Pin email/thread

[ChristophWurst]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

As a Nextcloud Mail user I want specific messages to not move out of sight.

Describe the solution you'd like

Allow me to pin a message or thread, which will make it stay on top of the thread list.

In a technical sense we will sort by pinned first, then the actual sort attribute (date).

• find out if a pinned message is tag ( compatibility with other clients)
• if it doesn't exist use favorite flag (sort them them to the top)

Conclusion

• Interoperability is not possible which leaves us with using flagged state (favorite) as it's an IMAP standard and should be able to filter by it on most clients.

Potential solutions

• Similar to Priority inbox:

  • In each mailbox, load a hardcoded number of 'Pinned' messages with a load more button
  • Underneath the Pinned messages load the usual 20 messages (unflagged) , load more on scroll
  • Challenge: where to put this feature in priority inbox

• Add a new Pinned state and don't use the favorite flag.

  • Pro: Offer it a separate feature
  • Con: fully local solution

Describe alternatives you've considered

N/a

Additional context

N/a

[Sev6n]

It would make sense to implement this, as it is present in Microsoft Outlook. This screenshot is from the web application.

[ChristophWurst]

What I'm unsure about is interoperability. There are standard IMAP flags like seen, flagged, junk, deleted, and there are some common perflags $label1 to $label5 (important, later, work, etc). But nothing for pinned as far as I know. So pinning would only show in Mail, and not in any other client connected to the same IMAP server.

@Sev6n do you also have a non-microsoft email account inside Outlook maybe? I wonder if they still offer pinning, and if they write that to IMAP.

[Sev6n]

I'm sure it will be fine to have the Pin feature client-specific.

I used a non-microsoft email account in Microsoft Outlook, and it the Pin message feature seems to only persist in the Outlook interface.

[ChristophWurst]

Thanks for checking!

[Sev6n]

You're welcome!

Since this is a client-related feature, this should be straightforward to develop. Would you like me to create a visual mock-up and provide some example code of how it would work?

[ChristophWurst]

Sure!