Two-letter abbreviations for accounts on Thunderbird for Android

[bkswe]

Hi,
In the side menu when you click on "Show accounts" you see circles on the left with the two-letter abbreviation of the domain for the accounts. I think, using the first two letters of the domain can cause a lot of confusion for some users if the user has more than one email account for that domain even if their background color is different. For example, I'm seeing OU(Outlook) for 5 different accounts or GM(Gmail) for 3 different accounts.

I think either allowing the user to customize these two letters or adding a toggle button to use the first two letters of the account name* instead of the domain can also solve the problem. This way, the user can use a color for the domain and use the letters to differentiate which email account is in that domain.

For example, the user can use blue color for Outlook, and red color for Gmail and use two letters to differentiate which account it is in that domain.

[*] the account name refers to the setting in Settings > Accounts > {your.email@example.com} > General Settings > Account Name. Since it is exactly the same as the user's email address by default anyone who wants to use the first two letters of the first half of the email address can use it by enabling the option I mentioned above, If anyone wants to use a custom two letter can do this by changing the account name.

[Jon]

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

[Breizh13]

Bonjour,

on peut se poser la question de l'intérêt de ces pastilles de couleur!! Elles n'ont d'ailleurs jamais bien fonctionné dans K9. A mon sens,  Il suffit d'une  page d'accueil avec la liste des comptes, et on choisit celui qui nous intéresse.

[LEWP]

This unchangeable 2 letter naming convention is bad.  With 3 accounts on same domain,  I have to remember the color to know which one to select.   The first 2 letters of full address wouldn't work either as I have 2 accounts that would still be the same.   Preferred solution would be a customizable 2 letter alias for that menu (not changing account name), that comes out of the box with a default.

[Breizh13]

These dots are useless, just like in K9. All you need to do on the home page is show the different accounts with the number of unread emails!

[Manawydan]

The way to choose an account in K9 is far superior than the current Thunderbird Mobile app.  You can see the whole account details in the drop down.  I've given kudos to the suggestion, but having only 2 letters is not helpful.  I have multiple accounts that start with the same two letters, so I'd have to try and remember which is which.  That's not user friendly.  Please reconsider the UI.

[AVC_GR]

Hi,
It's a very good idea, but Philipp Kewisch
Sr. Manager wrote in the forum that “not many people have more than one domain in the same domain”. When I read this, I thought Thunderbird for Android was dead. Will this idea be scrapped by Philipp Kewisch Sr. Manager? Is it ok?

[bbawt]

I'll go one further and suggest 2 letters in the circle is too limiting.  The way BlueMail for Android does it, there is a small text label below each circle that you can name.  Allows for at least 10 or so characters.  See image below on how it looks:

[ankokudaishogun]

I agree the current 2-Characters system is inadequate with multiple accounts from the same provider. 

I believe the best way, if it will take some time to implement, would implement multiple systems: customizable names under the icons(and ideally customizable icons) but also the previous K9 drop-down. 

Have a mockup(3x10^65 googolyears in MSPaint)

accounts_mockup

As alternative a double swipe\sidebar, the first showing the folders of the account and the second showing the accounts?

I'll add that the current "Tap on the full account description on top to cycle through the accounts" feels useless: if I'm seeing the description then the sidebar is extended and I'm going to select what account I'm going to check

More in general: customization always been a strong point of Thunderbird Desktop, so I'd expect some freedom on the Mobile version.

Obviously this is a "1.0" despite the nominal numbering(which, in my opinion, was a mistake; but it's unrelated to the current topic) so I'd expect people being quite willing to give breath for change.

[wsmwk]

This is being worked on, so changing status to "In development".

[TedT_USA]

[shazmcgraw]

So glad this is being worked on. Thank you! I do handle a lot of Gmail and Outlook accounts, so any improvement to distinguish them would be welcome.

[kewisch]

Hi folks, if you want to give 9.0b1 a try, there is a fix that will take the initials from the account name that you can customize in the account settings. Let us know if this is better!

We're looking to improve on this further (icons, anyone?), but wanted to get a fix out before the year ends. Many thanks to a community contributor for providing the patch on this one!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.thunderbird.android.beta

[Breizh13]

Hi Kewisch,

On my smartphone Motorola with Android 13, TB 8.0b5 is installed. How can I test version 9.0b1 without uninstalling the previous version? If I click on your link below , it suggests that I uninstall 8.0b5 or open it!

--
Philippe

[kewisch]

The rollout rate is currently at 20%. I'll bump it to 100% on Monday if there are no major issues, some time between now and then your phone should get an update to 9.0b1

[PJX]

@kewischIcons, Gravatar or even a self-chosen image (from the gallery), all are welcome!

In the meantime, thank you for the 9.0b1 that I'm expecting to see any time now.