Franz: [Feature Request] Start Franz minimized

[mrprobot]

Feature Description

If you start Franz, it would be launched minimized in the background.

Motivation and Context

This feature is a nice addition if you set Franz to autostart. Some people just want their messengers run in the background to get notifications and don't want to minimize the window everytime they're starting the OS.

[colinodell]

I would love to see this as a toggle option. I have Franz on both my laptop (primarily for work) and desktop (primarily for gaming) - having it start maximized on one and minimized on the other would be awesome!

[haraldox]

@mrprobot @colinodell running Franz in the background is already supported (see Settings), you can close the window upon first launch ... is that enough of a workaround?

[matecode]

@haraldox do you mean the the settings in the application? I'm running franz on ubuntu and i cant find an option saying "close the window upon first launch"

[erikw]

@haraldox Nope that is not a workaround, but rather exactly what @mrprobot wants to avoid in this feature request, that the app should start minimized.

The use case is the following: the user sets up his favourite programs to automatically start with his OS when he logs in, because the user will use them at some point. However when the user logs in, the user does not want to be faced with a gazillion windows popping up, but rather stay in the system tray until they are needed.

Sane GUI apps that are started with the system start in the system tray :D

[ghost]

i would love to see this feature in next update (if that possible)

[racakg]

yeah, i would like to see that option also +1

[HoracioDos]

+1 Vote for this.
Thanks!

[poisonborz]

+1

Please implement this. Every messenger app ever had this feature - from Skype to Rambox. People launch messengers always at startup, and it's a huge annoyance that the window pops up.

[poisonborz]

Everyone requesting this feature on Windows, here is a temporary fix
I wrote an AHK script that runs Franz, and closes the window (with alt-w) as soon as it's interactive/loads. I could upload the exe but I guess you wouldn't trust that :P So here are the instructions:
Copy the script into a .ahk file. Download Ahk2Exe (comes with Autohotkey) to compile it to an .exe file. Place it next to your Franz.exe file and use it to launch the app.

#NoTrayIcon
Run, Franz.exe

WinWait, Franz
Loop 
{
    WinGet, status,MinMax

    if (status = -1) {
        ExitApp
    } else {
        WinActivate
        Send ^w
    }
}

[fabricio-garcia]

I don't understand how such this basic functionality in not included with Franz.

[ghost]

That window pop up is annoying, and i have been looking into ways to minimize it in linux mint... FYI i couldn't get gdevilspie to work with it either.

[Zahrun]

I agree, this is the new feature I want the most.

[leoheck]

Please, add this feature on Ubuntu's version too.

[weaponizedtaco]

Workaround for Unix/Linux OS with wmctrl:

Install wmctrl (from Debian-like repos, try sudo apt-get install wmctrl)

Go into your application startup settings (in XFCE, it's in the Menu under Settings, Session and startup) and edit the Franz menu item:
replace the command portion with this:
sh -c "franz& sleep 10; wmctrl -c Franz"

It will popup but autoclose in 2 seconds, make sure Keep Franz in the background and minimize to system tray are enabled in the program settings.

[leoheck]

Thanks, @weaponizedtaco it didn't work for me in Ubuntu.
I just wmctrl -c Franz to test it after aunch Franz but nothing happened.

[weaponizedtaco]

I had to later change it to sleep 10 because the startup sequence made the window appear later than expected

[nicolafarina]

Absolutely agree. It's a basic feature for any application like this.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[erikw]

"activity"

[kendoori]

Workaround for Unix/Linux OS with wmctrl:

Install wmctrl (from Debian-like repos, try sudo apt-get install wmctrl)

Go into your application startup settings (in XFCE, it's in the Menu under Settings, Session and startup) and edit the Franz menu item:
replace the command portion with this:
sh -c "franz& sleep 10; wmctrl -c Franz"

It will popup but autoclose in 2 seconds, make sure Keep Franz in the background and minimize to system tray are enabled in the program settings.

Agree that this should be the default behavior (regardless of OS), but maybe this is hard to do with an Electron type app. I was able to get the desktop Slack to behave this way only after adding slack -u to my startup. The wmctrl thing would've worked there too.

Thank you for this. Tried hard to do this via devilspie2, but no love. Your trick to trigger this on start only was the needed final mile. This way it only closes it to the tray the first time you run it. After that, it will behave normally.

[renzoofp]

2019, still waiting for this feature to be added! :)

[tijero]

+1

[altandeniz]

Hi. There is an easy work around for this issue on Ubuntu & Linux Mint.
First make sure you have wmctrl installed.
Then command we will use to minimize that Franz window to tray is _wmctrl -a Franz && wmctrl -c :ACTIVE:_
_wmctrl -a Franz_ command gets Franz window on focus(on top of other windows) and _wmctrl -c :ACTIVE:_ closes the active window (on focus)
To get Franz minimized to tray whenever we start it; we need to make a very simple bash script and put that bash script file location to startup applications.
In order to do so open a text file editor in your home file and copy-paste the script below into the text file. Save and close. I named my text file FranzMinimized

!/bin/bash

franz & disown && sleep 3 ; wmctrl -a Franz && wmctrl -c :ACTIVE:
exit

Now open your startup applications. Add new startup application. Add this location to command section: /home/your-username-here/FranzMinimized

That's it. Tested; works perfect.
Note: make sure "keep franz in the background" and "show Franz in system tray" boxes are checked in Franz settings.

[desthercz]

Devs should really start to be more active here... 500 opened issues... This issue opened for more than a year without resolution. Quite embarassing support for software that is trying to convince (more like force by being annoying) users to pay subscription.

[DonPajero]

@desthercz Totally agree, it's starting to become somewhat annoying. Some positive dev related activity regarding this particular request would be appreciated.

