Display icon indication for mobile/web client/bot/etc IM users

[Kẏra]

Binary package hint: empathy

Empathy doesn't indicate which contacts are signed in from a mobile device.

Pidgin supports icons for mobile users, blocked this users, users that can recieve SMS text msgs, users that have a musictracker plugin installed or is playing music on Windows and has 'Now Playing' enabled to show to their contact, users logged in using a web interface to chat, and users that are bots
http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Pidgin#Whatdotheiconsnexttomybuddymean

[Eddie M. (eddiemartinez)]

usability/wishlist

[DodgeV83 (spamfrelow)]

This is the sole reason why I cannot use Empathy as my main IM client. I've embarrassed myself quite a few times (woke some people up) thinking "Hey look my friend is online at 4am, wonder what he/she's up to?", only to buzz their phone and wake everybody up :(

There are different levels of conversation, you IM someone instead of call them because it's a more casual and non-intrusive way of creating a conversation. When people are signed in to IM they are "available" and generally looking for a conversation. Not-so when logged into IM 24/7 from their phones.

Empathy's inability to distinguish between these levels of availability is it's greatest flaw.

[Kẏra (thekyriarchy)]

Pidgin supports icons for mobile users, blocked this users, users that can recieve SMS text msgs, users that have a musictracker plugin installed or is playing music on Windows and has 'Now Playing' enabled to show to their contact, users logged in using a web interface to chat, and users that are bots
http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Pidgin#Whatdotheiconsnexttomybuddymean

[Zev Goldstein (psywolf)]

I entirely agree with DodgeV83 on this one. I love telepathy, but i can't ditch pidgin until empathy can let me know who I'm IMing and who I'm texting.

[Jake LeMaster (ssoundasleep)]

This is one reason I also can't seriously switch from Pidgin to Empathy. I remember trying Empathy out last year (I believe) and running into this issue and finding this same (I assume) open bug report. Knowing whether or not my friends are on their mobile plays a large part in how/if I communicate with them.

[Stove Jobs (0ct0g0n0pus-deactivatedaccount)]

Good so it's not just me.
Same deal, no icons, no deal.
I'd love to use Empathy too..
This is really an essential feature, and I'm sure it's super easy to do..

[Benjamin Dittmann (crazymacguy)]

Also another frustrated user...
I've switched to Pidgin for the time being, but i really like Empathy for more reasons, but I just can't switch till this is fixed...
Its pure logic guys... get this implemented! Its been A YEAR AND A HALF!

Original Date: Reported by Danny Piccirillo on 2009-02-21

Just saying....

[Kẏra (thekyriarchy)]

Once again I find myself having to defend developers who don't work enough for the people who reap the fruits of their labor for free. Please never post another "me too" comment on any bug any bug report, anywhere, ever. It does not help. I'll link to the last post I made explaining this on the request for OTR in Empathy: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=545347#c19

[Jake LeMaster (ssoundasleep)]

People are giving feedback to this issue. Some developers would be interested in that. It's frustrating to have the usability of a program hurt so badly by such a seemingly small thing. (It seems like it should be able to qualify as a Papercut.)

And this bug report has a whole 7 comments in the extremely long time it's been open. I really don't think you're justified in making a huff over it.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

this feature, hopefully will be implemented next cycle as work on this is ongoing upstream.

for those who think its a papercut i.e. easy to fix well its not.

[Kẏra (thekyriarchy)]

<<People are giving feedback to this issue. Some developers would be interested in that.>>

In response to this, i'm just going to have to quote exactly what you said, "Also another frustrated user...
I've switched to Pidgin for the time being, but i really like Empathy for more reasons, but I just can't switch till this is fixed...
Its pure logic guys... get this implemented! Its been A YEAR AND A HALF!"

You even busted out the all-caps. Tell me what is valuable in that? Tell me what kind of developer needs to be told to drop whatever else they are working on to fix this instead. Did you even read the link? Please don't even continue reading this if you haven't.

<<(It seems like it should be able to qualify as a Papercut.)>>

Omer has already responded to that one.

<<And this bug report has a whole 7 comments in the extremely long time it's been open.>>

And the developers, you can be sure, are tracking more than this one bug, so spamming them with a "me too" comment does no good. It isn't about this one post, it's about this trend that has been getting worse and worse, where it becomes harder to fix bug because of having to sort through comments like this that add *no* value whatsoever. You can respond to me privately if you wish to continue this discussion.

[Elias K Gardner (zorkerz)]

Is anybody still experiencing this bug or can we close it?

[BinaryGodMonkey (bagatonovic)]

I quit using Empathy after this bug :(
Unsubscribed from this bug so I will bug you no more.

[Brian Curtis (bcurtiswx)]

This bug is fixed in the GNOME3 version of empathy (which won't make it into Natty). You can try it out in the GNOME3 PPA or wait until the Ocelot.

[Andres Velez (andresvelez89)]

I'm sorry, but how can I get this fix on Natty? Thank you

[C Anthony (xtfxme)]

> You even busted out the all-caps. Tell me what is valuable in that?
> Tell me what kind of developer needs to be told to drop whatever
> else they are working on to fix this instead. Did you even read the
> link? Please don't even continue reading this if you haven't.

whoa there big guy ... relax ... you didn't even quote the right guy:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/empathy/+bug/332348/comments/5

;-) seems perfectly reasonable to me, since that's exactly why i'm here, as i made this mistake 5 minutes ago.

... i *am* a developer, albeit not for empathy. people just want stuff to work man, no shame in that; shame is when words become caustic and reactive. computers work for humans, not other way around.

... and on that note ... how do you enable this icon -- is it default/auto? i don't actually use ubuntu [archlinux] but gnome3 is the default on this side of fence and we pretty much run the latest everything *all the time* ... i'm not seeing these alternative icons, and that branch was merged in November ...

using gnome 3.0.2 here (AFAICS empathy is not a separate entity from the gnome3 distrib, at this point) ... what a guy need to do to see the client-type indicator icons?

C Anthony

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

This issue have been fixed in empathy 3.0 in Oneiric we have empathy 3.1.3 so I am closing this bug as fixed. feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[Robert Allegretti (boba1120)]

Fresh install of Oneiric, no mobile indicators here. Is this actually confirmed working or was it assumed because version X was supposed to make it in?

[Jordan Bates (jtbates-g)]

This continued happening in every version of Ubuntu for the past two years, making me switch to Pidgin every single time.

Please fix this bug, it is certainly not fixed! Great client otherwise ruined by a small oversight.