Plash 17+

A website as desktop wallpaper

Sindre Sorhus

    • 4.8 • 240 Ratings
    • Free

Screenshots

Description

Make any website your desktop wallpaper.

This enables you to have a highly dynamic desktop wallpaper. You could display your favorite news site, Facebook feed, or a random beautiful scenery photo. The use-cases are limitless. You could even set an animated GIF as wallpaper. You can even add multiple websites and easily switch between them.


■ Features

- Show a remote or local website
- Interact with the website (“Browsing Mode”)
- Automatically reload the website at a custom interval
- Add multiple websites
- Show the website on a different display
- Invert website colors (fake dark mode)
- Add custom CSS and JavaScript to the website
- Lower the opacity
- Transparent background
If the website doesn't have a background color, your system wallpaper will show through.
- Automatically deactivate while on battery
- Audio is muted
- Single image will be aspect-filled to your screen
- Hide menu bar icon
- Shortcuts support
- Scriptable (see the Plash website)
- Share extension

Note: Support for multiple displays is currently limited to the ability to choose which display to show the website on. Support for setting a separate website for each display is planned.


■ Example use-cases

- Show a random puppy image
Example URL: https://source.unsplash.com/random/2880x1756?puppy
See the “Tips” on how to get exact screen size.
- Bing Photo of the Day
Read more: https://github.com/sindresorhus/plash-bing-photo-of-the-day
- Random street view image
https://randomstreetview.com/#slideshow
- Calendar
- Personal stats
- Random color
https://www.color.pizza


■ Tips

‣ Browsing mode

You can interact with the website by enabling “Browsing Mode”. When in this mode, you can right-click to be able to go back/forward, reload, and zoom in the page contents (the zoom level is saved). You can also pinch to magnify. This is different from zooming the page contents in that it will zoom in to a specific part of the page instead of just enlarging everything.

Plash injects a CSS class named “plash-is-browsing-mode” on the “html” element while browsing mode is active. You could use this class to customize the website for browsing mode.

If clicking a link opens it in a new window, you can hold the Option key while clicking the link to open it in the main Plash window.

‣ Zoom in website

To zoom in the website, activate “Browsing Mode”, right-click the website, and then select “Zoom In”.

‣ URL placeholders for screen width and height

Use `[[screenWidth]]` and `[[screenHeight]]` in any URL and Plash will substitute the right values for you. For example, `https://source.unsplash.com/random/[[screenWidth]]x[[screenHeight]]?puppy`.


If you have some cool use-case you want to share or some other feedback, please do send me an email through the “Send Feedback” button in the app.


■ FAQ

‣ How can I switch to a specific website with a keyboard shortcut?

Make a shortcut in the Shortcuts app that uses the “Set Current Website” action and then set a keyboard shortcut for the shortcut.


■ Support

Click the “Send Feedback” button in the app.

What’s New

Version 2.15.0

- The app now requires macOS 14. You can get the last macOS 13 compatible version from the app's website.

Ratings and Reviews

4.8 out of 5
240 Ratings

240 Ratings

Luis Despiau ,

Revolutionize Your Workspace with Plash | Rating: ★★★★★

Plash is a game-changer for desktop customization, allowing you to set any website as your wallpaper and offering an innovative way to enhance productivity and accessibility.

Its standout feature, the "Browsing Mode," allows you to interact with the website directly from your desktop. Whether you need to track tasks, check the weather, or stay updated on news, it's all right there in the background.

Incorporating custom CSS and JavaScript is a bonus for those looking to personalize their workspace further, and the automatic reloading ensures you always have up-to-date information.

With the flexibility to add multiple websites, customize displays, and automatically deactivate while on battery, Plash proves versatile and considerate of user needs. While the multiple display support could use enhancement, the overall benefits outweigh this minor limitation.

For my use case, setting my DakBoard as my wallpaper, Plash makes it simple to stay on top of all my tasks and projects. It's transformed my workspace experience, keeping everything I need right at my fingertips. Highly recommended for those looking to step up their productivity game.

Rating: ★★★★★

all-the-pinions ,

I have been looking for this for years.

There is one thing I would change/add to this. It's otherwise exactly what I have been looking for. I tend to run multiple desktops on my Mac at once, with designated spaces for different projects. I would love to be able to use this on multiple desktops with different URLs as the background for each. This would definitely take some doing, but in the meantime, I would totally settle for a super accessible "Favorites" list. Currently, I'm running an Applescript to switch between URLs on my pyrimary desktop, and I'd love for this skill to be integrated into Plash.

This is a really fantastic app. Good job, developers!

Developer Response ,

Multiple websites (favorites) is supported now.

Support for multiple desktops will come eventually, but not anytime soon.

Olcorral ,

- Dynamic Desktop - The Best

Really an amazing and dynamic little app. So impressed with a dynamic weather site- windy- put that on Plash, Amazing desktop weather updates - live. Never realized its potential for following live desktop weather maps update every minute - just incredible for a weather nut like me. So easy to setup Plash, sit back and enjoy live weather updates on my desktop. 5/5 but so much better. Oh, “Browse Mode” is a must to dial in your perfect live action desktop. Adding new websites as easy as copy and paste. Just amazing little low resource and perfect simplicity app.

App Privacy

The developer, Sindre Sorhus, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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