Blisk is the first developer-oriented browser with built-in devices that runs on your desktop and is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It provides teams and freelancers with a workspace to develop and test modern web applications twice faster.
You can use Blisk as a regular browser to look for something across the web (Browsing mode) or you can use a workspace for web development (Developer Mode).
Blisk supports any kind of web applications: Whether it is in production state (public website or web application), or development / staging state (local website, local web application, local hybrid application). Native mobile apps for iOS, Android, iPadOS are not supported at the moment.
Blisk also natively integrates with your local web server: Simply start your local web server and paste your local address into the address bar (e.g. localhost
). If you work in Visual Studio - set Blisk as your default web browser and press F5
or CTRL + F5
. This will start your local website in Blisk automatically.
Single-page applications of any kind (e.g. based on Angular, React, Meteor, Ember, Backbone, and VueJS) are supported as well.
At the moment, Blisk application supports English language only. The other localizations are not available.
Being a desktop application, Blisk supports different operating systems from major vendors: Windows, macOS, and Linux-based systems. The installers for Windows and macOS are protected with Digital code sign certificates, providing the highest level of security. We ensure that our software development is secure and assets of our clients always remain protected.
Blisk supports Windows 11/10 or Windows Server 2016 or later (64-bit version).
Blisk supports macOS Catalina 10.15 or later for Intel chip and M1/M2/M3 chip (Apple Silicon).
Download Blisk for macOS (Intel chip)
Download Blisk for macOS (M1/M2/M3 chip (Apple Silicon))
Blisk supports 64-bit versions for Debian/Ubuntu and for Fedora/openSUSE.
Download Blisk for Debian/Ubuntu
Download Blisk for Fedora/openSUSE
We constantly update the software with an average release cycle of 2-3 months. The updates include new features, new devices, platform updates, bug fixes and security patches. As soon as new update becomes available, Blisk notifies users with the in-app notifications and via email.
The Windows version offers silent update - the application installs update itself with the application relaunch after the permission from the user.
macOS and Linux-based versions require a few clicks to update the software. The feature of silent update on macOS is currently in progress.
If needed, you can request an offline installer from our Support team.
Please refer to our Video tutorial with a Blisk demo describing the workflow and main features that you will be using in Blisk.
With Blisk, you can do a variety of tasks to get things done faster, whether you need to browse the web or build and test web applications. Use Browsing Mode to look for something across the web or start Developer Mode when you need to develop and test your website.
Like other browsers, Blisk uses an address bar (Omnibox) to navigate across the web. Type a URL or search query into the address bar to view web content.
Developer mode is an extended mode and includes the features you need for highly productive web development and testing. With enabled Developer mode, Blisk displays additional interface elements and controls: menus, notifications, device panes, devices, dialog overlays, etc. To learn more about Development Interface, see the Developer mode GUI section below.
Developer mode includes:
To enable Developer mode, click the Developer Mode button to the left of Omnibox or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+M / ⌘+M. This will open the last used device set. In case you click this button for the first time: Blisk starts Device Manager.
To use Developer Mode on any website:
Click Menu ➜ Settings ➜ Developer Mode and select Apply Developer Mode to All Domains in the dropdown.
To disable Developer mode, click the Developer Mode button to the left of Omnibox. You can also use Menu ➜ Device Set ➜ Exit Developer Mode.
In some cases, you may need to automatically start a specific domain in Developer Mode. For these purposes, use the Development Domain button. When you click on this button, you will notice a checkmark appear and disappear. Thus, with a visible checkmark, Blisk indicates that Developer Mode starts with the current domain automatically.
Blisk is built on top of Chromium (also used by Chrome browser) and features a minimalistic material user interface.
Like many other browsers, Blisk uses a common user interface (tabs, address bar, toolbars, notifications) on the top to navigate and manipulate tabs, and Webview on the bottom, showing web content of opened URLs.
