Use the admin as a desktop app

The Workspace Sync admin can live on your computer as a desktop app: in a window of its own, with an icon in the Start menu or the Dock and on the taskbar. It is the same admin you use in the browser, with every screen exactly the same, and it is always the latest version, because it loads from our servers. There is nothing to download and nothing to update.

You install the desktop app from Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, on Windows or on a Mac.

Install it

1. Open app.workspace-sync.com in Edge or Chrome and sign in.
2. Click your name in the top-right corner and choose Install desktop app.
3. Confirm with Install in the browser’s dialog.

Workspace Sync Admin opens in its own window. On Windows it is in the Start menu; on a Mac, find it with Spotlight. To keep it at hand, pin it: right-click its icon on the taskbar or in the Dock.

Don’t see Install desktop app? It is there only in Edge and Chrome on a computer, and only while the desktop app isn’t installed yet. You can also use the browser’s own install button, at the right end of the address bar.

Using the desktop app

• Signing in works as in the browser, with your Google account. If you are already signed in to the admin in that browser, the desktop app opens signed in, and signing out in one signs you out of the other.
• Google sign-in and Stripe open inside the desktop app’s window, with a small bar at the top, and bring you back when you’re done.
• Help & docs, the Privacy Policy and the Terms open in your browser.
• Links to the admin, such as Open Billing in our emails, may open straight in the desktop app, depending on your browser and its settings; otherwise they open in the browser, as before. When one opens in the desktop app while it is already open, it uses that window.
• New versions arrive on their own. When we release one while the desktop app is open, you’ll see A new version is available. Click Reload when it suits you, after saving what you’re working on; nothing reloads by itself.
• The desktop app needs an internet connection, just like the website.

Uninstall it

• Windows: open Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find Workspace Sync Admin and choose Uninstall.
• Mac: in the desktop app’s window, open the browser’s menu at the top right (⋮ in Chrome, ⋯ in Edge) and uninstall Workspace Sync Admin from there.

Uninstalling only removes the desktop app from your computer. Your organization, your directory and your billing don’t change.

For IT: install it on your admins’ computers

You can put the desktop app on your admins’ computers centrally, with the browser policy WebAppInstallForceList in Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, for example through Intune or Group Policy:

[
  {
    "url": "https://app.workspace-sync.com/",
    "default_launch_container": "window",
    "create_desktop_shortcut": true
  }
]

Each admin still signs in with their own Google Workspace account; who can manage your organization is decided in Workspace Sync, not by the policy. A desktop app installed this way can’t be uninstalled by the person using it; take it out of the policy instead.

The desktop app is for computers. On phones, your team uses the Workspace Sync mobile app: see Install the app.