Please implement Microsoft "Your Phone" support for Chat Accounts

[Jeb E.]

I would love to see support for Microsoft Accounts "Your Phone/Companion" feature in Thunderbird's "Chat Accounts" tool. This would allow me to synchronize my text messages and notifications with my Android device.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: thunderbird 1:60.2.1+build1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-12.13-lowlatency 4.18.17
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-12-lowlatency x86_64
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu13.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: jeb 6811 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC2: jeb 6811 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jeb 6811 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20181011091051
Channel: Unavailable
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Dec 28 08:22:33 2018
Extensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
IncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite)
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-08-17 (133 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.86.1 dev wlx7cdd90a9ad27 proto dhcp metric 600
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlx7cdd90a9ad27 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.86.0/24 dev wlx7cdd90a9ad27 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.86.239 metric 600
 192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.122.1 linkdown
Locales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
MostRecentCrashID: bp-28d5ae3f-24c9-47bb-9bd3-c0fb10180818
PrefSources: prefs.js
Prefs:
 extensions.lastAppVersion: "60.2.1" (prefs.js)
 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true (prefs.js)
 network.predictor.cleaned-up: true (prefs.js)
 places.database.lastMaintenance: 1544627000 (prefs.js)
 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 (prefs.js)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=60.2.1/20181011091051 (In use)
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: thunderbird
SubmittedCrashIDs: bp-28d5ae3f-24c9-47bb-9bd3-c0fb10180818
Themes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to cosmic on 2018-10-19 (69 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/21/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080016
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: A880G+
dmi.board.vendor: BIOSTAR Group
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: None
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: BIOSTAR Group
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080016:bd09/21/2011:svnBIOSTARGroup:pnA880G+:pvr:rvnBIOSTARGroup:rnA880G+:rvr:cvnBIOSTARGroup:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: A880G+
dmi.product.sku: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: BIOSTAR Group

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

This is something that needs to be implemented upstream by the developers of Thunderbird.

Please create a request at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ and let us know the URL of the upstream report so that the issue can be tracked here in Launchpad.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

setting to wishlist per request from PaulW2U on #ubuntu-bugs. Leaving as new.

[Jeb E. (jebeld17)]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 8.0.0; HTC U11) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/71.0.3578.99 Mobile Safari/537.36 EdgA/42.0.92.3330

Steps to reproduce:

N/A

Actual results:

N/A

Expected results:

I would love to see support for Microsoft Accounts "Your Phone/Companion" feature in Thunderbird's "Chat Accounts" tool. This would allow me to synchronize my text messages and notifications with my Android device.

[Jeb E. (jebeld17)]

Original Launchpad bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1809975

[Jeb E. (jebeld17)]

Bug added to Mozilla's registry at:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1525360

[Clokep-4 (clokep-4)]

I'm unfamiliar with what this "Your Phone/Companion" product is. Can you link to something about it?

[Jeb E. (jebeld17)]

@clokep-4
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4459358/windows-10-your-phone-app-help

[Jeb E. (jebeld17)]

I believe it functions with Graph APIs, but I'm not certain for sure.

[Vseerror (vseerror)]

jebeld17 ?

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

In error, jebeld17 provided the following information on Launchpad instead of here:

>@clokep-4
>https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4459358/windows-10-your-phone-app-help
>I believe it functions with Graph APIs, but I'm not certain for sure.

[Clokep-4 (clokep-4)]

Paul,

Thanks for providing that link!

My quick summary of how this works is:
1. You install something on your PC and log into your Microsoft account.
2. You install an app on your Android phone.
3. You can view and send text messages (and photos) from your computer

I assume this works by bouncing all data via a server:
* To send a text:
    * The PC application makes an API call to the server.
    * The Android app gets a push notification and checks the server, then sends the text message.
* On a text being received:
    * The Android app makes an API call to the server.
    * The PC application gets notified and displays the message.

But I might be wrong, somewhere in the docs it says something about the Android device having to be on WiFi, so it's possible the devices directly connect somehow.

[Clokep-4 (clokep-4)]

Thanks for filing! I'm going to close this since this uses a proprietary API and our intention is to support open standards in Thunderbird. Hopefully Thunderbird will support chat protocols via extensions again in the future (I think this is currently blocked by bug 1227973).

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Please see comment #13 which advises that the Thunderbird developers won't be implementing this request so have closed their issue with a status of "RESOLVED WONTFIX". I'm closing the Ubuntu task (as Invalid but should also be Won't Fix) as it's not something that Ubuntu developers will be implementing as a patch to all or any future Thunderbird releases.