With enabled Developer Mode, Blisk displays additional interface elements and controls: menus, notifications, device panes, devices, dialog overlays, etc. To learn more about Developer Mode, see the Developer Mode section.
Use the Menu to manipulate your Device Set, to control the layout and the size of devices, to enable and disable features (e.g. Auto-refresh, URL Sync, Scroll Sync, Device Cache, etc).
Device manager controls the list of devices in a Device Set and their size. Device Manager has a simple user interface: tabs with device categories and groups on the top, the list of devices on the left to select a device, and a list with selected devices on the right.
Device Set can contain one or more devices that are wrapped into Device Panes. The maximum number of devices is limited to eight units per Device Set to avoid high CPU load. Device Pane displays device information, device actions, errors and warnings, and device state.
Use Device Manager to create Device Set:
To edit Device Set with enabled Developer Mode, click the button Device Manager on the top right. Update the list of devices in Device Manager and click Launch devices. Blisk will start the new Device Set.
The Splitter appears inside Multi-device Set (a set with two and more devices), splits Device Panes, and allows to control the layout of Device Set. By dragging the splitter to left and right, you can adjust the size of devices.
Use Menu ➜ View ➜ Reset Splitter Position reset the position of all Splitters in Device Set and restore the size of Device Panes to defaults (equal size).
Color Themes let you modify the colors in Blisk's user interface to suit your preferences and work environment. By default, Blisk inherits the theme of your operating system (light or dark). Tip: After setting your OS to change the theme automatically to dark mode, Blisk will display in Dark theme at night time reducing the chance of eye injury.
Device is one of the core components in Blisk. The devices are built into the application and ready to use from the very beginning, so you do not need to download or install anything else. Devices display in Developer Mode only, enable Developer Mode to use them (see the Developer mode section).
Blisk emulates devices. We use technologies from Blink rendering engine, Chromium, and our own technologies to emulate devices. We use native technologies to emulate screen resolution, device pixel ratio, user agent, touch and touch events, orientation, dark mode, etc. Our solution does not use Iframes that are widely used on the web. That is why emulation of devices is very accurate and close to real-world examples.
You can use a single device or multiple devices simultaneously. To learn more about using multiple devices simultaneously, see the Multi-device Set section below.
Blisk offers devices of different operating systems, types, and viewports. See Device Manager section to use the devices and create device sets. Devices in Blisk use proper screen resolution, viewport, device pixel ratio, user-agent header, orientation (portrait or landscape), light and dark color theme, and support touch + touch events. What you should know:
The list of devices (mobiles, tablets, laptops, and desktops) supported by Blisk is available on the Device portal.
Launch Device Manager to use one device or multiple simultaneously.
In Blisk, you can create a device set with multiple devices and use them simultaneously. You can mix devices of different types and operating systems to develop and test for mobile, tablet, and desktop simultaneously. With this approach, development tasks can be done twice faster than before.
When you use multiple devices simultaneously, they use a single shared Cache, Cookies, Local and Session storage, Database, etc. Thus, when you browse any website (Internet or Local Server), devices log into websites automatically and use the same website settings (e.g. Cookies and Local Storage). Use Menu ➜ Tools ➜ Enable Device Cache to control Caching.
The most common case is using mobile along with Chrome-like view. Follow the steps:
You can change the devices appearing in the current Device set. Click the Device Manager button and edit the device set.
To quickly change one device, click the Device name at the top of Device Pane and select another device from the appearing dropdown menu.
Some devices like mobiles and tablets natively support landscape and portrait orientation. To switch the orientation, click the rotation button appearing at the top right corner of each Device Pane to toggle the landscape / portrait mode.
With the Device zoom (scaling the web content inside the device), you can preview the small elements on the web page or test zoom features.
