Thunderbird:2.0 Product Planning

Do not edit this list unless you are on the Thunderbird team. Keep comments to the discussion pages, please.

Thunderbird 2 Feature List Brainstorming

We are currently in pre-planning for Thunderbird 2, and would like to collect all the ideas for front-end, user-facing feature enhancements in a single place. Our goal is to create a single index that lists what sorts of things we're thinking of doing, with links to more detailed ideas about implementation specifics or concerns.

Thunderbird 2 will be happening on the 1.8 branch which is the same branch used for the 1.5 release.

note: mozilla platform feature enhancements are not in scope for this page; please refer to the Draft Gecko 1.9 Roadmap

We've built up a lot of really cool features and technologies in Thunderbird over the last couple of years. We'd like to make Thunderbird 2.0 focus on coming up with creative and innovative ways of exposing a lot of the information and features we've already built.

2.0 Feature Ideas

Feature	Target	References
New Mail Alerts Provide more contextual information about new mail in the animated alert. Show the first line of the message body. Show Sender, Subject and Folder Information	2.0	Bug 312940
Folder Summary Tooltips Allow users to quickly see the contents of new messages in unopened folders without forcing them to actually open the folder, and thus losing their current e-mail context.	2.0	Bug 314124
Favorite Folders Support a global list of Favorite folders that can include folders from any account. Support other folder views such as Folders with Unread Messages.	2.0	Bug 251296
Tabbed Messages The ability to have message tabs including the ability to reply, forward and perform all of the usual activities on tabbed messages. Integrated tabbed design with favorite folders across the top of the thread pane per Ben's design ideas.	2.0
Compact Folders The ability to compact (all) folders with one Click.	2.0
Message Tags Rebrand message labels as tags. Expand the functionality to include arbitrary number of tags and multiple tags per message. Investigate supporting auto generation of saved search folders for tags.	2.0
Conversations Rebrand message threads as conversations. Also, make it easier to group your message replies into folders other than the Sent folder.	2.0	Bug 301084
Cache Search Results for Saved Search Folders	2.0 / 3.0
UI Face Lift for the 3-pane Window Come up with some fresh user interface changes for the 3-pane. Not sure what we mean here yet. Looking for ideas and mockups.	2.0
Full Mac OS X Support This could include: Emulation for some Cocoa-standard keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl-A, Ctrl-E, Ctrl-K, Ctrl-Y, Addressbook support, Services support, AppleScript support, maybe Growl support, Spotlight integration, Metadata support, Slideshow features like mail.app optinal Dashboard Widget, better integration into existing iWork & iLife products	2.0
Support for Gmail-Accounts The ability to get mails from Gmail-Accounts	2.0
setting imap acls, and write in ldap adressbooks this features are a "must" to make Thunderbird groupware featured	2.0
Templates in Adressbook The ability to insert templates for replies and new mails personalized for a contact.	2.0
Add all mail recipients to the addressbook It should be possible to add all recipients listed in the "To" or "CC" header fields of selected incoming emails to an addressbook folder with only few clicks (or drag and drop). Multiple entries with the same email address should be removed optionally.	2.0
Function to export/import preferences For reinstalling the application and installing it on lots of machines, the preferred program settings can be imported/exported. This is especially useful once more preferences come into the program with v2.0, for example custom message tags.	2.0
Function to check for absent attachments A function that could be switched on and off and would check mail body text for signs that an attachment was intended (like "attached" etc.; extensible list might be best to accommodate other languages) but none actually is included. Function could be invoked at every send and display a warning message if criteria for absent attachments are met.	2.0
UI improvement in email display The UI could need some improvement to give the program a fancy feeling. Suggested improvements are: a) make email preview more like print preview so user gets a better WYSIWYG feeling. This helps users to visualize an email as a piece of paper. b) display contents of an email folder not only in a list view, but also in small combined stack like list view (2 to 3 lines per entry, no columns) so the 3 column layout of thunderbird will show more information in the list view. See Outlook 2003 for example.	2.0	Bug 213945
Full IMAP compatibility Using IMAP with www.web.de (the biggest german freemailer) the names of the IMAP-folder seem incompatible. Thats why you always get two trash-folders. If you delete the second one, you get a new one at next reload or visit with thunderbird.	2.0
Support for MS Exchange-Server Support for MS Exchange. This major feature allows a small or medium company to manage their email-system without using microsoft products or any other alternative software (e.g. Pegasus Mail). This feature may open up new resources for TB. (could also be available as plugin/add-on for sale)	2.0+
New Messages Folder When using Imap - Let's have a folder containing folders with new messages. When a new message arrives the folder is shown in "New Messages" Folder	2.0
Generally more information More information when checking for new mails. How many there are, how big, the connection speed and so on. (Full Header view support)	2.0+
Full support for KDE enviroroment Develpmoent of a full supported KDE frontend, inculding an menu-bar that can be moved, excluded or can act in MAC-OSX style.	2.0
Addressbook in XML format for better editibility/compatibility Better and mor eflexible than this old-fashioned format used nowadays.	2.0
Sync Addressbook and Messages with cellphones and mobile devices.	2.0
PGP / GPG Support Direct integration of enigmails PGP / GPG Support into Thunderbird, to make the setup for novice users easy.	2.0
Palm Desktop/Adressbook Support Get direct access to your Palm Desktop Adressbook when you're writing Mails out of Thunderbird.	2.0
Account improvement Assign SMTP to accounts and not centrally.	2.0		Better group mailing functions Kind of "buddy group list" e.g with forwarding a mail to the group except to sender	2.0
Switching mail folder without loosing quick search Typing a quick search, switching folder, switching back, quick search lost *grr*	2.0