thunderbird

We've got some new faces on our growing support team! in this Community Office Hours, Heather and Monica talk to the team about the work they're doing to not only get ready for Thundermail, but improve the support experience for donors, the wider Thunderbird community, and our incredible support contributors.

Resources for Suggesting Features: Thunderbird on Desktop and Mobile - https://connect.mozilla.org/ Thundermail and Thunderbird Pro - https://ideas.tb.pro/

Resources for Becoming a Community Support Contributor: Join the Support Crew Matrix Channel - https://matrix.to/#/#tb-support-crew:mozilla.org Learn How to Write Support Articles - https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/07/video-learn-about-thunderbird-support-articles-and-how-to-contribute/ Learn How to Help Support Forum Users - https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/08/video-how-to-answer-thunderbird-questions-on-mozilla-support/ Provide Feedback on Desktop Support Articles - https://github.com/thunderbird/knowledgebase-issues/issues Provide Feedback on Android Support Articles - https://github.com/thunderbird/android-knowledgebase-issues/issues Already a SUMO Contributor? Join the Contributor Discussion Forum - https://support.mozilla.org/forums/contributors/

Resources for Getting Help with Thunderbird: Thunderbird for Android Support Channel (Matrix) - https://matrix.to/#/#tb-android:mozilla.org Thunderbird Desktop Support Channel (Matrix) - https://matrix.to/#/#thunderbird:mozilla.org

In the February meeting, the Bolt Design System Committee aligns on initial setup and ownership for the Bolt Design System repo, began defining cross-platform icon naming conventions, plus works towards component exposure in the documentation site.

Have any questions or want to join the conversation? Come find us in our Matrix room (https://matrix.to/#/#bolt-design-system:mozilla.org). New to Matrix? Find a Quick Start guide here: https://matrixdocs.github.io/docs/getting-started/quick-start

Our Accessibility Standards and Committee Meetings are now recorded and online!

In the February Accessibility Standards & Compliance meeting, the committee advances a draft Thunderbird accessibility statement for review at the next meeting and starts crafting Thunderbird’s accessibility guidelines. The group identifies work needed to extend guidance into the Bolt design system with a lightweight a11y definition of done for design, and development. Finally, the committee discusses adding automated accessibility checks across platforms (including a minimum “accessibility gate”), reviews proposed success metrics, and closes with an open forum for community questions.

In their first meeting, the Design System Governance Committee, composed of MZLA employees and community members, first reviews the 2026 design roadmap. Then they take a deeper dive into tokens, their role in tying together Thunderbird's many platforms, W3 token standards, and how to document them. This work will make it easier for new design team members and contributors to jump into their work, while providing a more coherent experience from desktop to mobile and beyond.

Welcome to the last Community Office Hours of 2025! In this edition, Heather and Monica welcome Sr. Software Engineer Brendan Abolivier and Software Engineer Eleanor Dichary from the Desktop Team. We’re discussing the recent Exchange Web Support for email that just landed in Thunderbird Monthly Release 145. Learn how the team landed this feature and discover future plans for Calendar and Contact support, as well as Graph API

Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:50 What is Microsoft Exchange 05:07 Why it took so long to add Exchange 14:33 Exchange in Thunderbird 145 18:20 Config options and authorization 27:10 Attachments and storage 32:30 Sync and folder operations 36:10 Filters and notification 39:10 Search 40:20 Feedback and bug reporting 43:00 Mobile and Graph API 49:09 JMAP and future protocols 55:50 Calendar and address book 59:57 Roadmap and EWS deprecation 62:23 Closing

Resources Exchange Mozilla Support Article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-exchange Exchange Mozilla Wiki Post (with call for testing): https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird%3AExchange Reach out on Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#thunderbird:mozilla.org Bugzilla (use Exchange component for reporting): https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=MailNews+Core

As 2025 winds down, its time to start thinking of what we want to achieve for our Android AND iOS apps next year. Alessandro walks us through the 2026 mobile roadmap, covering our urgent priorities, feature wish list, and a glimpse at our upcoming design plans for the entire Thunderbird project.

Chapters

00:00 Intro 01:47 Thunderbird Pro in Mobile 05:49 How we build a roadmap 07:40 Android initiatives 12:51 Material 3 or Material You 21:05 Calendar Exploration Questions 31:26 Roadmap items for our community 33:34 iOS initiatives

Resources: Current Android Roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/thunderbird/projects/19 TB Pro Announcement: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/04/thundermail-and-thunderbird-pro-services/ Mobile Development Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#tb-mobile-dev:mozilla.org Thunderbird for Android GitHub Issues: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues

If you can believe it, Thunderbird for Android has been out for just over a year! In this episode of our Community Office Hours, Heather and Monica check back in with the mobile team after our chat with them back in January. Sr. Software Engineer Wolf Montwé and our new Manager of Mobile Apps, Jon Bott look back at what the growing mobile team has been able to accomplish this last year, what we’re still working on, and what’s up ahead.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro 00:54 One Year Retrospective: What Worked & What Didn't 02:47 Closing the Gap with the Desktop Experience 04:00 Synchronization, Old UI & Dark Mode Challenges 05:57 The Difficulty of Rewriting Core Code 08:31 Why Move to a Monthly Release Cycle? 11:11 The "Carpaccio Method" for Development 13:27 The Struggle with "Technical Debt" 17:14 How a Lack of Documentation Slows Down Fixes 20:00 Lessons from Android for the New iOS App 23:41 Developers' Wishlist: A Modern UI & Smarter Features 26:40 Developers' Wishlist: Better Search & Sync 27:50 The Secret Buried Feature: A Powerful Search Engine 30:12 How K9 Users Differ from Thunderbird Users 33:34 How Many People Use Thunderbird for Android? 36:10 How New Team Changes Have Impacted the Workflow 38:29 Community Contributor Shout-outs 43:06 Balancing an Old App (Android) vs. a New App (iOS) 47:02 Who Replies to App Store Reviews? (A Community Effort) 52:44 The Roadmap for Next Year (Android & iOS) 55:03 Wrap-up & Thanks

Welcome back to another State of the Thunder! In this episode, Director Ryan Sipes is leading us through how the Thunderbird roadmap. Unlike other companies where roadmaps are driven solely by business needs, Thunderbird is working with our community governance and feedback from the wider user community to keep us honest even as we move forward.