[xorinzor]

I bet you the main reason they don't want to do this is because it basically nullifies the entire reason of having to "wait" before being able to use Franz.

Which is kind of a lame thing anyway, but hey.

[leoheck]

Actually Franz is dead. I moved to Rambox, it is ugly but it is development.

On Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 17:14 Jorin Vermeulen [e-mail]
wrote:

I bet you the main reason they don't want to do this is because it
basically nullifies the entire reason of having to "wait" before being able
to use Franz.

Which is kind of a lame thing anyway, but hey.

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[Zahrun]

adlk is actively updating Franz again since Q4 2018 but the project would need more contributors
https://github.com/meetfranz/franz/graphs/contributors

[xorinzor]

Switched to Rambox too, not sure what you mean with it being ugly, it looks great.

[desthercz]

I also switched to Rambox-OS and i think it looks fine. I can also greatly appreatiate that it does not enforce annoying "pay or wait" overlay.

@xorinzor Well i dont know about you, but on Linux client i had to wait quite a few times per day even when just opened app from tray. It is not only startup "feature".

[kendoori]

Workaround for Unix/Linux OS with wmctrl:

Install wmctrl (from Debian-like repos, try sudo apt-get install wmctrl)

Go into your application startup settings (in XFCE, it's in the Menu under Settings, Session and startup) and edit the Franz menu item:
replace the command portion with this:
sh -c "franz& sleep 10; wmctrl -c Franz"

It will popup but autoclose in 2 seconds, make sure Keep Franz in the background and minimize to system tray are enabled in the program settings.

@weaponizedtaco I am using your script, but would also like to find a way to keyboard shortcut waking Franz up from the tray. If I do wmctl -a Franz

Workaround for Unix/Linux OS with wmctrl:

Install wmctrl (from Debian-like repos, try sudo apt-get install wmctrl)

Go into your application startup settings (in XFCE, it's in the Menu under Settings, Session and startup) and edit the Franz menu item:
replace the command portion with this:
sh -c "franz& sleep 10; wmctrl -c Franz"

It will popup but autoclose in 2 seconds, make sure Keep Franz in the background and minimize to system tray are enabled in the program settings.

@weaponizedtaco any suggestions on how to wake up Franz once it's in the tray. wmtctrl -a Franz doesn't do it

[sNiXx]

I agree, this feature would be very much appreciated! It is somewhat annoying when the window opens at startup even though I might only need it a few hours later.

[amarullz]

Windows Workaround with VBScript.
Just create franz.vbs and run/place it in startup folder.

set s = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
s.Run "C:\Users\myuser\AppData\Local\Programs\franz\Franz.exe",2
res=false
Do      
  WScript.Sleep 10
  res=s.AppActivate("Franz")
Loop While res=false
s.SendKeys "%{F4}"

[joaodalvi]

Makes no sense at all not to have this feature. Every time I log on there comes Franz taking the whole screen. Thats just disturbing. No one wants that. Imagine all your programs you auto start with your session having no way of starting minimized/dockerized. That would be a total mess!

[dacorsa]

2019 and this feature is not available....

[rgpublic]

@leoheck What exactly are you talking about? I've upgraded to the most recent version and still there's no "start minimized" option.

[jeroenst]

+1

[msnjuegos]

Switched to Rambox too, not sure what you mean with it being ugly, it looks great.

Same here! More than 1 year without implement this basic feature means that the development team is not committed

[Jendker]

Wouldn't this: https://www.npmjs.com/package/auto-launch be an option? options.isHidden would allow launching as hidden. I have unfortunately zero experience with Electron, but maybe someone could assess if that would do.

[Tasty213]

Hey is this anywhere near to being implemented?

[cpazaras]

Sadly had to switch to Rambox too, I also consider this a very basic functionality feature and it's non existence is kind of a dealbreaker for me.
(Plus Rambox also makes it possibile to have the bar on top instead of on the side, something that I have personally also been missing from Franz ever since they changed it - not relevant to this, but just saying).

[Sauceee]

Missing the feature also, +1

[XavierTolza]

+1

[EinPinsel]

Really interesting how nothing happens here. Any news to share?

[ghost]

Returning from Hamsket after it broke tray icons.

Any news on this issue?

[nachog4]

supporting the interest here

[rob-orch]

For anyone interested: The next version of Ferdi (http://getferdi.com/, a fork of Franz) has this feature implemented. I am currently testing it and it works very well!

[leoheck]

Yay! One more named fork of the same thing!! I will give it a try, thank you.

[leoheck]

@rob-orch I am using this Ferdi but it has the same issues, this one especially. So, what is the point in sharing it here?

[rursache]

Ferdi doesn't have this feature either...

[JackDinn]

Hmm, just found Franz and was about to buy a licence but then noticed the glaring bug, it won't start in the tray. What, who makes apps nowadays like this? Anyhow, looks like I shall go check out rambox after reading this thread. Good luck with the waiting guys.

[rursache]

Ferdi just fixed this in v5.5.0, give it a try

Works well on MacOS and Windows

[JackDinn]

Ferdi just fixed this in v5.5.0, give it a try

I have tried, it is a bit of a mess on Manjaro KDE.
When I try setting the Franz setting to "Launch Franz at startup" all I get is an electron GUI window of some sort. Something to do with electron itself and not Franz.
If I try to use KDE sessions it fails to load at all at boot.
If I try adding a startup command Franz does start but it's not in the tray, it's an open window on top of everything.

[JackDinn]

Just thought id add a screenshot of what happens if i try to use the setting "Launch Franz at startup". My desktop loads fine but i get this window on top of everything else.

(OS = Manjaro KDE)