The brand new Thunderbird UI is now accessible and it is a lengthy overdue refresh

I have been utilizing Thunderbird for a really, very very long time. Actually, it has been so lengthy, I am unable to bear in mind the e-mail consumer I used earlier than it.  

My solely standing beef with Thunderbird is that the UI has been outdated for some time. For the longest time, it is simply felt…outdated. I’ve even been identified to undergo the motions of including a theme simply to make the app not appear too bland.

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Thankfully, as of model 115, Thunderbird has lastly begun the sluggish, regular creep towards modernization. 

Now, it is not like it will completely wow you. The brand new look is not a dramatic departure from the growing old UI. As an alternative, it is a refined tweak that provides Thunderbird a extra in-touch really feel that’s not simply extra pleasing to have a look at however simpler to make use of. It is extra environment friendly and it gives a cleaner default font that renders textual content so significantly better (particularly on the Linux desktop).

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The excellent news is that the new-look Thunderbird is not such a dramatic departure from the outdated that you will have to scramble to stand up to hurry. The adjustments the builders and designers have made all make sense, and anybody who’s used Thunderbird will robotically really feel proper at residence.

For those who examine the earlier launch to the brand new refresh, you will see that each are laid out very equally. There’s nonetheless the e-mail account/folder hierarchy on the left, the inbox pane within the higher proper, and the studying pane within the decrease proper. Each have instrument buttons on the left sidebar (for electronic mail, contacts, calendar, to-do, and chats), however that is the place the similarities begin to fade.

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The brand new iteration breaks the Search bar out of the usual toolbar and locations it within the header. There’s additionally the Fast Filter button. With Fast Filters enabled, you will see the Unread, Starred, Contact, Tags, and Attachments filter buttons accessible to the appropriate of the message filter search bar.

For those who disable the Fast Filter choice, the UI turns into even cleaner — and you may nonetheless rapidly allow the Fast Filters with a click on of a button.

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One other very good addition is discovered on to the appropriate of the Fast Filter button and lets you change the Message Record from the usual Desk view to a brand new Playing cards view. The Playing cards view shows every electronic mail as a separate card. From that very same popup menu, you can even kind your electronic mail by plenty of totally different choices, equivalent to Date, Acquired, Star, Precedence, and From.

One factor I like in regards to the Card view is that it makes the e-mail preview simpler to learn. You get the recipient and topic collectively as an alternative of in numerous columns. At first, I wasn’t too eager on the Playing cards view, however the extra I take advantage of it, the extra I desire it. I am all for something — even one thing very small — that makes my day a bit extra environment friendly, and the brand new Card view does simply that.

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One remaining deal with I found is the brand new Density settings, the place you possibly can barely shrink or enlarge the UI. For those who click on the menu button within the high proper nook (three horizontal strains), you possibly can choose from Compact, Default, and Relaxed density (with Compact being the smallest UI and Relaxed being the most important). 

I’ve set my new Thunderbird occasion up with the Card View and Compact Density, and I’ve discovered that it appears to be like and performs nice.

So long as you do not anticipate a large change within the Thunderbird UI, you will be pleasantly shocked at how these refined adjustments make utilizing the app even simpler. 

For those who’re utilizing both MacOS or Home windows, you must have the ability to set up the most recent model within the regular vogue. If, nonetheless, you are utilizing Linux, I discovered the simplest approach to get the brand new model is to put in it by way of Snap with the command:

sudo snap set up thunderbird --candidate

For those who set up the brand new model by way of Snap, you will should configure your electronic mail accounts, as it is going to set up individually from the earlier variations. For those who set up on both MacOS or Home windows (so long as you’ve got Thunderbird already put in and configured), it ought to simply replace the app, so there isn’t any must re-add your accounts.

Get pleasure from the brand new Thunderbird UI.