Which platform for which job
One account, three shapes. Most people pick one and quietly put up with the parts it is bad at.
Lodos runs in the browser at panel.lodos.io, as a desktop app on macOS, Windows and Linux, and as a mobile app on iOS and Android. Same account, same data, no sync step to think about.
They are not interchangeable, though, and the teams who get the most out of the platform are the ones who stopped trying to do everything in one place.
Desktop: where the work happens
The desktop app is the only place where modules open as real windows. You can have Task Management, a MeMeet call and Lodrive side by side, drag a file from one into the other, and keep a meeting visible while you take notes. In the browser those are tabs, and tabs are a worse version of this.
Two desktop-only things are worth the download on their own:
The dock. Modules you use stay along the edge of the screen and open in one click, without going back to a dashboard first. After a week you stop navigating and start reaching.
The global launcher. Hit ⌥Space anywhere — including inside another application — and you get a search box that opens any module, finds a task or jumps to a file. It is the fastest path to anything in Lodos and most people never discover it.
Downloads live at lodos.io/download: a signed and notarised DMG for macOS, an EXE for Windows, AppImage and .deb for Linux. The app updates itself.
Web: the one that needs no permission
The browser version does everything the desktop app does apart from the dock, the launcher and multi-window layout. That makes it the right answer in three specific situations:
On a machine you do not control — a client's office, a shared computer, a locked-down corporate laptop where you cannot install anything.
For someone who is going to open Lodos twice. Sending a guest a download link before they have seen the product is a good way to lose them.
For anything you want to link to. A URL opens in the browser for everyone, no matter what they have installed.
One detail worth knowing: on the desktop app, links to Lodos content open in the app rather than bouncing you to a browser tab. So sharing links inside your team works well even when everyone is on desktop.
Mobile: capture and respond, not produce
The mobile app is deliberately not a small desktop. It is good at the things you do while not at a desk, and it is honest about the rest.
What it is genuinely better at:
- Calendar. Reminders arrive as push notifications, which is the only form of reminder people actually act on. In practice the calendar sees far more mobile use than desktop use.
- Joining a meeting. A MeMeet link on a phone works from a car park. Getting a laptop out does not.
- Capturing something before you lose it. A photo into Lodrive, a task with three words in it, a note. Tidy it later.
- Nova. Music on a commute is a phone job.
What to stop trying to do on a phone: building an automation, editing a long document, reviewing a board with forty cards, anything in the API modules. These work, but they are miserable on a 6-inch screen and you will do a worse job.
A split that works
If you want a default to start from, this one holds up for most roles:
- Desktop for anything longer than ten minutes.
- Mobile for anything you do standing up.
- Browser when you are on someone else's machine, or sending a link to someone who is.
The one adjustment worth making: if you spend your day in meetings, invert it. Live on mobile for calendar and calls, and open the desktop app only when you have a real block of time.
What syncs, and how fast
Everything that lives in a workspace syncs across all three, and messages and meeting state move over a socket connection rather than polling — so a Social Hive message appears on your phone at roughly the same moment it appears on your laptop.
Two things are per-device rather than synced, and both surprise people the first time:
Interface preferences. Theme, dock arrangement and which modules are pinned belong to the device. Rearranging your desktop dock does not rearrange anything on your phone, and that is intentional — the right layout for a 27-inch monitor is not the right layout for a phone.
Downloaded files. A file you download from Lodrive to your laptop is a copy on your laptop. Editing that copy does not change the file in Lodrive; you need to upload it back.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need the desktop app, or is the browser enough?
The browser is enough to do the work. The desktop app adds the dock, the ⌥Space launcher and side-by-side module windows — none of which are essential, all of which you will miss once you have used them for a week.
Can I be signed in on several devices at once?
Yes, with no device limit. Desktop, phone and browser can all be open simultaneously on the same account, and changes appear on the others without a refresh.
Why does my dock look different on my other computer?
Interface preferences — theme, dock arrangement, pinned modules — are stored per device on purpose. Your data is shared; your layout is not, because the right layout for a large monitor is not the right one for a laptop.
Is the mobile app missing modules?
The modules are there, but some of them are impractical on a phone rather than unavailable. Automation building and the API modules in particular are best left for a desk.
