside the window, exactly like the browser.

For IT administrators

The app works behind corporate proxies and firewalls. It follows the operating system’s proxy settings (manual, PAC, or WPAD), prompts for proxy or site sign-in (Basic, Digest, NTLM, Negotiate) when a network asks, and trusts the certificates in the system store, so a TLS-inspecting proxy whose root certificate IT installed works without configuration. Certificates it can’t verify are refused.

A managed configuration file can be pushed by MDM and wins over the person’s own settings:

Platform	File
macOS	/Library/Application Support/Sila/managed.json
Windows	%ProgramData%\Sila\managed.json

{
  "autoUpdate": true,
  "updateChannel": "latest",
  "proxy": "http://proxy.corp.example:3128",
  "proxyPac": "",
  "proxyBypass": "*.corp.example;<-loopback>",
  "authServerAllowlist": "*.corp.example",
  "authDelegateAllowlist": "",
  "launchAtLogin": true,
  "closeToTray": true,
  "disableDevTools": true,
  "crashReporting": true
}

Every key is optional. Settings a managed file locks appear disabled in the app’s menus, marked “managed by your organization”. Crash reports contain no message content, user identity, or hostname, and crashReporting: false turns them off for a fleet.

Installers

Platform	Installer
Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer)	Sila-<version>-mac-arm64.dmg
Mac with Intel chip	Sila-<version>-mac-x64.dmg
Windows with Intel or AMD chip	Sila-<version>-win-x64-user-setup.exe
Windows on ARM (Snapdragon)	Sila-<version>-win-arm64-user-setup.exe

The Windows installers above install for the current user without administrator rights. Per-machine (System) installers for IT deployment are also published alongside them.