Get notifications on your desktop

To be alerted when VNCchat is not the window in front of you, use the desktop app. It raises your operating system’s own notifications, shows an unread badge, and keeps a menu-bar / system-tray icon so it can keep running in the background.

Install the desktop app

Open your organization’s downloads page (your administrator can give you the address). The desktop app is listed there for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Download the installer for your platform and install it.
Open it and sign in — see Sign in and sign out. The desktop app uses the same VNC SSO as the web app.

The tray icon and the unread badge

A menu-bar icon (macOS) or system-tray icon (Windows/Linux) shows the app is running, with your unread count in its tooltip.
Your unread count is also shown on the operating system’s badge surface — the app icon on macOS, the taskbar icon on Windows.
On Windows and Linux, closing the window hides the app to the tray instead of quitting, so notifications keep arriving. To close it fully, open the tray menu and choose Quit.
The tray menu has Open VNCchat, Pause notifications and Quit VNCchat.

OS notifications

New messages and incoming calls raise your operating system’s notifications, the same way other apps do. A notification is not raised while the VNCchat window is focused — the message is already on screen — but the in-app sound still plays.

Pause notifications (do not disturb)

Open the tray menu and tick Pause notifications. While it is ticked, VNCchat raises no OS notifications and stays silent. Untick it to resume. This is a per-session switch: it resets the next time you start the app.

Sound

Turn the new-message sound on or off in Settings (see Settings).
Silence a single conversation with Mute sound, or stop it ringing for calls with Mute calls — see Pin and mute a conversation.

Notifications from every VNClagoon product

The suite also ships a small notification tray app that shows desktop notifications from all your VNClagoon products — not just VNCchat — over the shared notification rail (no third-party push service). It downloads from the same downloads page as the desktop app. In its settings you can:

Show notification text — on or off (a text preview in the notification).
Play sound — on or off.
Pause notifications — a do-not-disturb switch.

Sign in once the first time you open it; after that it stays connected and shows new activity from VNCchat and the other products.