[Feature Request] Notification badges on dock app icons

[Cantello]

In Cinnamon Desktop, apps that usually work with notification badges for unobtrusive indication of e.g. unread messages or ongoing processes (see screenshot below) do not show these badges. Tried with Mailspring, Discord & Gmail via nativefier. With Ubuntu/GNOME they do work.

My current configuration (some days ago) is as follows, in case it is important: https://termbin.com/qt8s

It would be great if these indicators could be implemented as in my regular workflow, notifications tend to be dismissed whereas icon badges stay visible.

[Belaial]

Been searching far and wide for a solution to this but can only find this feature request, hopefully this is something that can be implemented in the future. I think this will become more important now when apps like Teams have moved to a PWA (Progressive Web App) which does not have it's own application icon tracking notifications, so today if you are using Teams PWA you need to open it up now and then to see if you have unread messages, notifications are displayed in the regular Cinnamon notifications but since everything is shown there the Teams PWA notifications are not clearly visible like they would be if the PWA icon would display a counter for unread messages.

(Just using Teams as an example, this would also be very handy for other applications)

[Secret-chest]

Hope it's toggleable.

[Mahi]

Literally the only reason I switched away from Cinnamon. Windows has this, Mac has this, Gnome has this, Android has this, even my car has this! It's crazy to me that Cinnamon doesn't have it yet.

[Kaz-49]

Bump Would also be nice if they appeared flashing on other workspaces as well, like in windows. Makes handling notifications for lots of workspaces much easier.

[eisbehr]

This is a feature common across all the big contemporary desktop environments (across operating systems), applications simply assume this feature exists for notifying the user about changes. Implementing it should have elevated priority.

[Gr3q]

dash-to-dock has implementations for both the Unity API and a fallback where it counts the notifications associated with the app. I'd be happy to port them.

The problem is that we already have badges that show the open window count, so someone needs to come up with a way to show both of them I can't continue. I know dash-to-dock shows the window count with dots, I don't know how Windows does it.

[LunarWatcher]

Windows doesn't show the full count IIRC. If there's multiple windows, it shows a short of overlap-effect. Windows 11 apparently has a dot too, according to a quick Google search, but it isn't used to reflect the count. It just shows that there are multiple windows, not many, from what I can tell. I've never used Win11 though (and I have no desire to), so might be wrong. But there is only one dot for three windows in an image I found on google, so it seems unlikely that it's used to count

[eisbehr]

Windows 10 visually suggest a "stack" of windows with no number given. Left when unselected, right when selected

[Secret-chest]

Another option would be a 3-dots icon in the bottom-right, or just moving the count there and styling it differently

[fredcw]

If the window count is a black circle on the top left, why can't the notification count be a red circle on the top right?

[dcolascione]

Just put the badge and window count in separate corners. Seems simple to me.

[Belaial]

Just put the badge and window count in separate corners. Seems simple to me.

Sounds like a good idea to me, also color code them? Blue for window stack and red for notification counter maybe? Hopefully the user could be allowed to change the color as well if it's not to much hassle, no developer myself so only coming with suggestions.

[Gr3q]

That...seems like a bad design for me, 2 badges on 1 icon? Also look at my taskbar, do you think it will fit?

[Gr3q]

Maybe the line could be changed to dots on the bottom?

[Belaial]

That...seems like a bad design for me, 2 badges on 1 icon? Also look at my taskbar, do you think it will fit?

Sure on icon's that small it would certainly be very hard to fit in 2 counters / "dots", I guess everything could be made smaller but at some point it becomes unreadable I guess, right now I don't have a good suggestion how to implement it and have it work on icons that small.

Maybe anchor points for the notification dots could be configured to be in all 4 corners? Then you could have window count in bottom left and notification count in upper right?

[dcolascione]

If there has to be only one number, I'd rather it be the badge count. I don't think the precise number of windows is all that useful as long as I can see the difference between zero, one, and more. OTOH, I have very different reactions to having one Slack message and having one hundred.

[Belaial]

If there has to be only one number, I'd rather it be the badge count. I don't think the precise number of windows is all that useful as long as I can see the difference between zero, one, and more. OTOH, I have very different reactions to having one Slack message and having one hundred.

I agree, notifications are at least to me much more important than how many windows there are.

