Toggl Desktop on Ubuntu 18

Toggl makes a particular effort to bring its time-tracking platform to a variety of operating systems. This includes a Linux desktop client. As of this writing, the page refers to Ubuntu 16.04, and recommends additional dependencies.

Testing version 7.4.122 of the [linked 64-bit Debian package]{https://toggl.com/api/v8/installer?app=td&platform=deb64&channel=stable}, I confirmed that installation does not appear to go anywhere on 18.04, with the installation process exiting immediately after download.

Manual dependencies

Following Toggl’s advice, manually libgstreamer installation continues to work:

wget http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gst-plugins-base0.10/libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0_0.10.36-1_amd64.deb
wget http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gstreamer0.10/libgstreamer0.10-0_0.10.36-1.5ubuntu1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i libgstreamer*.deb

After that, Ubuntu software installed the package without issue:

Desktop features: all working!

The Toggl desktop can then be found in search and added to favorites. On launch, a small window invites the user to sign in:

There is clearly a built-in browser, with Google Sign-In running smoothly. Past sign-in, the interface matches the screenshots. 10 minutes later, the ‘‘Reminder to track time’’ feature also revealed itself, as a popup-inside-a-window:

The Pomodoro timer also integrates reasonably. Messages are created as separate windows:

Break status is shown by changing the active project (which does get added to the project history).

Overall, much easier to access and remember. As a final feature not listed on the site, the desktop app adds the gray/red Toggl indicator as a persistent icon to the right side of the topbar, providing the same options as the window dropdown. Timers thus continue to run if the main window is closed, and starting/stopping/continuing a timer from the icon reopens the window.