Chapters

00:00 Intro 00:19 How a software roadmap gets made 02:27 A brief history of Thunderbird 06:24 Writing next year's roadmap 12:16 Community contributions in the roadmap 24:43 Engage with the project 27:56 How we incorporate feedback 29:24 Why telemetry is important 33:12 How people can see our roadmaps

Resources: Mozilla Manifesto: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/ Share big ideas: https://connect.mozilla.org/ Report desktop bugs: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ Report Android bugs: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/ Engage with the Thunderbird Council: https://council.thunderbird.net/ Desktop roadmap: https://developer.thunderbird.net/planning/roadmap Mobile roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/thunderbird/projects/19

In this month's office hours, we're talking with members of our desktop team about finally taking solid steps towards a genuine Conversation View. From backend database updates to in-person design collaborations, get the first look at this long-awaited addition to the Thunderbird desktop app!

No time to watch? Read the blog to get the highlights! https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/video-conversation-view/

Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:17 What Is Conversation View? 04:14 Why Thunderbird Hasn’t Had Conversation View 05:43 Early Attempts & Global Database Challenges 07:32 Current Limitations of Global Indexing 09:13 The Panorama Initiative Explained 11:01 Building the New SQLite Database 13:36 Work Week in Vancouver: Goals & Struggles 17:10 Technical & Design Challenges 23:22 Design Prototypes & UI Concepts 23:49 The Road Ahead 27:04 Balancing Features & User Experience 27:44 Difference Between Threaded View & Conversation View 29:35 Sorting Options in Conversation View 30:21 New Features Enabled by Panorama 32:41 Calendar Invites & Future Improvements 33:57 Preventing Data Corruption in New Database 36:45 Limitations & Risks of a Single Database File 39:17 Thunderbird Sustainability & Developer Access 41:44 Folder Compaction with the New Model 43:02 Communicating Progress to the Community 46:42 Managing User Expectations 49:15 Value of Work Weeks & Collaboration 52:47 How to Stay Updated (Mailing Lists, Bugzilla, State of the Thunder) 55:23 Future Updates & Community Involvement 56:02 Wrapping Up

We're back with our twelfth episode of the State of the Thunder! In this episode, we're talking about community initiatives, filling you in on Android development, and finishing our updates on popular Mozilla Connect requests, including true Conversation View!

No time to watch? Read the summary on our blog here: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/09/state-of-the-thunder-12-community-android-and-mozilla-connect/

Chapters

00:00 Intro 01:21 Austin RiverHacks 05:40 Ask-a-Fox 15:13 More Mozilla Connect Updates 16:03 Native system notification integration 24:10 Conversation View 26:51 The new Panorama database initiative 36:04 A few Thunderbird Pro updates

State of the Thunder is back after a short hiatus for a new season of answering questions and providing our community with updates on all our products, from mobile and desktop clients to the upcoming Thunderbird Pro!

In our first episode of the new season, Alessandro and new cohost Michael Ellis tackle a new batch of your questions with help from members of the Thunderbird team and community. Then they provide updates on the 20-ish top Thunderbird suggestions in Mozilla Connect.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction 03:23 Accidental Message Order Sorting 08:49 Move Focus Keyboard Shortcut 11:33 Option for Simplified Thunderbird? 21:16 Thunderbird Version in Ubuntu PPA 24:12 Top 20-ish features requested in Mozilla Connect

In our latest Community Office Hours, we're talking with members of our design team on a recent accessibility (a11y) study. See how Thunderbird performed with screen readers and magnification, alternative navigation, and general cognitive accessibility, and where we look to improve in the future. Find out how to get involved and where to join us!

Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:14 The Thunderbird Accessibility Study 02:09 Study Methodology 03:34 Participants and Assistive Technology 05:22 Results and Accessibility Scores 06:32 Screen Reader Findings and Issues 12:57 Cognitive Accessibility Challenges 15:33 Voice Control Findings 17:15 Magnification Software Insights 20:25 Eye Tracking Discoveries 21:55 Conclusions & How the Community Can Help 25:15 Q&A Session with the Team 35:53 Roadmap Impact & Mozilla Collaboration 42:30 Biggest Surprises & Lessons Learned 46:00 Quick Wins & Potential Improvements 47:50 Long-Term Accessibility Strategy for Thunderbird 50:19 Mindset Shift: Accessibility Helps Everyone 51:47 Next Steps: Training, Bug Triaging & Future Studies 55:04 How the Community Can Contribute

Resources: Bugzilla Disability Access bugs and enhancement requests: https://mzl.la/41jrnuv Fable: https://makeitfable.com/ Thunderbird A11y Matrix channel: https://matrix.to/#/#tb-a11y:mozilla.org Thunderbird User Experience Mailing List: https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/ux Thunderbird suggested tools and resources for Accessibility: https://bolt.thunderbird.net/8b179dbfd/p/33ddcb-accessibility Config 2024: Pitching accessible design like a pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoHIDWF0d6I