Your download has started 🍄

Nothing happening? Start it again, or pick a version yourself: Mac or Windows.

On a Mac

  1. Open Mushroom.dmg from your Downloads folder.
  2. Drag Mushroom onto the Applications folder in the window that opens.
  3. Open Mushroom from Applications. The pet appears on your desktop and a little mushroom sits in the menu bar at the top of the screen. There is no Dock icon, on purpose.

The first time, macOS asks whether you are sure you want to open an app downloaded from the internet. Click Open: it is signed and notarized by Apple, and it only asks once. It needs macOS 15 or later on an Apple Silicon Mac.

On Windows

  1. Run Mushroom-windows.exe from your Downloads folder.
  2. If a blue window says "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.
  3. Follow the installer. The pet appears on your desktop and Mushroom's icon sits in the system tray beside the clock.

That blue window is SmartScreen. The installer is signed, but SmartScreen still calls a freshly released app unrecognised for the first few weeks after each release, until enough people have run it. It does not mean anything is wrong with the download. It needs Windows 11.

The next 7 days

Everything is switched on from the first launch apart from Friends and file sharing, with no account and no card. Settings, License shows how many days are left. When the trial ends, Mushroom goes to sleep in the menu bar (the tray on Windows). Your reminders, notes and everything else stay exactly where they are, and a licence key wakes it all straight back up.

What it costs, and which version to buy ›   Help with everything else ›