[Review] What’s New in Thunderbird 115 Supernova UI

In this article, we’ll take a look at the major changes and new features introduced in the new “Supernova UI” of Thunderbird 115 version which is scheduled to release this summer in July 2023.

Last year, we shared a news that the team behind popular desktop email client software “Thunderbird” is going to bring a modern and redesigned UI to Thunderbird in 2023. On February 10, 2023, we updated the article to provide more information about the upcoming UI of Thunderbird:

Thunderbird to Get a Modern Redesigned “Supernova UI” in Version 115 (July 2023)

Thunderbird team announced that the new UI will be called as “Supernova UI” and will bring a complete new redesigned UI from scratch to Thunderbird. The new UI will be implemented in upcoming Thunderbird 115 version which is scheduled to release in July 2023.

Recently I got my hands on the upcoming Thunderbird version which is under development phase at the moment. Some elements of the new Supernova UI has already started appearing in the testing version of Thunderbird.

In this article, I’m going to share what’s new in upcoming Supernova UI of Thunderbird with screenshots for your reading pleasure.

Let’s start the review!

Supernova UI: The Main Thunderbird Window

Here is how the main Thunderbird window looks in upcoming Supernova UI:

The titlebar and toolbar has been changed a lot along with minor UI improvements.

Supernova UI: New Single Unified Toolbar Everywhere

The main change in the new Supernova UI is the global unified toolbar which will replace the existing titlebar, tab bar and toolbar.

The new unified toolbar has been created by merging the titlebar and toolbar. It now shows a big search box in the middle and the main App menu near the titlebar buttons.

The new unified toolbar is displayed on all pages of Thunderbird.

Following image shows a comparison of old toolbar present in existing versions of Thunderbird and the new unified toolbar present in upcoming Supernova UI of Thunderbird 115 version:

Supernova UI: New Redesigned App Menu to Replace Current Main Menu

The main hamburger menu will also get a complete overhaul and will be used on all pages in Thunderbird.

Following screenshot shows the new App menu introduced in Thunderbird Supernova UI:

As you can see, many options such as View, Density, etc have been moved to main menu and now the main menu is shown in the titlebar (unified toolbar) which is available everywhere in Thunderbird.

Supernova UI: Sync Feature Added to Thunderbird

You might have noticed in the above screenshot, Sync functionality has been added to Thunderbird. It’ll use the same Firefox Sync feature available in Firefox web browser.

Thunderbird users will be able to take benefit of Sync feature to automatically synchronize their mail accounts, address books, calendars, add-ons and customized settings across all their devices.

The Sync feature is also present on main Settings page of Thunderbird.

Supernova UI: New Multi-Line Message List View in Vertical Layout

This feature was one of the most demanded features among all Thunderbird users. Finally Thunderbird team has added multi-line or multi-row message list view to Vertical Layout as shown in following screenshot:

Now Thunderbird also has the much awaited 2-line vertical view feature similar to other popular email client software such as Microsoft Outlook.

Supernova UI: Few New Options Available on Thunderbird Settings Page

Currently 2 new options have been added to Appearance section of Thunderbird Settings page:

• Hide system window titlebar
• Auto hide tab bar

By default, the titlebar is disabled or hidden in the new Supernova UI but interested Thunderbird users can restore the titlebar by unchecking the “Hide system window titlebar” option.

Similarly, the tab bar is set to auto hidden if there is a single tab opened in Thunderbird. Interested users can always show tab bar by unchecking the “Auto hide tab bar” option.

Final Words

The new Supernova UI will provide a modern and refreshing look-n-feel to Thunderbird program and will definitely please Thunderbird users who were complaining about the existing boring and outdated UI since long time.

There will be many more changes and new UI features enabled in coming days and we’ll keep updating this review article to let you know about those changes.

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