Features/Thunderbird/Instant messaging in Thunderbird

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Status

Instant messaging in Thunderbird
Stage	Draft
Status	`
Release target	`
Health	OK
Status note	`

Team

Product manager	Florian Quèze
Directly Responsible Individual	`
Lead engineer	`
Security lead	`
Privacy lead	`
Localization lead	`
Accessibility lead	`
QA lead	`
UX lead	`
Product marketing lead	`
Operations lead	`
Additional members	`

Open issues/risks

Some points that are still completely open to discussion but need a decision before or as part of the "Design" stage here:

• Should Thunderbird replace the user's current IM client, or attempt to integrate tightly with it?

• Should IMs go above the current content (the emails the user is reading or the email he is composing) or be contained in some specific area (tab? folder? other window?) where the user would have to go to exchange IMs.
  • Showing IMs above may be interrupting/distracting.
  • IMs may go unnoticed if they aren't visible enough, and lose the benefit of "instantness" that IM has compared to email.
  • (Gmail shows IMs above emails.)

Stage 1: Definition

1. Feature overview

The goal is to give additional value to Thunderbird for users currently using Thunderbird for emails and other software for different kinds of communications with the same people.

2. Users & use cases

Targeted users are people who use Thunderbird for their emails and use some other software to IM the same set of contacts.

Additional value should come from bringing IM features closer to Thunderbird, for example:

• Seeing that the sender of an email is available to chat may lead the user to decide an IM conversation is better to get some clarification about some points of the email he was reading.
• When a user is about to start an IM conversation with a contact, showing the subjects of unread emails from that person could avoid wasting time for both people (maybe the desired information is right there in the bulk of unread emails? Maybe the latest email explains why the person wouldn't be able to give a useful answer anyway? ...)
• When trying to get back to some piece of information obtained in the past from someone, searching in both email and IM archives removes for the user the burden of remembering which communication medium was used.
• Forwarding (parts of) an IM conversation should be easier if the IM conversation is reachable directly from Thunderbird.
• If emails are shown in a conversation view, integrating in that view the IM conversations that happened on the same subject could give a better overview of the exchanges.

3. Dependencies

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4. Requirements

• Manage contacts for email and IM in a single place.
• Search both Email and IM archives at once.

Non-goals

• Turn Thunderbird into an IM client. The goal is not to attract people who don't intend to use Thunderbird for their emails.

Stage 2: Design

5. Functional specification

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6. User experience design

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Stage 3: Planning

7. Implementation plan

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8. Reviews

Security review

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Privacy review

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Localization review

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Accessibility

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Quality Assurance review

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Operations review

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Stage 4: Development

9. Implementation

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Stage 5: Release

10. Landing criteria

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Feature details

Priority	Unprioritized
Rank	999
Theme / Goal	`
Roadmap	`
Secondary roadmap	`
Feature list	`
Project	`
Engineering team	`

Team status notes

	status	notes
Products	`	`
Engineering	`	`
Security	`	`
Privacy	`	`
Localization	`	`
Accessibility	`	`
Quality assurance	`	`
User experience	`	`
Product marketing	`	`
Operations	`	`

In this context, IM may extend to social network communications, or even telephony; anything providing a more "instant" communication than email.