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Squad for Mac is in private beta.
Squad for Mac is a native app for your squad. It signs in to the same squad as the web dashboard and shows the same live work, with the same screens and the same words. It adds the notch, a menu bar item, a panel to hand out work from any app, voice, notifications on your Mac, and Mac access for your teammates. Your squad keeps working in the cloud while your Mac is closed. See What is the same as the web. In this tutorial, you sign in, get to your squad, and look at the main parts of the app.

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Before you start

  • A Mac with Apple silicon. Squad for Mac does not run on a Mac with an Intel processor.
  • A version of macOS that the app supports. See Limits and defaults.
  • A Squad account with an email address and a password. The app has no Google sign-in button.
  • The app. Squad for Mac is in private beta and is not available to download yet. After you install it, it updates itself. See Updates.

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Sign in

1

Open Squad

Open the Squad app. The window shows Sign in, with “Welcome back. Your squad is waiting.”
2

Enter your email and password

Type your Email and Password, then select Sign in. Press Return in Password to sign in. Your Mac’s Password AutoFill can offer your saved squad.so login.
3

Wait for your squad to open

The window shows “Opening your squad…”. Then Today opens, or one of the screens in What happens on first launch.
To make a new account, next to “New to Squad?”, select Create an account. Type your email and a password, select I have read and agree to the Terms of Service, and select Create account. Squad emails you a code. On Check your email, type the code. The app submits it when you type the last digit. Select Send a new code if the code does not arrive. The password length and how long a code works are on Limits and defaults. If you forgot your password, select Forgot your password?, then Send reset code. On Set a new password, type the code from the email and a new password, then select Reset password.

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What happens on first launch

After you sign in, Squad checks your account and your squad before it shows the main window. Each check that needs you shows a screen. The screen moves on by itself when the problem is gone. For more about these screens, see Troubleshooting.

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Set up a new squad

1

Pick your AI

On Set up your squad, pick the AI that you already pay for: ChatGPT (marked Recommended), Claude, or Gemini. Select Use another AI for more choices.
2

Accept the terms

Select I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Refund Policy.
3

Launch your squad

Select Launch my squad. The window shows Building your squad and each step as it finishes. Squad asks to send you notifications, if it did not ask before. You can close the window and keep working. When the squad is ready and Squad is not in front, a notification says “Your squad is ready”. Squad must still be running, but its window can be closed. If you do not allow notifications, the card says “Your squad is here when you open Squad again.” instead.
4

Connect your AI account

On Connect your AI account, sign in to the AI plan that your squad runs on, or paste your key. When the AI needs a command in Terminal, for example claude setup-token for Claude Code, the command shows on its own line with a copy button. You can also select Skip for now; connect later in Settings. See Connect your AI.
5

Meet your chief of staff

On Your squad is ready, select Chat with and your chief of staff’s name. Your chief of staff walks you through building your squad. Select Look around first to open the app without a chat.

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Tips the first time

Squad for Mac does not open a tour by itself. It shows each tip once, at the moment it helps:
  • When you first open a chat: “In a message, type @ to bring in a teammate, # for a task or doc, and / for a skill.”
  • After your first message: a tip that your Delegate shortcut hands over work from any app.
  • The next time you open a chat: a tip that you can hold your talk shortcut and speak to your squad from anywhere.
  • In the notch, the first time a teammate starts working: “Point at the notch to see who’s working. Click it to chat, or drop files on it.”
  • In the notch, after you allow a Mac access request once: “Share a folder in Settings, Mac access, and your squad can use it without asking each time.”
  • After a meeting: “Squad stayed quiet during your meeting. Right-click the notch to snooze it any time.”
Tips that show in the notch need the notch to be on. To see everything that the Mac adds to the web dashboard at once, choose Help > What the Mac Adds.

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Switch squads

When you are in more than one squad, you switch between them in the app.
1

Open the squad switcher

Select your squad’s name at the top of the sidebar.
2

Pick a squad

Under Your squads, select the squad. A checkmark marks the squad that is open. A squad that another person shared with you shows · shared with you after its name. A squad that is not set up yet shows · setting up. Each other squad shows what waits for you there, for example how many things need you and how many replies are new.
The whole window reloads for the new squad. Open items, the command palette, and the notch chat close, and Back starts over. If Squad cannot open the squad, an alert says “Couldn’t switch squads” with the reason. The switcher also has:
  • Join a squad with an invite link…: opens Join a squad. Paste the link from your invite email in Invite link, select Check invite, then Accept invite. The invite says which role you join as. See Invite people to your squad.
  • New squad team with its price: starts the checkout for another squad. See Costs.
Your other squads keep counting in the background. The Dock badge, the menu bar, and the notch include what needs you there. See Other squads.

