Show a dock badge for unread mail

[danirabbit]

In the Geary engine based Mail, we had LibUnity dock badges to indicate unread mail

---

Want to back this issue? Post a bounty on it! We accept bounties via Bountysource.

[casasfernando]

I believe this is still missing in the new Mail app for Odin. It would be great to have this implemented.

[cassidyjames]

And a note for implementation, I believe we want it to be "unseen" or "new" mail, not just "unread," right? Like if you have 1,000 unread emails but open that app, it should clear that number, and start counting again after you close it and new mail is received?

[casasfernando]

I think the expected behavior based on my experience with other mail clients is that the badge is not cleared unless all emails (only in Inbox folder) are read. Otherwise is updated as new mail arrives or unread emails are read. Sometimes I use this behavior to mark readed emails “unread” so the badge reminds me I have a message to revisit/read later on.

Just my two cents.

PS: apologies if it wasn’t an open conversation 🤗

[cassidyjames]

@casasfernando I was mostly noting how I believe Geary worked, so we'd be carrying that behavior forward. As far as the HIG says,

Its purpose is to inform the user that there are items that require user attention or action without being obtrusive. This is a passive notification. A badge should not show totals or rarely changing counters. If the badge is not easily dismissed when the user views your app, it is likely that this is not a good use of a badge.

I actually just proposed an amendment to the HIG to further clarify this: https://github.com/elementary/hig/pull/45/