IM is all about quick replies (hence the name), so here’s a little idea that’s been brewing in my head for a while now:

Let’s introduce an option for the user to reply directly from the plasmoid pop-up notification.

The idea is that once you get an notification that you got a new instant message, you can either:

• close/ignore it (as now);
• open up the chat window to enter into a discussion with that person/channel (as now); ooooor
• quickly reply from the plasmoid notification itself (awesome new feature!)

Technically I imagine it like just having a one-line text-box entry in the notification pop-up, where you can write your reply and press Enter. For easthetic reasons, it can even be hidden by default and only shows up if you click or hover over a button/area in the notification pop-up.

The use case is when you’re being asked something that really requires a short and quick answer, like e.g. “Dinner in an hour?” (deal!), “What’s my username again?” (awesomaid9000), “Did you feed the dog?” (yes), “Have you done the thing that I asked you to do …you know the thing with the thing and stuffms attached?” (yup, done).

I’m not proposing this to be the primary or only way of communication – although I do see how this could work for some people – but just as a more elegant alternative to quickly reply to someone instead of the whole click-popup-open-window-write-reply-close-window(-get-an-“OK”-from-the-other-person-click-close-again) routine. Which is especially annoying if, like me, you by default keep the communication apps in a separate Activity than your work apps.

Add the quick chat plasmoid to your plasma panel.

Wait for someone to message you.
It has basically everything you just said.

david_edmundson wrote:Add the quick chat plasmoid to your plasma panel.

Wait for someone to message you.
It has basically everything you just said.

It indeed does! I didn’t know about it, Thanks

The only thig that bothers me about it is that it’s not in the notification area.

Yeah, there's some technical reasons why that can't happen.
The notification area enforces everything is square. Glad you like it, please help spread the word about it, it's a bit of a hidden gem.

If you have any comments about it, let me know.

Yeah, there's some technical reasons why that can't happen.
The notification area enforces everything is square. Glad you like it, please help spread the word about it, it's a bit of a hidden gem.

If you have any comments about it, let me know.

david_edmundson wrote:Yeah, there's some technical reasons why that can't happen.
The notification area enforces everything is square.

Ah, makes sense. I’ll just make a separate panel for it.

Is it better suited for a vertical or horizontal panel?
If I make a hiding panel, will it pop up when I get a new message?

Glad you like it, please help spread the word about it, it's a bit of a hidden gem.

Indeed it is!

You might blog about it …I might as well, but I’m not on KDE Planet.

If you have any comments about it, let me know.

I’m missing hints when hovering over the icons in the plasmoid – that would be very helpful.

>Is it better suited for a vertical or horizontal panel?

I have it in horizontal; fitting in with my icontasks taskbar. (on plasma 4 at least)

My friend has it in a tiny hiding vertical panel, which is pretty cool.
It pops up everytime there's a new message, and he has a shortcut set on the plasmoid to activate it.

I’m experiencing the problem that it just stops working and even if I remove and re-add it, it doesn’t start working again. Help welcome.

I’m using KTP 0.7.0