[Feature Request] Show unread chats above muted unread chats

joeytwiddle commented 1 year ago

Is your feature request related to a problem?

I have joined a few high-volume news and community channels, and muted them, so I can browse through them when I'm not busy.

But, because they are very active, they often appear at the top of the list, getting in the way of unread chats with friends, colleagues, and work channels, which are actually more important to me!

This happens because messages are sorted by the timestamp of most recent activity.

Describe the solution you'd like

In the list of chats in the sidebar, I would like normal active chats to be listed before muted active chats, regardless of the timestamp. Muted channels would be moved down, because they are lower priority.

That way, I can see at the top all the active chats I want to interact with.

Current grouping: unread pinned chats, read pinned chats, unread other chats, read other chats Suggested grouping: unread pinned chats, read pinned chats, unread non-muted chats, unread muted chats, read chats (muted and unmuted)

Disadvantages: While this would be an improvement, when a chat has been read, that chat will drop down below the unread muted channels. This may feel a little inconsistent. But I'd still prefer it than not.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Possible alternatives:

Instead of a strict grouping, give a 24h "timestamp penalty" to muted chats. That means non-muted chats will appear above busy muted chats, for at least 24 hours.
Or, let us move certain channels into a separate category.

E.g. how GMail offers Primary, Promotions, Social, and Forums.

(Although I do wish GMail would let us create our own magnet folders, rather than the four they provide.)

Additional context

A couple of weeks ago, I filed this request somewhere else. But I'm sorry I can't find it now!

kodawah commented 1 year ago

RememberTheAir commented 1 year ago

Currently, you could use fodders to workaround your issue (settings -> folders).

Two possible solutions:

archive all muted channels and add them to a "low priority" folder, so your main chats list only has the chats you care about the most (in my case it's unmuted groups + low traffic muted channels, for example)
create a folder with an inclusionary filter "unread" + with a "muted" exclusionary filter, that will filter out all muted chats, so the folder will only contain unread unmuted chats (or muted group chats where you've been mentioned)

joeytwiddle commented 1 year ago

The "workmode" feature in the issues which @kodabb linked sounds interesting, but I could not get it working here. Perhaps workmode has been deprecated?

Thanks @RememberTheAir for the Folders suggestion. I wasn't aware that this advanced feature existed!

I tried the second option. There was no "Unread" inclusionary filter, but

I went to Menu > Settings > Folders

I made a folder "Daily" which Included: everything and Excluded: "Muted".

(I opted to keep "Non-Contacts")

That does essentially satisfy my needs!

Although it's not quite as user-friendly as I might like. Some concerns and potential improvements:

My new "Daily" folder appears underneath "All Chats" which is conceptually the opposite way around to how I think. ("Daily is most important to me. "All Chats" is something I would check occasionally.)
Similarly, spamming Escape takes me back to "All Chats", but really for me "Daily" is a better default.
Similarly, when the app starts, it opens the "All Chats" folder, but I would prefer it started on "Daily".
I can create a folder of Unmuted chats, but not a folder of Muted chats.
Ideally, I would have two folders: Unmuted first and Muted below that (and then I wouldn't really need to display "All Chats")
This feature is not so easy for a regular user to discover. (I am evidence of this!)
Perhaps the "Muted" and "Unmuted" folders could be provided as defaults in the Folder Settings. (Currently, the two defaults on offer are "Personal" and "Unread")
Even better, the app could initially have some helpful folders enabled. This would make the Folders feature discoverable, because it would appear immediately, but it could still be disabled with a few clicks.
But perhaps, before trying to build solutions, some focus testing with a diverse group of users could help to work out what users really need.

kodawah commented 1 year ago

interesting workaround, but this should be really a global folder option "keep unread on top"

nklemiata commented 6 months ago

@joeytwiddle, thanks a lot for the extended description, never saw these filtering for the folders!

Thought of the same issue, but 'I can create a folder of Unmuted chats, but not a folder of Muted chats' is true and makes it mostly useless.... :(

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