I've been using Fluid for several years to make light-weight, free-standing apps for social media (can't follow me now, Facebook!), various Google Drive accounts, Workflowy and another note-keeping app, and various mail accounts. I've tested three other apps that do basically the same thing, and Fluid 2 is the clear winner for me: Its stand-alone apps are smaller and faster, tabbed browsing is better, it remembers its state between sessions (unlike fancier-looking, more expensive competitors that abandon all but one tab), it fully compatible with standard browser-navigation keyboard shortcuts (unlike fancier-looking, more expensive competitors that only switch tabs with a mouse click). I bought the pro version just to support development (the additional features weren't of interest to me). I just hope the developer keeps at it, seeing as it's been almost 2 years since the last update, and his blog hasn't had a post in 5 years.
I like Fluid when it works; then, it is an invaluable tool.
What I don't like is that when there is an issue, there is absolutely zero support for customers who paid for the full version.
Having come up against an issue in August, I emailed the author. It's now October and zero, zip, nada response.
Now left searching for an alternative.
Something going on with WebKit and Android Messages. Fluid worked great with it until Google did some kind of update and the Fluid app is broken. I created a new Fluid app with their new url and same problem.
The interface goes nuts when attempting to alternate between different people and unable to scroll through text messages. It's just frozen on a few text messages and won't scroll.
I built a basic WebKit browser in Xcode and got the same results. Safari works perfect and so does Android Messages Desktop, the electron app:
Where can I get a v2.x.x which works on El Capitan? Paid user here who's had to abandon his heavily used Fluid apps over the last two years as they don't work.
It's really obnoxious that there's no update notifications in Fluid v1 which work to let us know about the new version. Fluid has been one of my top five favourite software tools but not knowing about the update and not being able to use it and the lack of distribution of info about the update is pretty frustrating.
Have purchased and been using Fluid for years. It's good, but. I am not overly enthusiastic about the app. The interface (of v1) is a bit clumsy. Never understood much of the 'advanced' features, so never used them in practice. Also, I like to use Fluid for banking apps, to 'sandbox' these apps from normal browsing. Hoever, I found than few banking apps (in the Netherlands0 work very well with apps like fluid: downloading information hardly ever works well. When using Fluid for banking apps, I do advice to use it in combination with Keyboard Maestr + a script to auto login (loading password from keychain).. Very handy
I doubt I will pay again for a v2, unless it offers significantly better experience (haven't tried v2 yet).
LOVE Fluid and the way my regularly used websites can be apps apps - especially with so much in the cloud these days. I've actually been using it for years, but recently had a problem when trying to add Microsoft Planner which is only online or on mobile app...
The issue was with Microsoft corporate logins and redirections to run MS Planner and Todd got straight back to me with a Whitelist fix see here if you are having similar problems with window popups/redirects to Safari etc.:
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/52200/fluid-when-i-try-to-login-my-fluid-app-launches-the-default-browser-instead/52201#52201
I certainly recommend Fluid!
It would appear one feature which constituted the only real benefit Fluid gave me over a browser window has been removed in v2...
I primarily use fluid to playback internet based audio streams. The key is in the window... Fluid v1 has an option to keep the window open after closing it, which would enable me to start an audio stream then close the active window (which remained active and allowed audio playback to continue).
Unfortunately since Fluid 2 windows always behave as any browser window would, it means it minimizes side by side next to browser and document windows. Compared to an extra browser window I would need to juggle it exactly the same, and the odds of my clicking and closing it by mistake are the same as an extra browser window...
In short this upgrade in my case removes the only real benefit the app had been giving me...
One annoyance with the upgrade: I've not been able t find a method to update any existing fluid apps made with v1 to update to v2...
If someone knows of a method, please let me know, but it would appear the expectation is that I'd need to re-generate each app one by one (which includes both re-creating all associated settings and logging into any accounts that are required for each instance)...
I had already used the old version, and it was really fine. The new version 2 (not yet listed on MacUpdate) is a lot better, great actually. I also compared it to Coherence, and Fluid is definitely much better. I just wish there was a way to automate online credentials input (login name, password).