To zoom the device:
SHIFT
(the Move cursor will appear) and drag. Dragging to the top will apply zoom in. Dragging to the bottom will apply zoom out.By default, Blisk uses URL synchronization (URL Sync) for Device set with multiple devices. Devices from the device set navigate to the current URL in the Address Bar (Omnibox). When you click any link or perform navigation on one device, URL Sync navigates the other devices to the same URL. As a result, devices follow each other by URL. This approach works with regular websites and single-page applications.
URL Sync management. URL Sync works per tab: its state can be changed manually on each tab. To enable or disable URL Sync, use Menu ➜ Tools ➜ Enable URL Sync.
Redirects. In case your web application has some custom redirect specified, the device navigates with a redirect. Blisk monitors for cases with too many redirects. When devices start redirecting each other multiple times and create an infinite loop of redirects, Blisk stops redirects, disables URL Sync, and displays a dialog window with a warning. You can enable URL Sync directly from this dialog window.
By default, Blisk uses Scroll synchronization (Scroll Sync) for Device set with multiple devices. When you scroll one device, the other devices follow the current device by scroll position automatically. As a result, devices follow each other by scroll position.
Scroll Sync management. The state of Scroll Sync applies to the whole window. It means that if you disable Scroll Sync on tab #1, Scroll Sync will be disabled on tab #2, #3, etc. To enable or disable Scroll Sync, use Menu ➜ Tools ➜ Enable Scroll Sync.
Template is another handy feature in Blisk that offers a better way of using your favorite devices in Blisk. Template is a saved set of devices ready to use for your next project. Blisk offers two ways of using Templates:
Launch the Device Manager and select the Templates tab in order to use one of the premade Templates.
Use Menu ➜ Device Set ➜ Create Template to create a custom Template with any devices of your choice and to set a custom template name.
Since the release of iOS 15, the Apple mobiles switched to bottom address bar by default. Blisk also switched to the bottom address bar by default. Starting with Blisk v.19, you can toggle the address bar position for iOS-based devices between the top and bottom positions. Blisk offers a new Toggle Address Bar Position to Top/Bottom button in the Device header of each iOS device.
Toggle Address Bar Position on iOS devices in Blisk
Use Menu ➜ View to control the look and feel of Blisk while working in Developer Mode. This menu item has the following options:
Menu ➜ View ➜ Devices Scaling is a global setting that specifies the device rendering style and size. The setting has 3 options available:
Menu ➜ View ➜ Full Screen is a global setting that launches the current Window in full-screen mode. F11
is an alternative shortcut to toggle the full-screen mode.
Splitter is another important element of the user interface that helps to resize the Device Pane and to position the devices. By dragging the splitter to left and right, you can adjust the size of devices with enabled option "Fit to view" or "Relative Size".
Starting with version 21.0, Blisk automatically saves and restored Splitter location, eliminating the need to move Splitter after launching a Device set. Automatic save and restore of Splitter location works in the following way:
As a result, Blisk will restore the splitters and device sizes for every session, users will work with the same configuration of device set even after application relaunch. Users will not need to configure the device set in every session.
For a better understanding of this feature, check out the examples of device sets and how Blisk interprets them in terms of Splitter location. Notice: these are just a few examples, this feature is not limited by device number.
Example 1:
Device set:
iPhone SE
+ Chrome-like view
Will be interpreted for Splitter as:
Mobile
+ Chrome-like view
If you specify device set with Galaxy S22 + Chrome-like view, then this Splitter schema will apply automatically because these devices are: Mobile + Chrome-like view.
If you specify device set with iPad 10 + Chrome-like view, then this Splitter schema will not work because these devices are: Tablet + Chrome-like view.
Example 2:
Device set:
iPhone 14
+ Galaxy S22
+ iPad 10
Will be interpreted for Splitter as:
Mobile
+ Mobile
+ Tablet
If you specify device set with LG G6 + iPhone SE + iPad Mini, then this Splitter schema will apply automatically because these devices are: Mobile + Mobile + Tablet.
If you specify device set with iPad Mini + iPhone SE + LG G6, then this Splitter schema will not work because these devices are: Tablet + Mobile + Mobile.
