Please support native notifications

amasover 181 Reputation points
2019-12-16T21:06:19.27+00:00

Edit: Looks like someone has created a new Uservoice issue around this.

Currently the Teams Linux preview uses a custom notification system. It appears to spawn a new window in which to draw notifications. This is probably not a big deal in some window managers, but in tiling window managers it makes Teams notifications completely unusable:

alt text

I'm using i3 as my window manager, and I have default behavior for new windows set to split vertically. And since the Teams notification window is a new window.....well, the result is pretty ugly.

For reference, here's what it looks like using the unofficial teams-for-linux client (which uses Chromium's native notifications, since that's what the Teams web client uses), and dunst to handle notifications:

alt text

For reference, here's output from "dbus-monitor path=/org/freedesktop/Notifications". This is what I'd really like to see the official Teams client implement.

method call time=1576520890.220235 sender=:1.640 -> destination=:1.2 serial=28 path=/org/freedesktop/Notifications; interface=org.freedesktop.Notifications; member=Notify  
   string "teams-for-linux"  
   uint32 0  
   string ""  
   string "Travis"  
   string "fsd"  
   array [  
      string "default"  
      string "View"  
   ]  
   array [  
      dict entry(  
         string "desktop-entry"  
         variant             string "teams-for-linux"  
      )  
      dict entry(  
         string "image-data"  
         variant             struct {  
               int32 64  
               int32 64  
               int32 256  
               boolean true  
               int32 8  
               int32 4  
               array of bytes [  
                  # ommitted b/c it's a really long array of bytes that represents the profile picture  
               ]  
            }  
      )  
   ]  
Skype for Business Linux
Skype for Business Linux
Skype for Business: A Microsoft communications service that provides communications capabilities across presence, instant messaging, audio/video calling, and an online meeting experience that includes audio, video, and web conferencing.Linux: A family of open-source Unix-like operating systems.
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Accepted answer
  1. Dave Patrick 425.7K Reputation points MVP
    2019-12-17T00:00:28.34+00:00

    I'd recommend posting this feedback over here on uservoice.

    https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/16911565-linux-client

    1 person found this answer helpful.

3 additional answers

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  1. Sarmad 41 Reputation points
    2020-04-17T18:52:23.667+00:00

    "This is probably not a big deal in some window managers"

    Wrong. This is a big deal, period. There is a centralized notification system provided by the OS, why not just use it? We want all notifications from all apps in a central location, not keep jumping between apps to see if there is anything we need to pay attention to.

    8 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. chris 21 Reputation points
    2019-12-16T21:16:49.377+00:00

    Had the same issue, you need to configure i3 to enable floating for the notifications

    for_window [title="Microsoft Teams Notification" class="microsoft teams - preview"] floating enable

    for_window [title="Microsoft Teams Notification" class="Microsoft Teams - Preview"] floating enable

    I had to add the above two line to my i3 config. xprop will get you the needed info.

    xprop | grep -i -e '^wm_name\|^wm_class'

    WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "Microsoft Teams Notification"

    WM_CLASS(STRING) = "microsoft teams - preview", "Microsoft Teams - Preview"

    4 people found this answer helpful.

  3. Marcel Robitaille 6 Reputation points
    2020-09-04T16:15:49.83+00:00

    Even on a floating window manager, it is annoying. As @Sarmad said, we already have a notification system for a reason. Microsoft just thinks it knows better even for linux users.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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