953909 - Quiet mode

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Instantbird Graveyard :: Other, enhancement)

Description

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 470 at 2010-08-09 14:48:00 UTC ***

A sort of quiet mode that disables any notifications, sounds, popups, messages, taskbar flashes and this sort of things.

Extensions would have to obey this mode to be granted review (cf respecting privacy mode on Firefox).

Comment 1

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 470 at 2010-08-26 10:15:09 UTC ***

Reasoning (first-person perspektive to avoid "users want/do" problems):
Sometimes I don't want to be disturbed. For example because I'm busy working, having a presentation, am playing a game, ...

In such a case I'd want to delay reading messages, acknowledging add buddy requests to a more suitable moment. 

Even though this could be achieved by just closing the application it is inconvenient in my opinion. I'd rather like to toggle a switch to disable everything that could disturb me.

While it would be possible to do that for the application itself, it might be problematic with extensions.

That's why I'm suggesting to make it part of the review process that extension must not ignore this "quiet mode" (or even offer the option to opt out of this behaviour (Firefox seems to forbid opting out of Private Browsing Mode for everything that would clearly break the concept and requires to add an option for everything in the grey zone, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Supporting_private_browsing_mode)).

Comment 2

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 470 at 2010-08-26 15:24:14 UTC ***

This looks related to what I've already discussed (maybe not publicly :-/) as "interruptions management".

I think all things that have the potential to interrupt the user's train of thoughts (sounds, popups, whatever...) should provide a way to either delay or ignore them.
Then we would need some way to filter the interruptions that are allowed/delayed or denied.
The source of the interruption could provide some data to help make the decision about what to do about the interruption request.

Some potential use case:
 - I'm doing a full screen slide show presentation with lots of people looking at my screen. Do not disturb me at all.
 - I'm busy working, only show notifications related to people working on the same project (this would leverage the power of the tag system on the buddy list).
 - While I'm working, let people I know and trust (there would be a tag for this) use some keywords in their message to bypass the system and interrupt me right away. If I don't let them IM me and get an answer, they are likely to call on my cell phone to get their answer and that would distract me even more.


The delayed interruptions could either happen once I leave the "don't interrupt me" mode, or be stored in a notification stack somewhere in the buddy list window (maybe with a count displayed on the system tray icon).

Comment 3

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Attachment: Add-on

*** Original post on bio 470 as attmnt 877 at 2011-10-12 10:27:00 UTC ***

This is an add-on implementing the feature requested here, relying for this on the interruption manager (bug 954434 (bio 1000)).

Comment 4

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 470 at 2012-06-26 11:12:49 UTC ***

For the Windows platform, it's possible to detect if there's a fullscreen presentation or game going on with the SHQueryUserNotificationState API.

See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=499557 and https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=699014 for examples.

Comment 5

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

On the behalf of Florian:
Closing bugs related to the Instantbird UI as WONTFIX, as the development of the standalone chat client Instantbird has stopped. Instantbird users are encouraged to migrate to Thunderbird. The user interface of instant messaging in Thunderbird will feel familiar, as the Thunderbird IM support started as a fork of Instantbird.