Live-share: Allow hiding "Sign in" status bar item

[roblourens]

With the Live Share extension for VS Code installed and enabled, there is a status bar item added for every workspace. I would rather keep my status bar uncluttered and work with Live Share via commands. VS Code doesn't have a way for users to hide a status bar item, except for disabling the extension, so it would be great if you would add a setting to hide the status bar item.

The loading spinner which shows up on every new window is especially distracting. Sometimes it sticks around for awhile. I would settle for making this not animated.

[Chuxel]

@roblourens Thanks - you make an interesting point. A couple of clarifications if you don't mind.

1. Would you want to hide the both the "sign-in" and "share" status bar items with this setting?
2. Would you prefer that the status bar icons are hidden up until you share/join (via a command) but are visible during a collaboration session?

I assume "yes and yes", but wanted to check. Your point on the spinning being distracting during sign in is also interesting feedback. I see your point given it does fire on every window open rather than just on first start in VS Code.

[lostintangent]

I really like this suggestion! Aside from sharing, I use the command palette exclusively (muscle memory), so I could actually imagine always hiding the sign-in button/menu, but keeping the share button (that one is common enough to merit the added ergonomics). So having individual settings for both, or at least, one for controlling only the sign-in menu, might be worthwhile.

The share button also provides a visual indicator of the number of participants in a session, which may be valuable to quickly see, without needing to rely on a command. So if we did anything here, I’d lean towards having separate settings, but would obviously love to hear from other folks.

Like we already have for displaying participant’s activity indicator, we could potentially provide a tri-state option for showing the sign-in status bar menu: always (current behavior), never and “while collaborating”. I can see value in all three options, since as @roblourens said, depending on the other extensions you have installed, and the size of your monitor, the status bar can get pretty cluttered.

[roblourens]

I agree, I can see all 3 options being useful. "While collaborating" would be my preference.

[lostintangent]

@roblourens We just shipped an update that includes a setting called liveshare.showInStatusBar. If you set that to whileCollaborating, that should provide the experience we discussed above. I'm going to close this suggestion as resolved, but please feel free to re-open if you have other issues/suggestions. Thanks again!