Clients
Desktop
A native Windows, macOS and Linux app that connects to a Fliks server and plays through an embedded mpv engine.
What it is#
The desktop app is a client, not the server: it connects to a Fliks server running elsewhere on the network (or on the same machine) the same way the mobile and web clients do. The first screen after install asks for that server's address.
It wraps the same Angular interface as the web client inside Electron, but plays video through an embedded mpv engine instead of the browser's own player, which is what lets it Direct Play formats a browser can't.
Looking for the Windows tray app or the macOS menu-bar app that runs the server itself? That's a different piece of software, covered in Install > Windows and Install > macOS.
Getting it#
Download the installer for your platform from the latest release:
| Platform | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | .exe (NSIS installer) |
|
| macOS | .dmg |
Apple Silicon only |
| Linux | .AppImage or .deb |
The .deb needs libsdl2-2.0-0, libgles2 and libegl1 |
The Linux packages are built on Ubuntu 24.04; a much older distribution may not have the libraries the native player needs.
Playback engine#
Video plays through a vendored, self-contained build of mpv rather than the system browser engine, which is what makes Direct Play possible for containers and codecs an embedded web view can't handle on its own. Windows and macOS decode in hardware; Linux decodes in software by default. On a screen without HDR, the app tone-maps HDR sources to SDR itself, so the server sends the HDR file as-is instead of converting it. On macOS, an HDR-capable screen shows HDR10 and HLG content in HDR. See Streaming and transcoding for how the server decides what to send in the first place.
Casting to a Chromecast#
The desktop app can act as a Chromecast sender: it discovers devices on the network and casts to them directly, the same way the mobile apps do. See Chromecast for what happens on the receiving end.
Offline downloads#
Downloads work the same way as on mobile: turn on automatic download for a playlist and unwatched items are fetched to local storage, with watched ones cleared out again. See Offline downloads for storage settings and manual downloads.
Updates#
The app checks for a new version 10 seconds after launch and every 6 hours afterward, and you can check by hand from App settings > Update. It never downloads silently: when an update is found you choose to install it, then it's downloaded and the app restarts to apply it. If the check itself fails (no connection, GitHub unreachable), it fails quietly in the background rather than interrupting playback.