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|Feature open issues and risks=Some points that are still completely open to discussion but need a decision before or as part of the "Design" stage here:
* Should Thunderbird replace the user's current IM client, or attempt to integrate tightly with it?(ie use installed IM clients vs connect directly)
* Should IMs go above the current content (the emails the user is reading or the email he is composing) or be contained in some specific area (tab? folder? other window?) where the user would have to go to exchange IMs.
* What's the scope of "instant messaging"?
** In this context, IM may extend to social network communications, or even to telephony or anything providing a more "instant" communication than email.
** Which protocols of "instant" communication make sense here probably depend on what the users we target need or already use.'protocols' might be less relevant than 'network' from a user stand point. I suggest we use this word rather than the technical one.** What network list should we consider ?|Feature overview=The goal is to give bring additional value to Thunderbird for users currently using Thunderbird for emails and by leveraging instant messaging communications. In other software for different kinds of communications words, to enrich the email experience with the same peopleinstant messaging functionality.
|Feature users and use cases=Targeted users are people who use Thunderbird for their emails and use some other software to IM the same set of contacts.
Additional value should come from bringing IM features closer to Thunderbird, for example:
* Seeing that the sender of an email is available to chat may lead the user to decide an IM conversation is better to get some clarification about some points of the email he was reading.
* Then, be able to annotate the email with this IM conversation, i.e attach parts of IM conversation as comments to the email. This enriched conversation will then be fully searchable and archivable.* When a user is about to start an IM conversation with a contact, showing the subjects list of unread exhanged emails from that with this person could avoid wasting time for both people (maybe the desired information is right there in the bulk of unread emails? Maybe the latest email explains why the person wouldn't be able to give a useful answer anyway? ...)
* When trying to get back to some piece of information obtained in the past from someone, searching in both email and IM archives removes for the user the burden of remembering which communication medium was used.
* Forwarding (parts of) an IM conversation should be easier if the IM conversation is reachable directly from Thunderbird.
* If emails are shown in a conversation view, integrating in that view the IM conversations that happened on the same subject could give a better overview of the exchanges.
|Feature dependencies=* Address book updates to support IM addresses for different networks (?)
|Feature requirements=* Manage contacts for email and IM in a single place.
* Search both Email and IM archives at once.
