Browser

Cactive Browser is a desktop web browser on the Chromium engine, for Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs. Your Cactive apps are one click away, one sign-in opens all of them, and it blocks trackers and ads by default.

Getting it

Open the disk image and drag Cactive Browser to Applications. The download for this Mac comes first (Apple Silicon when the browser you're using doesn't say); About This Mac in the Apple menu shows which chip yours has. Windows and Linux versions aren't available yet.

It keeps itself up to date: new versions download in the background and install when you quit, or with Restart to Update in the menu or Settings → About. Settings → About also switches between the Stable and Beta channels.

Your apps

The apps sidebar (the sidebar button at the left of the toolbar, or ⌘B, Ctrl+B) has every app in the app switcher, in the same order: Cloud, Git, Caity, Notes, Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Maps, Drive, Documents, Sheets, Slides, Studio, Video, Photos, Mirage, Customers, Health, Weather, Food, Marketing, Docs, Account and Authenticator. Click an app to open it in a tab, or to switch to the tab it's already open in. Caity, Mail, Tasks and Mirage open beside the page instead, in a side panel you can keep open while you browse: ask Caity about the page you're reading, or keep an eye on your inbox. Right-click any app for the other ways to open it, and use the panel's Open in Tab to move it into a tab.

The grid button in the toolbar and the new tab page have the same apps. The sidebar starts hidden; Show the Cactive Apps Sidebar in Settings → General keeps it on.

cactive:// links open in the browser, from any app on your computer: cactive://mail opens Mail, cactive://tasks opens Tasks, and anything after the app's name is the page inside it (cactive://mail/acme/inbox).

Signing in once

Sign in to your Cactive account once in the browser (Sign In on the new tab page, or the profile button in the toolbar) and every Cactive app opens already signed in, as the same account, without asking you to choose one. Switching accounts works as on the web: from the account menu in any app. Settings → Cactive Apps shows whether the profile is signed in, with Manage Account and Sign Out.

Tabs and windows

• Tabs: drag to reorder, right-click to pin, mute, duplicate or close others; ⇧⌘T (Ctrl+Shift+T) brings back a closed tab. ⌘1–⌘8 go to a tab, ⌘9 to the last.
• Address bar: type an address or a search. Suggestions come from your open tabs, bookmarks, history and your apps; Enter opens the first, Alt+Enter opens it in a new tab.
• Command bar: ⌘K (Ctrl+K) searches your tabs, apps and everything the browser can do.
• Back and forward: swipe left or right with two fingers on the trackpad (as Swipe between pages is set in System Settings → Trackpad), or use your mouse's back and forward buttons.
• Zoom: ⌘+ and ⌘− (Ctrl+ and Ctrl− elsewhere), ⌘0 for the default size, or − and + in the menu. Each site keeps its own size, and the magnifier in the address bar shows when a page isn't at your default: click it to change or reset it. Settings → Appearance → Page Zoom sets the default. Pinching on the trackpad magnifies the page for a moment without changing its size.
• Bookmarks bar: ⇧⌘B (Ctrl+Shift+B), or Bookmarks in the menu, shows it under the toolbar. Folders open as menus, drag to reorder, the » at the end holds what doesn't fit, and right-click to edit, rename, delete or add a page or folder. Bookmark a page with the star in the address bar.
• New tab page: remove a site from Most Visited or a tab from Recently Closed with its × or a right-click; clicking a recently closed tab brings it back with its history.
• Find, Print, Full Screen and Developer Tools are in the menu (the ⋮ button), with their shortcuts. ⌘/ (Ctrl+/) lists every shortcut.
• History, Bookmarks and Downloads have their own pages.
• The Cactive mark beside the padlock in the address bar means the page is one of your Cactive apps. It shows only on Cactive's own addresses, never on sites people host with Cactive or on lookalike addresses, whatever the page itself says.

Bringing your bookmarks and history

Settings → Import (also offered on a new profile's first new tab page) brings bookmarks, history and open tabs from Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Firefox and Safari on the same computer. Bookmarks arrive in a folder of their own on the bookmarks bar, and open tabs in a new window. Arc's pinned tabs come in as bookmarks, one folder per space.

• Passwords and cookies are never imported. Chrome, Arc, Brave and Edge encrypt them with a key in your Keychain, and Cactive Browser doesn't read them.
• Safari: macOS keeps Safari's files private. To import from it, turn on Cactive Browser in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, then Check Again in Settings → Import. Safari's open tabs can't be imported.

Profiles and private windows

Each profile has its own sign-in, cookies, history, bookmarks and settings, so work and personal browsing stay apart: Settings → Profiles adds one, and the profile button in the toolbar opens a window for another. A private window (⇧⌘N, Ctrl+Shift+N) keeps no history, cookies or site data once it closes.

Privacy and security

• Trackers and ads are blocked with maintained filter lists (EasyList, EasyPrivacy and Ghostery's). The shield in the address bar shows how many were blocked on the page; click it to allow them on that site.
• HTTPS-Only Mode opens every site over a secure connection. A site without one stops at a warning first, where Continue to Site opens it for the rest of the session. Addresses on your own network (localhost, 192.168.…) are left as they are.
• Permissions: when a site asks for your camera, microphone, location or to show notifications, the browser asks you under the address bar, and remembers your answer for that site. Settings → Privacy and Security lists them to change, and clears browsing data.

Making it your default browser

Settings → General → Make Default asks your computer to open web links in Cactive Browser.