Caprine
Elegant Facebook Messenger desktop app
Caprine is an unofficial and privacy-focused Facebook Messenger app with many useful features.
Highlights
- Dark theme
- Vibrant theme*
- Privacy-focused
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Work Chat support
- Code blocks
- Touch Bar support
- Custom styles
- Cross-platform
- Silent auto-updates
- Custom text size
- Emoji style setting
*macOS only
Install
macOS 10.10+, Linux, and Windows 7+ are supported (64-bit only).
Download the latest version on the website or below.
macOS
Download the .dmg
file.
Or with Homebrew-Cask: $ brew cask install caprine
Linux
Download the .AppImage
or .deb
file.
Arch Linux: pacman -S caprine
Also available as a snap.
The AppImage needs to be made executable after download.
Windows
Download the .exe
file.
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 Cmd D / Ctrl D.
Vibrancy
On macOS, you can toggle the window vibrancy effect in the View
menu.
Privacy
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
You can quickly disable receiving notifications from the Caprine
/File
menu or the Dock on macOS.
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: Cmd/Ctrl n (where n
is 1
through 9
).
Compact mode
The interface adapts when resized to a small size.
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 Cmd/Ctrl Shift t.
Image paste confirmation
Confirmation before sending images from the clipboard, to prevent accidental copy-pastes.
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.
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)
Touch Bar support (macOS only)
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.
Keyboard shortcuts
Description | Keys |
---|---|
New conversation | Cmd/Ctrl n |
Search conversations | Cmd/Ctrl k |
Toggle "Dark mode" | Cmd/Ctrl d |
Next conversation | Cmd/Ctrl ] or Ctrl Tab |
Previous conversation | Cmd/Ctrl [ or Ctrl Shift Tab |
Jump to conversation | Cmd/Ctrl 1…9 |
Insert GIF | Cmd/Ctrl g |
Insert emoji | Cmd/Ctrl e |
Insert text | Cmd/Ctrl i |
Search in conversation | Cmd/Ctrl f |
Mute conversation | Cmd/Ctrl Shift m |
Archive conversation | Cmd/Ctrl Shift a |
Delete conversation | Cmd/Ctrl Shift d |
Toggle "Always on Top" | Cmd/Ctrl Shift t |
Toggle window menu | Alt (Windows only) |
Toggle sidebar | Cmd/Ctrl Shift s |
Switch to Messenger | Cmd/Ctrl Shift 1 |
Switch to Workchat | Cmd/Ctrl Shift 2 |
Preferences | Cmd/Ctrl , |
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.
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
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.