Although this app hasn't had an update in a couple years, I use it almost every day (I have Fluid apps for Google Drive, Google Keep, TweetDeck, MobisleNotes, and Facebook), and I just wanted to counter some of the outdated negative reviews here. I'm not able to reproduce any of the problems described. It does save credentials, tabs do work (right-click > open in new tab), refresh works fine, etc. I have a ton of tabs open in my browsers, so it's *very* helpful to be able to launch *just* Google Drive when I need to work with a Google Doc, and not have to launch my whole browser (and risk getting distracted too). I hope it's not abandonware, although that does seem likely since none of this developer's apps (or the apps' Twitter accounts) have been updated in a couple years. At some point, I may have to move to Unite (which does the same thing), but I like Fluid because it uses less memory and plays nicer with tabs.
Netflix is also worth subscribing to because of the very well made, well received and critically acclaimed original shows it has created over the past few years.
I can't believe I never found this programme before.
I have all my favourite web sites set and can open them individually
or side by side from the short cuts key.
Well worth just $4.99
Bargain.
Nice idea! The only downside is if you use ads blockers in your favourite browser, you'll lose the benefit of them in a Fluid app as it doesn't support Safari extensions or else. Maybe in a future version? ;-)
Well I am afraid I am going to have to recant on my previous rating. Google Docs is still hanging as before. I am hoping to hear from the developer regarding the spindumps that I'm providing him to hopefully resolve this issue as it has made Fluid unusable for Google Docs for quite some time now (I had quite hoped initially, and thought, that the new update resolved it).
So thrilled to finally see an update. I've had so many odd quirky issues with Fluid since I've been using 10.10 that I had to move away to Coherence... But that is very lackluster and simply doesn't compare with the quality and functionality of Fluid as far as simplicity and truly keeping a nice isolation in place.
Dont spend any money with this developer. He does not reply to any emails or answer his google groups that he has linked on his website as " Support". I purchased this last week and another of his apps. Both useless unless you a reasonable at applescript and/or userscript. Which I am not. So if you want to do anything other than standard ssb like facebook, forget it. Brilliant Brilliant concept.
Doesnt do basics that web browsers do
> remember passcode if desired
> refresh / reload if desired
> zoom to minimal so one can see the entire page (stops at about 50% zoom level!)
> remember tabs (you can dummy it if you desire to reset your tabs on each exit.. tedious!)
> panes/drawer do not have same functionality as the browser window... so sorta really only eye candy
> no documentation to explain choosing user agent, which one is good, why you change, what it should be in terms of matching your current. Assume you know all this. I do not.
> no documentation to explain how to troubleshoot when your userscript fails but works on your browser.
So brilliant concept. Menu options look very inviting. But execution miserable.
Gives mac app developers a bad name for me.
Works quite well with airdroid (I prefer the web app over the OS X app) and google inbox (had to change the user agent and manually download an icon but after that it's perfect).
Also, though on this page it seems to cost 5$, this app is actually FREE . The 4,99$ only unlock a few more features that are really not required in most use cases.
Awesome in theory, but recent versions have not worked well. I started out with version 0.9.6 and was pretty happy with it. Recently I upgraded a couple site-browsers to the new version (no actual upgrade path -- I just had to re-create them with the new version of Fluid).
The new version fails significantly on multiple sites. One site I use it for is Netflix. The latest version completely fails to play video -- but the old 0.9.6 worked fine. I also have a forum I use it for that has significant problems (but again... only in the new version!) Any time I try to type in a textarea it jumps back to the top of the page so I can't see what I'm typing. Certain drop-down menus just down work. I'm hoping I can find an older version to download again -- I'm sorry I upgraded.
I have half a dozen Fluid apps that I use nearly every day. Fluid been completely reliable for me, through multiple updates of both Fluid and Mac OS.
My reason for giving Fluid 4.5 stars rather than 5 is because its Userstyles feature only works in the main window; Fluid's Browsa panels ignore it. For me this problem is significant, but it probably won't make any difference to most users.
