1725473 - Add preference to disable Windows unread badge on Thunderbird taskbar icon

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, enhancement)

Description

[w4rh4wk]

Attachment: add-winunreadbadge-perf.patch

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:90.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/90.0

Expected results:

Provide a preference to disable the new Windows unread badge. See attached patch for example.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 1: Thunderbird taskbar icon with and without unread badge

I sympathize with this RFE, but could you describe a bit why you don't want the red unread badge to display on the Thunderbird task bar icon?

Comment 2

[w4rh4wk]

Sure. I simply do not want any form of email notification. If it's an email, it does not require my immediate attention and must therefore not interrupt my work. Of course I could just close Thunderbird completely, but that'd be rather inconvenient. Launching Thunderbird simply to check mails every now and then, followed by closing it again is a hassle. While the unread badge is a lot more subtle than a pop notification, it still draws too much attention when glancing at the taskbar.

While I appreciate the addition to Thunderbird, I'd like to have the option to turn it off.

Comment 3

[w4rh4wk]

It just came to mind that closing Thunderbird is not even an option if you are using chat or calendar reminders.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I'd agree with reporter that users should be able to opt out of a permanently attention-seeking unread badge on the taskbar icon of your email app, and 3 lines of code to achieve that looks good to me.

Comment 5

[webemail2]

I am in agreement with w4rh4wk's explanation of why the notification is less than appealing. And, I appreciate the consideration being given to provide a switch for it. As a "joiner" to this thread, if I can provide further insight from another user, let me know.

Comment 6

[Noah]

+1 - The option to disable/enable should be provided.

Comment 7

[Ray Satiro]

+1 I'd like an option to disable this as well. Thunderbird says I have 99+ unread. I almost always have 99+ unread, it means nothing. nextdoor has a permanent red alert icon that won't disable unless I send invites to some of my neighbors and I'm not doing that either.

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Comment on attachment 9236052 [details] [diff] [review]
add-winunreadbadge-perf.patch

Review of attachment 9236052 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for the patch! You need to create the pref before using it. Some formatting nits.

::: mailnews/base/src/MailNotificationManager.jsm
@@ +412,4 @@
>      );
>      let count = this._unreadMailCount + this._unreadChatCount;
>      let tooltip = "";
> +    if (AppConstants.platform == "win" && Services.prefs.getBoolPref("mail.notification.winunreadbadge.enabled", true)) {

* Please observe 80 chars line limit and use prettier.io for formatting the code. Works well e.g. with Atom editor plus Prettier add-on.
* You also need to create this pref with a default value, otherwise it'll go wrong. Check the name of (almost) any other pref in code to see how it's done.
* Not sure, but I think we should omit "win" from your pref name and make it a general pref, even if we're currently only applying it to windows. Guess we can try to expand to other OS as feasible later.

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Oh, and proper patch header with author etc. is missing. Check any other patch for an example.

Thunderbird Build environment will do all those things like patch headers, linting/Prettier etc. automatically for you.

Comment 10

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

I'm not on Windows, but I think there is a system setting to disable taskbar badges, have you tried that? I guess it's the same for macOS, we don't have a special pref to turn off badge on macOS.

Comment 11

[w4rh4wk]

The patch was more of a suggestion. I am not familiar with Thunderbird's code base, nor Mercurial, nor Thunderbird specific tools and workflows. Since the change should be rather trivial, I'd appreciate someone with more experience to 'just' make the change, fulfilling all requirements. Unless you insist that I work through the procedures.

Comment 12

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Yes, it's possible to disable the badges in Window's task bar settings. I'm for WONTFIX this bug.

Comment 13

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

-> WONTFIX per comment 12.

Comment 14

[Mark Rotteveel]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #13)

-> WONTFIX per comment 12.

I'm protesting this decision. I shouldn't have to choose between disabling badges for all applications or living with an annoying but useless badge from Thunderbird. Thunderbird should offer an option to disable this feature.

Comment 15

[w4rh4wk]

Disabling badges globally, for all applications, is not an acceptable solution. You wouldn't accept disabling all notifications on your phone simply because there is one app that keeps spamming you, either.

Of course it'd be great if Windows would just let me enable / disable badges on a per application basis. But until that's the case, applications should provide an on / off switch for this feature.

Comment 16

[Ray Satiro]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #13)

-> WONTFIX per comment 12.

It may be possible to disable all taskbar badges in Windows 10 but AFAICT it's not possible in earlier versions. For example, the Thunderbird badge shows in Windows 7 Enterprise. Regardless it's baffling to me that you would stop a preference to disable it.

Comment 17

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Ok, let's consider it. Perhaps the alternatives are not that great.

Comment 18

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

Attachment: Bug 1725473 - Add a mail.biff.show_badge pref for Windows. r=mkmelin

Unlike macOS, Windows doesn't have badge setting per-app.

Comment 19

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/07ada58463db
Add a mail.biff.show_badge pref for Windows. r=mkmelin

Comment 20

[w4rh4wk]

Thank you very much!

Comment 21

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

Comment on attachment 9236272 [details]
Bug 1725473 - Add a mail.biff.show_badge pref for Windows. r=mkmelin

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): bug 715799
User impact if declined: Windows users have to turn off all taskbar badges in order to turn off TB's badge
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): c-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): low

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9236272 [details]
Bug 1725473 - Add a mail.biff.show_badge pref for Windows. r=mkmelin

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 23

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Users have been keen about notifications lately. Worthy of relnote?

Comment 24

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 92.0b2:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/d54711667681

Comment 25

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9236272 [details]
Bug 1725473 - Add a mail.biff.show_badge pref for Windows. r=mkmelin

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr91

Comment 26

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 91.0.2:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr91/rev/9de0be3c723b

Comment 27

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Verified fixed in Thunderbird 91.0.2 on Windows 10.