Features & FAQ

Dashboard

Clock, weather and bookmarks laid out on one screen. Weather uses Open-Meteo, so no API key is needed, and temperature is shown in °C. Toggle each widget under Settings → Display.

Bookmarks (home screen)

Switch pages with tabs and open links from a grid of tiles (new tab). Long-press or press E to enter edit mode for reordering, folder creation, cross-page moves, and deletion. Custom icons accept PNG / JPEG / WebP / SVG up to 1MB. You can also add many bookmarks from open tabs (the tabs permission is requested only on click).

Google apps launcher

One-click access to Gmail, Drive, Maps, Docs, and many other Google services. Show, hide, and reorder apps under Settings → Display with drag-and-drop.

Sync

Stored as bookmarks.json in your own Google Drive appDataFolder (extension-private). Whole-file LWW with ETag optimistic locking and tombstone-based deletion handles multi-device conflicts. When Drive sync is enabled, custom icon blobs are also synced on a best-effort basis (background images remain separately opt-in).

Authentication & permissions

OAuth2 implicit flow via launchWebAuthFlow. Only non-sensitive scopes are used: openid / email / profile (login) and drive.appdata (sync). Token refresh attempts silent refresh only; interactive consent opens only when you trigger an action that needs it. Optional bookmarks / tabs permissions are likewise requested only when you click import or bulk-add.

Background

Background color (HEX) syncs across devices via Drive whole-file LWW. Background images are stored locally in IndexedDB by default, with adjustable scale and position. Cross-device sync via Drive appDataFolder is opt-in only (limit: 5MB, PNG / JPEG / WebP).

Settings & data

Settings has three groups: Display, Integrations, and Data & details. From Data & details you can export/import structural JSON, import Chrome bookmarks, manage opt-in local diagnostics, and delete all data.

FAQ

Can I use monica without a Google account?: Yes. The clock, weather, local bookmarks, and Google apps launcher work without signing in. Sign-in is only required for cross-device sync.
Where is my data stored?: Structural data (bookmarks, settings) lives in chrome.storage.local on your machine, and — only when you enable sync — in your own Google Drive appDataFolder (a private area the developer cannot read). Custom icon and background-image blobs live in IndexedDB; with Drive sync enabled, icons sync best-effort while background images remain separately opt-in.
Are there analytics or trackers?: No. There is no Google Analytics, Sentry, third-party SDK or external telemetry. Diagnostics logging is opt-in, kept locally, and off by default.
Can I install from the Chrome Web Store?: Not yet — monica is not published on the Chrome Web Store. For now, load it as an unpacked extension in developer mode; instructions are in the README.
Does it work in other browsers?: It depends on Manifest V3 + chrome.identity, so right now only Chrome / Chromium-based browsers are supported (Edge is not yet verified).