Use Menu ➜ View ➜ Align width of device panels to make the panels the same width and resize the devices inside panels accordingly.
Menu ➜ View ➜ Show Errors and Warnings is a global setting that shows or hides Page Errors and Warnings Counter inside each Device Pane.
Blisk features best-in-class DevTools same as in Chrome with multiple features for inspecting elements, debugging the code, measuring performance, investigating network requests and memory usage, and more! The application has a convenient way to use all the features of Developer Tools in both development and browsing modes.
Starting with version 21.0, Blisk supports two modes of working with DevTools:
Unlike other solutions, Blisk users are able to use multiple Developer Tools for each device independently. In addition, you can:
With Blisk, you can take screenshots, record videos of your screen, edit assets and save them to the Cloud storage.
After taking a screenshot, Blisk launches Image editor with the options to annotate a screenshot, save it locally or save the asset to a cloud storage. Images saved in Cloud storage can be easily shared with your teammates.
Click the button with Camera
icon appearing at the top right corner of each Device pane to take a screenshot of a separate device.
Use Menu ➜ Capture to use capturing features, like taking screenshots and recording videos, and to access your saved assets. This menu item has the following options:
Page Auto-refresh keeps the code updated to the latest version across devices. Web contents refresh automatically when you modify source code and save changes. CSS is updated even without page refresh.
Page Auto-refresh works with domains, not specific URLs. If you set up auto-refreshing for http://localhost
, Blisk will refresh all URLs from this domain automatically (e.g. http://localhost/some-page
).
Page Auto-refresh works with different file formats. You can specify any file format to trigger Page Auto-refreshing when these files change, for example:
Page Auto-refresh works with folders. You need to specify at least one folder that will be watched for changes. When any specified file format changes in this folder, the webpage in devices refreshes automatically.
Follow the steps to set up Page Auto-refresh for your local environment:
Follow the steps to edit Page Auto-refresh settings:
TIP To view CSS and JavaScript changes, you may need to disable Cache: click Menu ➜ Tools ➜ Enable Device Cache.
Blisk integrates smoothly with your workspace (web browsers, command line, and extensions). Starting with version 16, you can:
Generate a Command:
Use Menu ➜ Device Set ➜ Share Set to generate a Сommand that you will use in Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (macOS and Linux). Blisk will launch the wizard Share Device Set:
Blisk link is a custom link that launches Blisk application from other browsers' address bar (Omnibox), extension, bookmarklet, or Html link.
Blisk link example: blisk://start?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgetbootstrap.com%2F&devices=iPhone+12&scaling=smart-scaling&orientation=portrait
Html link example: <a href="blisk://start?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgetbootstrap.com%2F&devices=iPhone+12&scaling=smart-scaling&orientation=portrait">Launch in Blisk</a>
Requirements:
You need to install Blisk URL Handler to use Blisk links. This URL Handler recognizes Blisk links - the custom URLs that start with blisk://
. Use Menu ➜ Settings ➜ Integrations to install Blisk URL Handler.
Generate a Blisk link:
Use Menu ➜Device Set ➜ Share Set to generate a Blisk link that you will use in other browsers. Blisk will launch the wizard Share Device Set:
You can use your favorite Chrome extensions in Browsing mode - Blisk supports extensions smoothly. While some extensions work in Developer mode, the extensions in Developer mode are not officially supported due to conflicts with multiple device contents.
Use Menu ➜ Tools to use extra features, like Image Editor, to manage URL Sync, Scroll Sync, and Device Cache. This menu item has the following options:
Use Menu ➜ Settings to control Blisk features, to customize the look and feel of Blisk application. Within Settings, you may control Developer Mode, Home Page, Theme, Auto-refresh, Device Sync, and Captures.
Please follow the steps in case you have issues with Blisk:
Learn more about Developer Mode, Development Domain, and Device Manager on Blisk Documentation.