Add official support for system tray on Linux

[fabiscafe]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates and I actually found, discussed and resolved the problem about this in Add 'Stay in Tray' configuration option #4827 -> Add 'Stay in Tray' configuration option #4827 (comment)

---

Bug Description

(some WM and) GNOME officially does not support a system tray. While I think the setting in general is a good thing would you mind to follow our discussion and rename it to "stay in background" and "launch in background", otherwise it's very confusing for people who expect an icon but don't see an icon.

See this: #4827 (comment)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Startup a desktop or WM without tray support
2. Start Signal
3. See and enable the options

Actual Result:

You're confused by the false description

Expected Result:

The description should reflect the action

Screenshots

Platform Info

Signal Version: v5.8.0-beta.1

Operating System: Archlinux with GNOME

[EvanHahn-Signal]

You're using Arch Linux, and we don't maintain that package. Could you ask your package maintainer to add a dependency on libappindicator1? According to Electron's documentation, libappindicator1 is required in some situations on Linux.

[fabiscafe]

Appindicator support was also dropped. GNOME does not support anything in the direction of "an icon to show in the background running applications"

Please see:

1. https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/StatusIconMigration/Guidelines
2. https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/StatusIconMigration/FAQ
3. https://blogs.gnome.org/aday/2017/08/31/status-icons-and-gnome/
4. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/1014

[maymage]

@EvanHahn-Signal
The issue is the same on GNOME under Debian/Ubuntu.

[fabiscafe]

@maymage Ubuntu does ship a customized GNOME that brings an extension for appindicator support. So Ubuntu does support it.
Since this however is a distro level solution, Please let's stay away from a distro-level discussion, but only go for "what upstream desktops/wm officially support". Otherwise we will end up in a "install this and that extension"- kind of talk without touching the problem itself.

[maymage]

Sorry, I just wanted to point out, that in my installations of ubuntu and debian - both with vanialla gnome desktop - there is no system tray.
Hence this issue is also valid for ubuntu and debian, which signal supports and not limited to unsupported distributions such as Arch,
as @EvanHahn-Signal suggested.

[fabiscafe]

with vanialla gnome desktop

In that case it's true of course. 👍

[EvanHahn-Signal]

I think there are three possible solutions here:

1. Hide the user setting when we detect that the system tray is not supported
2. Somehow figure out how to make the system tray work in more situations
3. Show the setting with a warning that says something like "this may not work on Linux"

Given how weird some Linux WMs can be, I'm thinking we should do the first option...what do people think?

[hiqua]

I think you should do 3., but with the message "this may not work on your WM" or something like that. From the app you already know you're running on Linux.

Honestly I think doing nothing is also adequate. Users will encounter the same issues with many other apps, and it's covered by the GNOME FAQ: https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/StatusIconMigration/FAQ

Some workarounds are listed (installing some extension, as mentioned previously).

[fabiscafe]

Hide the user setting when we detect that the system tray is not supported

The user might still want to have it running in the background. This would create a bigger problem then it is.

Somehow figure out how to make the system tray work in more situations

The only possibility is to enforce the usage of a shell extension on the user. That extension might however not work on the version the user runs or some other.

Show the setting with a warning that says something like "this may not work on Linux"

That would be an option. One I'm no fan of.

What about the solution of the old implementation, just use "run in background" instead of "tray"? As far as I can tell there is no option that is only reachable via tray icon. Notification clicks will raise the app window as well as the click on the app-launcher. The only part that doesn't fit is the string of text.

[maymage]

I second the comment of @fabiscafe

The functionality of Signal running in the background or not is independent of any systray integration.

Signal should be fully functional without a systray, but may of course integrate with it, if present.

[Victor239]

I use KDE with libappindicator but I can see the benefits with GNOME's approach to deprecating tray icons as my own system tray is already cluttered.

Like the two most recent posters have mentioned, simply change the text when it's detected that system tray isn't supported:

• "Minimize to start tray" becomes "Minimize to background"
• "Start minimized to tray" becomes "Start in background"

[soloturn]

i second the comment of @fabiscafe .

[EvanHahn-Signal]

I've renamed this issue to match its new intent: adding official support for the system tray on Linux. Currently, the system tray is supported on Linux but only on Signal Desktop's beta. It may be unreliable there, but once we can make it reliable for our officially-supported distributions, we'll enable it for all users.

[fabiscafe]

@EvanHahn-Signal This is not what this issue is about. I made it for this one reason to have better support for how GNOME does it. Is you have no intention to work on this please close it as wontfix.

It's tbh very frustrating to be here as it feels like there is an easy path to go on but for some reason you keep avoiding it.

[savegame]

KDE no ability to minimize signal to tray

[cachandlerdev]

I've renamed this issue to match its new intent: adding official support for the system tray on Linux. Currently, the system tray is supported on Linux but only on Signal Desktop's beta. It may be unreliable there, but once we can make it reliable for our officially-supported distributions, we'll enable it for all users.

@EvanHahn-Signal Is support for this feature still planned? Almost a year later, there does not appear to be a setting that will allow the app to minimize to the tray without manually re-adding --use-tray-icon to the Signal.desktop file every time the app updates.

[sudoCss]

any updates on this please?!

[cachandlerdev]

One temporary workaround if you use the flatpak version is to set an environment variable in Flatseal to enable the tray icon. That way you won't have to manually reset it each time the app updates. I mentioned that solution here: flathub/org.signal.Signal#116 (comment)

I also hope official support is added at some point though.

[sudoCss]

Thank you for your help

if you use the flatpak version

Unfortunately I'm using the official Archlinux build from the Arch core repos, it's a little bit frustrating to add --use-tray-icon to the signal-desktop.desktop file after every update; forget to do it and you may spend a whole day thinking there are no notifications just to realize the next day that you have already missed some really urgent stuff like I did...

I also hope official support is added at some point though.

Hope so too.

[marekrost]

it's a little bit frustrating to add --use-tray-icon to the signal-desktop.desktop file after every update;

You know that it is possible to override anything in /usr/share/applications? On per-user basis. Simply copy the file into your ~/.local/share/applications/ folder, don't touch file name and only change the contents.

That's how it's supposed to work. And it does in KDE 5 (Plasma).

[sudoCss]

I didn't actually know that, thanks very much.