Integrate Google Chat with Mozilla Thunderbird.

[Conehead1978]

The new Mozilla Thunderbird for Windows has a tab for Google Talk, but it appears unsupported. How about providing a tab for Google Chat instead?

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[s1fly]

Great suggestion @Conehead1978 I feel that this could really useful for Google Workspace users. By adding Google Chat, Thunderbird could become useful for individuals, small business right the way up to enterprise, with a unified notification system for email, calendar and chat. Using chat in a browser and email in Thunderbird is cumbersome and inefficient.

[rolandschweiger]

Yes please integrate GOOGLE CHAT into Thunderbird. I know Google stopped the "Talk" Protocole and also does not support XMPP (or has anything changed?) - and i'm not sure if the API for the new Google Chat app / system is available. Yet chatting to Google Accounts is an important feature in my opinion. Please try to integrate this.

[RR_Marco]

So, we do not use Google stuff ‘coz it is data-leaky, but you want to integrate their stuff in your less-leaky App?

Where’s the logic?

[s1fly]

@RR_MarcoI'm not sure if Google Chat is data-leaky but my experience of Google Workspace has been  that it's quite robust. They do make quite an effort to ensure that Workspace data is kept private and constantly update it to keep everyone safe.

[franick]

How can I get my google chat on here in Thunderbird?

[s1fly]

I'd love to see this too @franick, there is actually a proposed idea here, would might want to vote on and maybe add your thoughts to. I'm not sure if Google Chat is somehow proprietary that might prevent it working with Thunderbird, but if there was a workaround, it would be really useful.

[franick]

yes nothing is working with thunderbird also

[citb]

Bring back support for Google Talk/Chat with oAuth authentication

Please bring back support for oAuth authentication for Google Talk/Chat (whatever it is called now).

[Jon]

(Note: a similar idea has been merged into this thread)

[kintrupf]

Not needed! Why bloat an E-MAIL client with chat?

[arkhi]

I guess this proposal would be great as an add‑on for those who rely on Google services.

Implementing this as a default might be a reason not to use Thunderbird for others.

[ralvez]

I'm not sure the values of a company like Google (spy everywhere) align well with the privacy goals of Thunderbird.
I feel that such integration would compromise the security of Thunderbird.

[fung0]

Why would anyone want their email app to do other things? Maybe it should be a spreadsheet? Or a gaming platform? A web browser and AI emotional counselor? I don't think so.

Sadly, we've never seen email done right. Today's clients are only trivially superior to the text-based clients of the 1980s. So I would say please focus on features that will make Thunderbird the ultimate, high-performance, bug-free email client. Remove any other communication services (e.g. "Chat") and refrain from adding new ones.

Once Thunderbird has become the flawless galactic email app of the ages, by all means branch out to offer other services - as separate apps, or as add-ons that I can avoid installing.

[s1fly]

To @kintrupf 's and @fung0 's points you're right Thunderbird needs to be a flawless email client first and foremost, but it does already contain chat functionality and has had for as long as I remember. Ideally, this would be a module you could turn on or off as needed.

As I work for a company that uses Google Workspace, it would be invaluable to access my work chats and spaces in Thunderbird rather than the web browser. At the same time though, it should also be easily switched off for those who don't need it. In a recent video, the new Thunderbird UI was shown to be flexible with new elements that could be used or not used depending on the user. I see the same kind of thing.

@ralvezYou make a good point, but it would be sandboxed, away from your personal content.