New version: Reply button dangerous

[Dave-Rado]

Checklist

• [X] I have used the search function to see if someone else has already submitted the same feature request.
• [X] I will describe the problem with as much detail as possible.
• [X] This issue only contains a request for one single feature, not multiple (related) features.

App version

6.601

Problem you are trying to solve

The Reply button used to allow one to choose between Reply, Reply to All and Forward. Now it just Replies to All. This is a backward step. People often Reply to All inappropriately. It should not be made easier to do so and there is no reason for this change.

Suggested solution

Revert to the button offering the choice of Reply, Reply to All and Forward.

Or at the least, allow one to set the button to behave that way in settings.

Dave

Screenshots / Drawings / Technical details

No response

[mattok]

It seems the default has been changed to Reply from the latest release.

This is a backward step. People often Reply to All inappropriately. It should not be made easier to do so and there is no reason for this change.

The same thing applies to "Reply". You don't want to accidentally exclude people from a conversation.

I'm not sure it makes sense to have a single default reply action. The suggested solution, forcing the user to think and decide what they want each time, is a good one. Alternatively, the default should be configurable. It's not at the moment.

[mytickets617]

v 6.602 The button default was changed to Reply, while ReplyAll is available under 3dots. This leads to inadvertant omission of recipients. Previous default was much more practical. When replying to a message with multiple recipients (which is what's needed in 90% cases) have to rememebr now that clicking the only button on screen will remove all, besides address listed in From. Please revert to previous default.

[Dave-Rado]

I think the best solution, as I stated previously, and as supported by @mattok , is that clicking the button should make you choose whether to reply, reply to all, forward, etc. - i.e. it should behave in exactly the way that clicking the three dots to the right of the button currently behaves. The three dots would then be redundant and should be removed. There shouldn't be a default action because whatever the default is, it's too easy to select the default without thinking, and regret it later.

Dave

[mytickets617]

I admitedly do not remeber what the previous version setting was. Whether it was a selection betwen ReplyAll/Reply or default to ReplyAll - it worked well. So, a reversal of the change or @mattok's suggestion with ReplyAll/Reply/Forward will be a better approach than what current version offers.

[kevincox]

This one also surprised me. I have all of my email clients set to "Reply-All" by default. I don't mind changing the default but it seems strange to change a long-time default without at least providing an option to go back to the previous behaviour. Clearly it was enjoyed by many people.

[mnemex]

So, I didn't notice that the default had changed here but was certainly annoyed by the result.

I think this is a few issues:

1. Yeah, you should be able to change the default betwene reply-all and reply-sender.
2. It should be easier to swap between those settings on reply. Using ... is ok, but THunderbird has you do this by pulling down on a button next to reply and that is ideal here as well. It SHOULDN'T have an extra "confirm" step, but it SHOULD be clear wherther yoi're going to do a reply-all or a regular reply and give you a good UX for changing it.
3. LIke Thunderbird, more metadata should be added to the composing window such that you can relatively easily switch between reply and reply-all at sending time. I'm assuming that this kind of metadata can't easily be saved in the IMAP outbox (but I might be wrong on this; how does Thunderbird do this?) but at the very least you should be able to switch from a reply to a reply-all or vice versa without having to cancel and start again, instead it should say "reply" and then you can switch it to "reply all" in the sending pane itself to switch the recipient defaults out.

THis would also ease any issues with people accidentally clicking on reply rather than reply-all,as they could change the recipients more cleanly prior to the mail going out.

[htsmi]

I find this frustrating as well, I just realized that I inadvertantly replied only to sender on a group conversation and left a lot of people hanging on information about a meeting. The change to the flow seems like change for the sake of change, for longtime users who have grown accustomed to being prompted with a menu after tapping the exact same reply icon, this is an easy mistake to make. Can you please at least make this configurable?

Edit 2024-02-03: I thought I might eventually adjust, but I find myself making this mistake constantly and only catching it just before I hit send if I catch it at all. It really does feel counterintuitive to have reply all under the three dots menu to the right of the actual icon with the familiar symbol for reply. I suppose I can eventually train myself, but again, for the sake of one less prompt of choices, this is an easy mistake to make, and I imagine a lot of people will never realize they made it.