Add ability to mark messages unread #347
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Being able to "star" messages (#2938) might be better for being able to find something later. But I can see how it could be useful to "mark as unread from this point forward" if, say, you started reading something but decided you want to read it later instead. |
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Makes sense. Let's keep these as two separate issues. |
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I completely agree with implementing this feature. And, if possible, allow choosing a message (either right-click or long-tap on a message I choose) and "Mark Unread from Here". Skype has this functionality. Sometimes I read messages my colleague sent, but I don't have time to reply right now. So, I want to be able to mark as unread from where I need to reply, and reply later. |
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(Copied from element-hq/element-web#8666 (comment), where I put it first:) From #riot-web:matrix.org:
(If you alt+click the last message in a channel, it marks the whole channel as read – in fact, it marks everything up to, and including, the message you click, as read, and everything after it as unread.) |
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I'm using riot.im regularly. I also use other proprietary chat programs regularly. Lack of "mark unread" in riot is the one thing that makes using it very painful. I have several coworkers who refuse to use riot for this reason. |
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@jamesmontalvo3 can you describe which other chat apps can mark messages as unread? |
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Slack and every email client. |
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and Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Linked In, Signal, and pretty much every other email/chat client I know. |
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I'm struggling to find this in WhatsApp and Facebook, unless you mean mark conversation as unread, which is very different to mark individual messages as read /unread |
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Just making sure we’re talking about the same thing: riot shouldn’t allow individual messages marked unread; it should allow you to select a message and mark it “unread” which just moves the unread pointer to that message, implying everything before that is read and everything after unread. I’m not expecting specific messages to be unread interspersed with read messages. |
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Do Facebook and WhatsApp have that? I think they just have a mark as unread for the whole chat and I guess it just marks the latest message as unread |
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Sorry for any confusion. The question was "mark messages", so I listed apps where the "mark unread" is present, whether it is individual or threads. Facebook and Whatsapp just mark whole thread. Riot doesn't even have that function at all. If Riot could have something like Skype, where we can move the pointer to a specific message, that would be absolutely perfect! |
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I now understand :D |
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Thank you. Can we get them to change that? :) |
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Presumably it has its reasons, so maybe we need a way to force, to say to a matrix server that we're explicitly putting it into the past. This would need an MSC so that it's in the spec and not specific to riot/synapse |
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Even if we could do it in a way that Riot stores an override in a cookie/LocalStorage or so... meaning that Synapse has its own counter, but Riot has an override (per thread), and uses that override instead, if exists. |
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But then it would be a riot specific thing, which isn't ideal, many people use other clients too. Best would be to get it into the matrix specification |
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@yousefamar: Why? Schildichat does not provide this feature yet. |
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@nerdoc To clarify, I meant marking a room as unread, not an individual message, which Schildichat supports on both desktop and mobile. On mobile you even have the option "open without reading". Frankly, I can't believe Element still doesn't have mark unread -- would have hoped the feature could be pulled from Schildichat since it's a fork afaik. |
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ah, OK, I see. yes,, Schildichat can mark rooms as unread, which is IMHO the feature I need. individual messages doesn't make sense IMHO, as I don't want to mark the third-last message as unread. It's always the last one, hence the room. |
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Yeah, tbh I just want to be able to mark conversations as unread just so that I can stop accidentally ignoring friends and classmates. Mark as unread is an indication that I should get back to it later. Putting the burden on the user to remember to respond to conversations is just going to mean less conversations are going to be responded to, and overall less talking on the Matrix network. |
I do have a use case for "mark message as unread". I use it a lot in other apps (e.g. EMail, Teams, ...). It's especially useful in rooms with several people. Example: you enter a room where you have 15 unread messages. Most of the time, you can skim through, but not this time: there's a message that picked your interest. You decide to mark the message as unread (from this point in time, not just this message especially), so you can close the app and come back when you'll have more time to read it and its responses, and think about it. I'd say I do that at least once per day in the other apps. |
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Yes, that use case does make sense for large rooms, and I do use it on Discord. Although I think that the point is that having the feature is better than not at all. This issue has been open since 2017 and it appears to be blocked only because of this doubt of whether to mark rooms or messages as unread. It is now 2024. |
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I don't understand at all how a feature as basic and essential as this isn't implemented in Element (whereas it is in Rocket.Chat). My colleagues and I who use Element on a daily basis find this very annoying. |
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Element Web & Desktop already have this. 
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Thank you. But I think it would be much more convenient to allow choosing a message (either right-click or long-tap on a message I choose) and "Mark Unread from Here". Skype has this functionality. Just marking a whole thread as unread is not as useful as marking the exact position of that thread that I need to read from. |
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Sure, then I suggest you open an issue in the Matrix spec to support that. Right now the read receipts/markers can only move forwards, the server will block movement backwards |
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My understanding is that this is the one for that: |
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No, that's just asking the server to provide a count of unread messages, nothing about allowing the markers to move backwards in time. https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec is the repo you want |
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Thank you. Submitted - matrix-org/matrix-spec#1893 |
Wow, amazing! When did that get in? Anyway, I'm happy with closing this as soon as it gets in the mobile clients. |
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That's a screenshot of marking an entire room as unread, while this issue was about specific messages, no? |
@RNLFoof you are right ; marking the whole channel as unread is interesting, but not great (not enough from an UX point of view). Users need to mark specific messages as unread. |
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User story: I have a workflow where I "peek" what a user has sent me, to quickly read through and get any important/critical points, and if its non-critical, I mark unread until the point that I haven't "processed" yet. Basically, I make sure that I'll encounter it later, in exactly the same spot that I found it, so that next time, I can go through it with a better swing. Marking the entire channel as unread does not allow me to mark a specific point of "read from here", and so there needs to be extra non-obvious context clues pointing to where I had already read, especially if its a quick discussion or a long back-n-forth DM that I needed to read in-depth at a later point. |
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That's exactly my "story" as well. I check to see if there's anything urgent, or things I can reply quickly. Otherwise, mark as unread from the point I was before, so I can go back to it later. (I use Element/Matrix with my small team, and not federated) |
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I have the same story, but having the room unread is good enough for me because having something unprocessed in there is good enough for me. I'll figure out what it is when I get back there.
No. See my update in the issue description (as the issue creator). Let's do this:
I've updated the issue description with a list of remaining tasks. Let's just work through it now. |
Ok, raised here, now: #2465 |
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Element X on Android also supports the room unread-marking, so that's already good enough for now (I still have both apps, though). |
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Yeah the legacy apps won't be receiving new features such as this, only the X apps are in feature development |
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Okay, so everything other than the mobile Apple stuff is checked off now. Thanks for the updates! |
Well, that one's not about marking specific messages (= any specific message, individual messages) unread. Is that being tracked somewhere? |
I'm not sure it makes much sense to mark "specific/individual messages" as unread. I haven't seen that in any other app so far. What I believe would make more sense is maybe some kind of "Private Pin" or "Star" functionality. |
@nunoperalta |
Love that idea! Let me find that old post... and shamelessly drop a self-reference: #347 (comment) :-) Is that already being tracked anywhere? |
and others
As in other messaging applications, it would be nice to mark a particular message in a room as unread, returning to the state before it was read. This is helpful for when you need a future reminder to do something, or you didn't have a chance to read everything up to the present, and would like to move the unread marker back.
So when clicking on the 3 dots to open the message menu, ideally there would be an item entitled Mark unread.
Amendment (2021-11-30): I'd be fine with being able to mark the entire room/conversation unread. Signal did this, and it works well enough for me so I believe it could work here as well, even though it would be slightly less than optimal.
Remaining tasks:
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