Only show notifications for "primary" email when using categories

[Merlijn Sebrechts]

As discussed in https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-phone/msg19569.html, Ubuntu touch now shows notifications for all email in inbox. The original behavior was to only show notifications for emails in "primary", as is the case in official Gmail apps.

Since the default behavior of official Gmail apps is to only show notifications for all email in inbox, I'd like you to reconsider this change. When a user receives a high amount of email, getting a notification for every email is very cumbersome. Most emails do not require immediate action, only emails in Primary category require that.

Is it possible to either

a) Mimic the behavior of official gmail apps: When categories are enabled, only notify for primary emails
b) Expose this behavior as a config option where a user can choose to receive all emails or only primary emails.

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

This issue has come up quite a few times in the community:

 - https://askubuntu.com/questions/757302/update-making-any-all-emails-sound-notification
 - https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-phone/msg19569.html
 - https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-phone/msg19848.html

[Anupam (anupam207)]

Is this a bug or an intended behaviour? Previously some users complained that they were not getting alerts for all incoming mails as they would have wanted. So I think best practice for now is to force annoying mails to skip inbox. Refer to this answer to the askubuntu question you mentioned:
http://askubuntu.com/a/778003/480481

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

Only showing notifications for "primary" emails is the default behavior of the official Gmail apps (android app), so I'd say it is definitely a bug.

The solution posted on askubuntu isn't the behavior I want nor the behavior categories is intended for.

I do want to see all my email before I archive it. Mails such as bug reports, mailinglist updates, new humble bundles etc. are important just not urgent. I should not receive notifications about them on my phone. They should however show up as unarchived, unread new email when I open the app or gmail in the browser. You can "teach" categories which email is urgent (primary) and which isn't. That's the beauty of this functionality.

Having the ability to get notified for all email is a nice option to have as non-default. However, I think the default behavior should be the same as the official Gmail apps.

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

Since the behavior of this app differs from the official Gmail app, I'd mark this as a bug, not a feature request.

[Anupam (anupam207)]

@merlijn-sebrechts Mostly agreed, only one small correction: if you try this workaround, incoming messages *will show up as unread new mails*, not in inbox, but in the corresponding labels (right side menu in the browser). You won't miss any mail!

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

@Anupam

It is true that I can still view these emails, however, this would not solve my use-case.

I archive mails when I've dealt with them or when they require no action. This means that I have "read" emails sitting in my inbox that still require my attention and I have "unread" emails sitting in the archive that don't require my attention. This workflow works really well with an inbox and makes sure I don't "forget" an email.

I know I can replicate this behavior using some more categories and better management of emails, but I don't want to change my workflow to be able to use my Ubuntu Phone, especially because my workflow is the intended usage of Gmail...

But still, thanks for posting the workaround!

[Anupam (anupam207)]

@Merlijn Agreed! I also think by default it should show notifications only for new emails in primary category with notification for all new mails as a non-default choice.