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hew · Jan 18, 2003, 11:43 AM

I don't know if this has been discussed at all, but when I first got my hands on iChat back when 10.2 released I was hoping iChat's Menu Extra would allow the feature of seeing how many new messages you had. I was disappointed to find it wasn't available. Personally I think iChat's Menu Extra is pretty useless as it is..

What I'm proposing is that when a new message or reponse appears it would put a number inside iChat's Menu Extra bubble depending on how many new messages you had and have the option of blinking as well. Now this would completely be optional and it could be turned on and off under the actions pane in the preferences.

Proteus has something similar to this, but I like iChat's simplicity and I think the way I propose is another great way to see if you have any new messages especially if you have your dock set to hide (12" iBook screen

).

If you think it's a good idea, let me know and send Apple feedback about it.

Nebagakid · Jan 18, 2003, 02:25 PM

nifty idea, i like it, make it happen, write to Apple!

brainchild2b · Jan 18, 2003, 06:05 PM

Maybe I'm stupid but that's exactly why iChat does now with it's icon in the dock. Why would u want an indicator in the menubar? Can't you see that you have open ichat windows all over your screen.

zachs · Jan 18, 2003, 06:26 PM

iChat only shows the number of new messages,
not new replies.

I'll be sending my feedback to Apple.

tikki · Jan 18, 2003, 07:58 PM

Just chalk this up with everything else that needs to be added/fixed in iChat.

Shame too, because I love so much abuot it, but hate so much more

hew · Jan 18, 2003, 10:18 PM

Just a response to brainchild2b, I guess you missed the part where I said that I hide my dock. When the dock is hidden it's a pain to have to mouse over it, just to tell if you have new messages. And as zachs stated it only shows NEW messages, not replies. I have a 12" iBook screen, I can't have my dock showing all the time without it getting in the way at ANY size.

As an added note, I tend to do a lot of stuff on my computer other than chatting and I keep my iChat hidden, so NO I can't see all the windows I have open. I just think it would be nice if iChat's Menu Item actually did something.

And it's not like it's cluttering up your interface. iChat already has a Menu Extra and it can be turned off easily enough. As tikki said, there are a bunch of small features that need to be added. And while I don't want it to become Adium necessarily I'd like it to have better message notification.