Comment 10 for bug 450398

mac_v: I'm not really arguing for the use of colour here. Since the general theme is a monochrome one, I understand that the use of colour for this would spoil the look. I am arguing that the new instant message notifications are not visible enough (partly because they also rely on sound, and I tend to work with sound switched off to avoid disturbing others).

I gave my suggestion for improving the situation above, but perhaps your idea of the chat bubble icon would also do the trick better than the current envelope colour switch, which I still often fail to notice. (I am training myself to look at it regularly, but that in itself is to my mind a sign that it is not working as it should).

In any case, at least for instant messaging, I think that most users will want to notice new messages immediately when they are sitting in front of their system and using an instant messaging client (otherwise they would stick to e-mail). And in my case - perhaps I am the exception to the rule, I don't know - this is not always working.