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What is the same as the web

Squad for Mac shows the same squad as the web dashboard, live. Today, Needs you, Tasks, Email, Docs, Contacts, the Wallet, Routines, Activity, History, Computer, chat, projects, skills, memory, and the Settings for your squad work the same, with the same words: a teammate is an AI member of your squad, work is a task, work that repeats is a routine, and what a teammate asks you is a question. The web docs describe them. Where the Mac shows a different label, menu, or gesture, the web page says so in a line that starts with “On Squad for Mac (private beta)”.

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Only on the Mac

To see the main ones in the app, choose Help > What the Mac Adds.

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What is different on the Mac

  • Sign-in has no Google button. An account that you made with Google has no password, so it cannot sign in to the Mac app.
  • Settings opens in its own window. It has no Tools or Teammates pages. Open them in the web dashboard. Animated teammates is in This Mac > General, not in You.
  • The Mac has no Health page. Open it in the web dashboard.
  • You cannot create a pipeline, or change its stages and fields, on the Mac. See Contacts on Squad for Mac (private beta).
  • More in the sidebar starts folded, and a place that is new to the sidebar says New for its first month. See The sidebar on Squad for Mac.
  • A conversation with replies that you have not read opens at the first of them. See Chat with your teammates.
  • A teammate’s email draft or escalated email in chat shows as a card with Send now and Discard, or Open in Email and Dismiss. See Email conversations in chat.

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The window

Squad opens its main window when you open the app. Closing the window does not quit Squad, so the menu bar, the notch, and notifications keep working. To open the window again, click Squad in the Dock, or choose File > Open Squad. To quit, choose Quit Squad in the menu bar panel’s ⋯ (More) menu.
  • With Open Squad when you log in on, Squad starts quietly in the menu bar when you log in. The window shows only if you are signed out.
  • Squad remembers the window’s size and place.
  • Short messages, for example a confirmation with Undo, show at the bottom of the window for a few seconds.
  • A squad.so dashboard link in a message opens the same place in the app, not in your browser.
For the sidebar, see The sidebar on Squad for Mac. For the Go menu, Back and Forward, find, and text size, see Keyboard shortcuts.

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Watch a teammate’s browser in a floating window

The owner and Administrators can watch a teammate’s browser on your squad’s computer in a small window that stays above your other apps. Your squad’s computer must be on.
1

Open the floating window

On Computer, pick the teammate and select Float while you work. Or, in a chat with a teammate, select Watch in the header. On the Mac, Watch opens the floating window, not the full screen.
2

Place it

The window opens at the bottom right of the screen, with that teammate’s browser. It stays above your other apps, on every Space and over full-screen apps. Resize it or move it.
3

Open the full screen, or stop watching

Point to the window and select the expand button to open the full Computer screen in Squad. Close the window to stop watching.
One floating window shows at a time. It closes when you switch squads. It is for watching only. To use the mouse and keyboard, open Computer and select Take over. See Your squad’s computer.

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Take a short tour

  1. Look at the sidebar. Today is at the top, then the places that you pinned: at first Email, Docs, and Contacts. More holds the other places. Your teammates are under Your squad, with your chief of staff first. Your projects, group chats, and pins follow.
  2. Select Today. It shows who is working, what needs you, and what your squad did today. See Use Today.
  3. Select your chief of staff under Your squad. Their chat opens. Type a message and press Return to send it. See Chat.
  4. Press ⌘K. The command palette opens. Type the name of a teammate, a task, or a screen, and press Return. See The command palette on Squad for Mac.
  5. Look at the menu bar at the top of your screen. The Squad mark shows how many things need you. Click it in any app to answer quick questions without opening the window.
  6. Press ⌥Space in any other app. The Delegate panel opens on top of it. Press Esc to close it. See Delegate, talk, and use Siri.
You now have your squad open on your Mac.

Use Today

Who is working, what needs you, and what your squad did today.

Needs you

Answer everything that waits for you in one place.

Chat

Conversations, group chats, the composer, and files.

The notch and the menu bar

Your squad at the top of your screen.

Settings and notifications

This Mac, notifications, Touch ID, and updates.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every shortcut in one place.