Was fine enough up until 1.8.2, but with 1.8.3, now doesn't work on Snow Leopard.
Also, this developer is not very good at support...has simply ignored emails (in general, not just with this latest version). The app is inexpensive and works ok enough, but I consider this a huge negative with software vendors, so that knocked off another star. For new potential users, just something to be wary of.
Fluid has become such a legendary tool in the community for anyone who feel it makes more sense to have certain "always open" web sites available independently as an app, and remove them from their web browser completely. their browser as its own application. For this, we've all been fortunate to have Fluid available as the go-to solution. I use a handful of Fluid apps every day and could not be more thankful to the developer for keeping the legend going.
This app is a great way to convert web apps into Mac OS apps. I've been using this for many years, but one recent example of where this comes in very handy is where I turned the AirDroid web app into a Mac OS app on my laptop.
I've seen Windows users begging the AirDroid developers to make a standalone app for it, but they haven't gotten around to it yet on Windows or Mac.
But, at least on my Mac with Fluid, I can easily create an AirDroid standalone app and it works perfect. Instead of having to open a Safari window with an url field, etc. taking up space and having to hide them, etc, etc. - I have an app that opens in a single, compact window (and remembers the window position and size each time it opens). It even can share cookies with Safari so I don't have to re-input credentials, etc. and my 1Password extension works as well (when needed).
The one thing that's lacking is I wish Fluid allowed for some easier flexibility and options for clicking on user interface buttons automatically after it launches and having it recognizes that the app has loaded beforehand.
I basically do that myself with Applescript to click buttons, etc. with a combo of javascript and Applescript and even using a combo of mousetools with Applescript for stuff.
But, it would be much easier and more powerful if Fluid had that kind of ability built-in instead of having to rely on Applescript.
But, anyway, overall this app is fantastic and gives me the advantage of easily creating standalone apps even if the developers of the services haven't gotten around to it yet (or never do). That's power.
Fluid is also great if you need to use multiple accounts for a single web page.
To avoid having to constantly switch logins, I used to use a different browser for each account (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera). With Fluid (and the separate cookie storage pro feature) that is no longer necessary and I avoid the overhead of running multiple browsers simultaneously. Plus, it looks really nice, if you assign decent icons to the different apps. :)
I use Fluid with Gmail.
I found out today that the Undo command doesn't work using cmd+Z!
Whatever you write, if you want to undo it, you must do it via the menu bar. Annoying.
I forked out the 4.99 for the separated cookie/data storage feature - it works as advertised - and it's been well-worth it, even just for accessing my webmail.
Fortunately, my webmail provider doesn't show ads or have intrusive page elements so I didn't have a need to fiddle about with userstyles or userscripts to create a distraction-free workspace, which made setup a breeze for me. It just worked right out of the box in a way that was very useful to me.
I'm using Gmail with this, but unfortunately it displays ads. I tried some scripts, but they don't seem to work. Does anyone know a script that really block all Gmail ads in Fluid?
Thanks!
With this app I made my own RSS agregator thru InoReader site and got free and easy to use chain with full sync: InoReader Fluid app (MAC OS) + Feeddler RSS (iOS).
Fluid is amazing for creating 'apps' of the websites that you use most. I've found it particularly useful for Gmail. The only problem is that installing userscripts is a bit more involved than, say, adding them in Chrome or Firefox through Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey. It's a good app, though, and definitely worth the $5.
Nice idea but doesn't work properly. For privacy reasons I created a Gmail app but when I try to sign in it passes my login including password (!) over to Safari so I get automatically logged in there. And this is, of course, exactly what I was trying to avoid...
Nice little application, works wonder with social media sites that I always want quick access to. More complex sites that utilize certain plug-ins are a drag at times though, such that they may not work without tweaks here and there, or not even at all. Netflix Instant and HBO Go are some examples.
