One of the things I really like about using Chrome on Linux is the ability to turn any website into a Desktop-ish App. It’s technically still a web app, but it opens in its own window without a location bar or any of the other decorations you normally see in a web browser. So it looks like a desktop app. I’ve done this with a bunch of different sites including Gmail, Simplenote, Toggl, YNAB, and LastPass. Then, anytime I want to sling out an email, take a note, start tracking my time on a job, etc. It’s all just a keyboard shortcut away. The apps get their own icon too so you can find them easily when you Alt + Tab through your open apps. Here’s how it works.

First, find a website you’d like to turn into an app. Then click the three little, stacked dots in the top right corner of your chrome browser. That will reveal a menu where you click More Tools > Add To Desktop.

After clicking that, you’ll see this little window where you can name your application. Call it whatever you’d like, but be sure to check the Open as window checkbox.  If you do not check that checkbox, then the site will open as a tab and basically acts like a bookmark. So, be sure to check that checkbox so everything works like a desktop app.

Setting Your Own App Icon

You may want to set your own custom icon for your new app. To do that, just open up the chrome-xxx.desktop file in your ~/.local/share/applications directory. Here’s an example of my `chome-xxx.desktop` file for my Toggl app.

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Toggl
Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=emhlbipdbnglohkhcmimglnngjlfoehc
#Icon=chrome-emhlbipdbnglohkhcmimglnngjlfoehc-Default
Icon=/home/lee/Pictures/icons/toggl.png
StartupWMClass=crx_emhlbipdbnglohkhcmimglnngjlfoehc

I commented out the default Icon and added my own stored in /home/lee/Pictures/icons/toggl.png

Creating The Keyboard Shortcut

All you have to do is copy what you see on the Exec line.

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=emhlbipdbnglohkhcmimglnngjlfoehc

A couple points about that command:

• /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome is the command to launch the Google Chrome browser
• --profile-directory=Default tells Chrome which browser profile to use. If you have set up multiple users or profiles for your browser you might see a username rather that Default for the profile.
• --app-id=xxx This is the app ID for the chrome app you just created.

Open up the System Settings panel and locate the Keyboard item.

Click the keyboard icon and go to set up your Custom Shortcut to launch your Chrome App.

A window will pop open where you paste the line from the line we got from the .desktop file.

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=emhlbipdbnglohkhcmimglnngjlfoehc

Then, just click on the right column to set your accelerator (aka keyboard shortcut).