[thepastelsuit]

+1 for not needing a window count (although I do think the Windows solution to showing that there are multiple windows under one icon is fairly elegant). It's much more intuitive to show me unread message count or other status badges.

[Secret-chest]

Just put both and make both toggleable!

[ivanpk938]

Notification badges is really missing feature. Hope it'll be available in future versions of cinnamon.

[Reno-Sifana]

That...seems like a bad design for me, 2 badges on 1 icon? Also look at my taskbar, do you think it will fit?

Lol. In KDE Plasma 5.27.10 (Latest Version) unread message counter should like that and readable in Cinnamon Desktop Environment. (in the screenshot above shows Unread Message counter on Telegram desktop says 241 message unread. click to enlarge). Notes: as i recall it's need libunity as dependency to work properly.

[tlotr]

If the badge is not possible then maybe highlight the app icon in the taskbar with a background colour indicating that there are unread messages that needs to be checked. Anything visual to differenciate those apps.

[LazyWings]

Hi, is there any update on this? This has been a request for a while and as others have said this is pretty much a necessary feature with the direction apps are going. It's really important to be able to see notifications when they appear, and this has been a requested feature for a good few years now. Agree with all others who have said badges are more important than window count, genuinely have never had a use case where I've needed to know exactly how many windows are open. Also agree with comment just before me saying that even just a highlight to say there's activity if the graphic is the limitation.

[Gr3q]

Haven't had time to implement it, although it probably shouldn't take long as long as:

• I can directly replace the window count with the notification count
• I only implement org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator/blob/master/statusNotifierWatcher.js

This will probably be confusing for the majority of users first, so I also need to change how the badge looks.

Still, I don't know when I have time to get around to it.

[Secret-chest]

Don't remove the window count!

[LazyWings]

Haven't had time to implement it, although it probably shouldn't take long as long as:

• I can directly replace the window count with the notification count
• I only implement org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator/blob/master/statusNotifierWatcher.js

This will probably be confusing for the majority of users first, so I also need to change how the badge looks.

Still, I don't know when I have time to get around to it.

Thank you - really appreciate it! If there are people concerned about losing the window count then some sort of toggle is the way forward longer term, or even a manual fix to apply badges as a stopgap might work. Badges are a pretty core feature, but don't want that to lead to worse experiences for people who like how it is now. That being said, I'm sorry to say I think it will be a minority that prefer window count to badges, especially since that's the standard with most other systems now.

[tlotr]

Haven't had time to implement it, although it probably shouldn't take long as long as:

• I can directly replace the window count with the notification count
• I only implement org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator/blob/master/statusNotifierWatcher.js

This will probably be confusing for the majority of users first, so I also need to change how the badge looks.

Still, I don't know when I have time to get around to it.

Thank you Gr3q, the only reason I have moved back to Windows is because of this feature not available in Linux Mint. If I am AFK for sometime and when I am back looking at the apps in the taskbar it is not possible to see if there were messages that have been sent to me while I was away. I use Google Chat and Slack. If this is implemented that would be awesome.

[MSBlueVn]

Don't remove the window count!

I agree, move it to another place on the icon, like bottom right, and add the notifications on top left where the window count is.

[chno-odoo]

Where are we at with this?

[eu6en]

Would be great to see this feature ASAP because for many users it's really important. Does anyone know any temporary solution?

[raindropworks]

Always get a little nervous when a major comm app on Discord has a crucial feature missing for 3 years now.

I know it's a drawback of FOSS, but really hoping someone can figure something out soon please?

[elied]

I would also like to see this feature, just came over from Windows and I like so much about Mint but this is really disappointing.

[memarkham303]

I just want to chime in with "me too" -- I've just moved from Mac OS and loving Linux Mint 22. I'm astounded that this isn't already in the OS.

[eu6en]

Just want to add that I found this feature has been implemented in the system tray for quite a while now, at least for the apps that I'm using. You can see the numbers for Telegram and Signal, while for Slack, it’s just a blue/red circle (red if you have unread messages).

[MelanX]

For me, the badge is only in the tray but not on the main icon.

[romario-07]

For an ex Windows user, it's indeed annoying to not have notifications badge, and for some people it's even a deal breaker.

I have just switched to Linux Mint from Windows, not long time ago. On my initial test machine, I didn't setup chatting apps (I was more interested to check the productivity tools and sdks that I use on a daily basis).

