Threads: Open right panel thread list by default if unread notifications

[daniellekirkwood]

Your use case

We're hearing feedback that threads are easy to miss or hard to find.
What if we opened the right panel by default if you went into a room that had unread notifications?

I'm not sure how this would play out if you have the right panel open labs flag on...

WDYT?

(This was a suggestion in the Daily Mobile room today)

Have you considered any alternatives?

No response

Additional context

No response

[novocaine]

Related to #21194

[aaronraimist]

@novocaine I'm guessing you meant to assign this to someone else

[janogarcia]

This should be part of the discussion on improved visualization of thread updates, out of the scope of the v1 release.

• Related discussion and mockups: Threads: V2 element-meta#61 (comment)

@daniellekirkwood I would suggest renaming this issue and linking it there.

[Hoeze]

It would be nice to have a notification symbol next to the emoji/attachment symbols.
When I click this one, it opens the thread overview with all unread notifications.

Also, it would be useful to have "unread threads" as an option:

Anyways, threads with unread messages should be highlighted.

Finally, I find the way slack handles threads very comfortable:
Usually, I get only a direct notification when I am mentioned in a thread or I did directly take part on it.

[janogarcia]

@Hoeze Thanks for the feedback.

Also, it would be useful to have "unread threads" as an option:

We had such a filter in the early design mockups, but didn't make the cut for the first release. Most probably we'll add it at some point.

Anyways, threads with unread messages should be highlighted.

We do have them, but are not working 100% reliably, given that the spec/back-end team is still working on some necessary underlying changes. The current implementation is based on a client side workaround (without proper back-end support) that has some limitations, and thus leading to some missing notifications.

Usually, I get only a direct notification when I am mentioned in a thread or I did directly take part on it.

It actually works similarly, the only difference being that we still need to add proper support for mentions.

[daniellekirkwood]

@janogarcia revisiting this - do you think we can open the threads list panel when users have unread threads and the thread panel is not open? This might be something we can action quickly before we get to V2

[janogarcia]

@daniellekirkwood Unsure if that's the default behavior most users would expect. It can feel a bit invasive/unexpected when we don't really know the user's intent.

Also, @americanrefugee is currently working on some changes affecting the room header, as well as the left and right sidebars, so that also would need to be considered.

[daniellekirkwood]

We may have missed the boat on this one @janogarcia as it's been assigned and discussed with @weeman1337

@weeman1337 did you get to working on this issue? i know we discussed it in: https://matrix.to/#/!GUMgJVREVreXOrrahw:matrix.org/$B1PNOV93lNOeHHkPdgleAp6hPeyXJEYbWLGCWYa3dl8?via=matrix.org&via=element.io&via=one.ems.host

[janogarcia]

Can't access that thread (due to history permissions).

[daniellekirkwood]

@janogarcia I have (very crudely) screenshotted and sent the discussion in our DMs on Element

[janogarcia]

@daniellekirkwood Thanks for sharing the recent discussion!

Well, I'm not totally convinced of this behavior, but let's test it. It will only partially address the problem, as the panel will only be revealed under specific conditions.

That's something we can only address properly with a more elaborate implementation (e.g., the mockups that explored addressing this issue for v1 or any alternative implementation that allows us to know better the user's intent).

[syadnom]

I'm really struggling with this. I'm in a group of people and we really like using the threaded conversations to keep the main channel clear, but I quickly fall out of the conversation and they die off because I cannot FIND the unread..

Unread should be clearly visible. I get no grey or red dot etc on a thread or anything.

They should have some sort, like newest unread on the bottom for example. Instead I'm scrolling and scrolling .

very frustrating.