I came across a solution for getting Netflix Instant Streaming to run on fluid: Change the default User Agent in the plist file. Instant will run if you change the User Agent from default to Safari, but it reverts back with every start up. To change that:
Right click the fluid-created Netflix app, and go to Show Package Contents. Go to Contents folder, then Resources folder, then open UserAgentStrings.plist up in your choice of editor (in 10.6.8, I used TextEdit). In the "Default (Automatically Chosen)" string, the default is listed as "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X %d_%d_%d) AppleWebKit/%@ (KHTML, like Gecko) %@ Version/%@ Safari/%@". If you look below, there's a whole host of other strings, such as Safari, iOS Safari, IE, Firefox, etc. Figure out which one enables Instant for you, copy that string, and paste it in the place of the default. Save the plist, and reopen the Netflix app; Instant should now work. Not sure if updates will bork this trick, but quitting the application certainly doesn't.
As for HBO Go, I haven't figured that out yet. Whenever I try and login with my provider, it jumps me to Safari and the HBO app remains on a grey page with no activity. If anyone can give some advice, that would be lovely.
Looking to use this for a project management site I'd like to keep open on a different desktop (space) than the one Safari is assigned to. It seems ideal for the job, but I'm running into a couple problems with it. They're relatively minor, but annoying enough that I'll probably just stick with running it in a normal browser until I can find solutions for them.
1. For some reason, "applications" created with Fluid cannot be assigned to a specific desktop. Every other app in my Dock has this option, but the site-specific "app" I created with Fluid does not.
2. The app icon is very low res and looks terrible. I've tried replacing the appl.icns with a proper, high quality one, but it still ends up being low res in the Finder, Dock, and Launchpad.
Easy to use, works great on Lion. No glitches. It's really freeware with an option to buy premium features. A good update to an app I've used a long time.
Changes in version 1.6.1:
FIX: Improved Application stability on Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
FIX: Fluid App Icon creation now works on MacBook Pro with Retina screen.
When Fluid works it's great, but it just hasn't been stable enough under Lion and Snow Leopard. I've managed to create nicely working apps for Facebook, G+ and so on, but eventually they always stop working and won't launch any more. No error message, the process runs but no interface ever appears. I'm tired of trying to get the same stuff working over and over again. The developer is not responsive to problem reports from paying customers.
Bought Fluid because I thought that it would work with iCloud, but when I create the Fluidapp for iCloud and change the User Agent to Safari 5.1 I get an error message that says "Your browser is not supported!". :-(
I like this app, but:
If a Fluid app is running when I launch Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or similar, the short commands for zoom (⌘+space) and hand/move (space) does not work in the Adobe applications. But if I restart the Fluid app, the commands work again instantly. And after the restart of Fluid both applications are running fine.
Fluid app also blocks my Typinator abbreviations. Suddenly Typinator stops working. But after a restart of the Fluid app, Typinator works fine again.
What is it Fluid app is doing that causes it to block key features in other applications?
I tried to contact the support, but no reaction. It's disappointing, that mailto: links don't work. Also I miss some docs. What are the new URL handlers for?
If you just want to create Web Apps, try the new FREE Apple Website Popup Automator Action built into Lion.
See http://www.macosxautomation.com/lion/websitepopup/index.html
For Leopard and Snow Leopard, see
http://mac101.net/content/how-to/automator-creating-services-in-snow-leopard/
Fluid does offer some additional features but many people probably do not need them.
Fluid seems to have lost the ability to create MenuBar embedded apps. If this is so, it is a great shame and I hope I am somehow mistaken about this fact. Otherwise, Prism does something very similar to Fluid and seems to be able to produce apps that are somewhat smaller in size.
Possible enhancement:
Being able to make cross-platform apps would be an amazing enhancement although it may very well be impossible.
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The interface goes nuts when attempting to alternate between different people and unable to scroll through text messages. It's just frozen on a few text messages and won't scroll.
I built a basic WebKit browser in Xcode and got the same results. Safari works perfect and so does Android Messages Desktop, the electron app:
https://github.com/chrisknepper/android-messages-desktop
Hopefully an update of some kind to Fluid in the future can make it compatible again.