Download
LOAM for your computer
Run a LOAM network from your Mac, Windows PC or Linux laptop. Open the app, and it shows a code. People nearby scan it with their phone and they are in. The app is the host; everyone joining needs nothing installed. Free and open source.
What it does
The desktop app starts a LOAM network on your computer and keeps the join code on screen. Anyone on the same Wi-Fi or hotspot scans the code and chats in their browser: channels, threads, direct messages, reactions. There is no account, no cloud and no internet needed. You, as the person who runs it, are the network's admin. Closing the window keeps the network running; Quit stops it.
What hasn't been tested yet
The desktop app is new in LOAM 0.7.0. The Apple Silicon Mac build has been run and checked by hand.
The Windows, Linux and Intel Mac builds have so far only been built and checked automatically, not
run on real machines, so please tell us
how they go. There are no builds for ARM Windows or ARM Linux, so a Raspberry Pi runs
npx loamnet instead.
Truly off-grid
Your computer and the phones only need to be on the same local network. With no router and no internet, turn on your computer's own hotspot and have people join it, then scan the code. LOAM shows the address that hotspot gives your computer.
- Mac: System Settings, General, Sharing, Internet Sharing.
- Windows: Settings, Network & internet, Mobile hotspot.
- Linux: your network settings' hotspot option (NetworkManager), or
nmcli device wifi hotspot.
The first time you open it
All systems: the firewall question
Your computer will ask whether LOAM may accept connections from the network. Say yes, or phones cannot reach it. On a Mac, choose Allow on "accept incoming network connections". On Windows, tick Private networks in the Windows Defender Firewall prompt and choose Allow access.
Mac
Open the .dmg, drag LOAM to Applications and open it. The app is signed by Magic Zebra Limited and notarized by Apple, so there is no "Open Anyway" step. The first time a Community network starts, macOS asks whether LOAM may use the keychain item that protects its database key; choose Always Allow and it will not ask again, updates included.
Windows
Until the Windows installer is signed, SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway. Once signed, the installer's publisher reads SignPath Foundation; see the code signing policy.
Linux
On Ubuntu and Debian, install the .deb with sudo apt install ./LOAM-linux-x64.deb and
open LOAM from your applications menu. For the AppImage, make it runnable and start it:
chmod +x LOAM-linux-x64.AppImage, then ./LOAM-linux-x64.AppImage.
Ubuntu 24.04 and newer stop an AppImage from setting up the sandbox that LOAM's windows run in, so on
those systems use the .deb, which installs the sandbox helper properly. Running the AppImage there with
--no-sandbox works but turns that protection off, so it is not recommended.
Verify your download
Every file on the releases page
has a checksum file beside it and a signed build record that says which GitHub workflow built it.
Put the file and its .sha256 in one folder and run:
sha256sum -c LOAM-mac-arm64.dmg.sha256
On a Mac without sha256sum, shasum -a 256 -c LOAM-mac-arm64.dmg.sha256 does the same. On Windows PowerShell, compare Get-FileHash LOAM-win-x64.exe with the number in the .sha256 file.
To check where it was built, with the GitHub CLI:
gh attestation verify LOAM-mac-arm64.dmg --repo MagicZebraLtd/loam
Updates and privacy
The app never checks for updates by itself. Check for updates in its Settings asks GitHub for the latest version number only when you tap it. Apart from the messages it sends to the phones on your network, nothing else leaves your computer unless you turn on an online assistant, which the admin page warns about, or link another LOAM network, which then gets the public channels. More in the privacy policy.