Once I started to use the Cinnamon machine exclusively, I just noticed that I don't get WhatsApp and Discord (+other apps) notification badges. People got delayed answers from me and some late responses even got me in not so happy situations (though I don't blame anyone; I could have switched back to Windows if it was a major issue for me).

I had two options: to switch back to Windows and to wait for this feature to be implemented before trying again (as some users did), or to try to do it by myself. I chose the latter.

I have just finished implementing the feature on my local machine.

From user experience point of view, I made the notifications badge red and I moved the windows counter to the bottom, where the active blue line is, and now you see:

• full blue line if 1 app windows
• 2 smaller lines if 2 app windows
• 3 smaller lines if 3 or more app windows

I can make the feature togglable, with the following options:

1. windows count enabled and notifications count disabled -> behaves like current implementation
2. windows count enabled and notifications count enabled -> behaves like in the attached image
3. windows count disabled and notifications count enabled -> you see notifications badge and the bottom blue line is not split anymore to indicate there are multiple windows open

I think the solution does not affect that much the current ui/ux, and the bottom line being split is a good and non intrusive hint that there are multiple windows open.

Two badges would be indeed a bad ui/ux from my point of view. If dots were used, I should add a bit of spacing around the dot - it would take too much from the height of the panel (it wouldn't look so good with no spacing).

I will prepare the following days a pull request with the code changes. If it's not accepted, I plan to create and publish a custom applet.

Except this, my experience with Linux Mint was flawless!

[memarkham303]

Oh man this looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it! Well done!

~~ Michael

On Sat, Oct 12, 2024 at 7:07 PM romario-07 @.***> wrote:

For an ex Windows user, it's indeed annoying to not have notifications badge, and for some people it's even a deal breaker.

I have just switched to Linux Mint from Windows, not long time ago. On my initial test machine, I didn't setup chatting apps (I was more interested to check the productivity tools and sdks that I use on a daily basis).

Once I started to use the Cinnamon machine exclusively, I just noticed that I don't get WhatsApp and Discord (+other apps) notification badges. People got delayed answers from me and some late responses even got me in not so happy situations (I don't blame anyone, I could stop using Mint once I noticed, if I wanted).

I had two options: to switch back to Windows and to wait for this feature to be implemented before trying again (as some users did), or to try to do it by myself. I picked second.

I have just finished implementing the feature on my local machine.

From user experience point of view, I made the notifications badge red and I moved the windows counter to the bottom, where the active blue line is, and now you see:

• full blue line if 1 app windows
• 2 smaller lines if 2 app windows
• 3 smaller lines if 3 or more app windows

I can make the feature togglable, with the following options:

1. windows count enabled and notifications count disabled -> behaves like current implementation
2. windows count enabled and notifications count enabled -> behaves like in the attached image
3. windows count disabled and notifications count enabled -> you see notifications badge and the bottom blue line is not split anymore to indicate there are multiple windows open

I think the solution does not affect that much the ui/ux, and the bottom line being split is a good and non intrusive hint that there are multiple windows open.

Two badges would be indeed a bad ui/ux from my point of view. If dots were used, I should add a bit of space around the dot (it wouldn't look so good with no bottom space).

I will prepare the following days a pull request with the code changes. If it's not accepted, I plan to create and publish a custom applet.

Except this, my experience with Linux Mint was flawless!

image.png (view on web) https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/99318257-38d8-4de3-82c2-92b13695a3e6

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/10124#issuecomment-2408771142, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKKZABHXNTAK3WSCCBZJCJTZ3HBWXAVCNFSM452WHVT2U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTN2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TENBQHA3TOMJRGQZA . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[LazyWings]

You're an actual hero. I gave up on cinnamon because of this feature not being there. When I ran Mint I just switched to KDE Plasma, before eventually moving off of Mint entirely. It's sad because I like Cinnamon but this feature really is a deal breaker and puts the DE in a "not recommended" category for me. Hopefully the maintainers allow your request.

[vincenzocaselli]

Hi @romario-07 this is great!!! How can I use your solution in some way? Could you provide a list of instructions to follow? please ;)

[romario-07]

Update: I'm still testing it on my machine and it's pretty stable. I have encountered two minor visual bugs that I plan to fix and after that to create the pull request.