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Desktop App Deployment¶
Available on The Mattermost desktop app is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, and offers additional functionality beyond the web-based experience.
Learn more about desktop app software requirements, releases and server compatibility as well as the what’s changed across releases.
Download¶
Download and install the Mattermost desktop app from the App Store (macOS), Microsoft Store (Windows), or by using a package manager (Linux). We strongly recommend installing the desktop app on a local drive. Network shares aren’t supported.
In Matermost, users are notified under Downloads when new desktop app releases become available. If managing the distribution of the Desktop app on behalf of users, you can recommend that your users disable desktop update notifications by going to … > File > Settings on Windows or Mattermost > Settings on Mac and clearing the Automatically check for updates option.
See additional deployment options below to manage distribution of the desktop app to your users.
Windows distribution channels¶
From desktop v6.1, organizations deploying on Windows have 2 primary distribution options:
Windows Store (recommended): Provides automatic updates through the Microsoft Store infrastructure. This is the recommended option for most organizations seeking streamlined update management.
MSI packages: Traditional deployment method with full control over installation timing. See the MSI installer and group policy guide documentation for details.
The desktop v6.1 app includes in-app update notifications. All distribution channels (Windows Store, MSI, Mac App Store, Flathub, APT/RPM) release simultaneously to prevent notification and availability mismatches across deployment methods.
Deployment options¶
Learn about installation, configuration, and management options for deploying the desktop app in your environment.
Privacy and data handling¶
Error reporting¶
From Mattermost Desktop v6.1, the desktop app includes automatic error reporting to help identify and fix crashes and stability issues.
What information is sent
Error reports include:
Crash information and stack traces
App version and platform details (OS type, architecture)
Error messages and context
What is NOT sent
Message content or user communications
User credentials, passwords, or authentication tokens
Personally identifiable information (PII)
Server URLs or team names
Privacy and user control
Error reporting is enabled by default. Users can disable it at any time by going to Settings > Advanced > Send error reports to help improve the app. Restart the app to apply the change.
Organizations with data handling policies should inform users about this feature and provide guidance on whether to disable it. For organizations building the Desktop app from source, error reporting can be disabled at build time by omitting the MM_DESKTOP_BUILD_SENTRYDSN environment variable.
Session attribute collection¶
From Mattermost Desktop v6.3, the desktop app can report device and network context - such as hardware and network identifiers, VPN status, and MDM enrollment - to the servers it’s connected to, for use in permission policies. This is separate from error reporting and from anonymous usage data. See the session attributes documentation for every value that can be reported and how each one is measured, and platform availability for the differences between platforms.
When collection happens
Collection occurs according to a manifest sent by the server. The server specifies which attributes it wants (based on admin configuration), and the desktop app collects and sends them only as often as the server’s configured time-to-live requires.
What is NOT sent
Message content or user communications
Credentials, passwords, or authentication tokens
Browsing history, running processes, or installed applications
Contents of network traffic. VPN status is determined by inspecting the types of network interfaces present on the device, not by inspecting traffic.
Privacy and user control
Session attribute reporting is enabled by default. Users can disable it at any time by clearing Settings > Advanced > Enable session attributes. While it’s enabled, a read-only table beneath the setting shows each attribute the app can collect on that device and the value it currently reports, which tells users what the app is capable of sending and gives admins somewhere to look first when a user is unexpectedly denied access. Only the attributes the server asks for are actually sent.
Important
Disabling this setting stops the desktop app from reporting attributes, which means the user will be denied any file upload or file download governed by a policy that depends on a client-reported session attribute. Organizations that rely on session attributes for access control should inform users of this before rolling the policies out.
Values reported by the desktop app are held only in the server’s in-memory per-session cache. They aren’t written to the database, aren’t included in compliance exports, and are discarded when the session ends.