Signal-desktop: Feature request: Small/resizable sidebar

[tmikaeld]

Similar to what Messenger, Skype, Discord, Gitter - just about any other chat app has, where you can have a large chat area and only icons for the contacts on the left side.

Suggestions:

1. Make the sidebar resizable.
2. Actually remember the resize...
3. Make the sidebar hideable / pinnable.

[tomsturge]

Yes please! At the moment I open developer tools, remove the sidebar element and remove the padding on the left of the conversion section

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

What's the underlying reason behind this? Is is that your screen isn't big enough for everything you want to see, so you think this should be cut? Or is it that you just never need anything but the user/group avatar?

[tmikaeld]

There are a lot of reason to want to optimize desktop space and remove unused space. By moving the current conversation upwards on the left side, you don't really need to see the names and if you do - you can hover over it and see it at a glance without having to expand the sidebar. Skype does this excellently currently, it's really convenient.

[tomsturge]

I appreciate the recent change in the layout structure. Now I only have to remove the sidebar dom node and no longer have to bother with removing the left padding on the conversion pane.
It's a step in the right direction.

Thinking about creating a pull request to add the UI to allow this for a normal space conscious user.

[tomsturge]

So much better

[byssus02]

I think this is exactly what I am looking for. I will probably only ever talk to one person using Signal, a few at most. I really would appreciate the ability to shrink the interface like this. Discord drives me insane with that massive interface.

[ikazim]

Any updates on this?

[jovanshernandez]

Would love an update/idea of where people stand on this. Would be a pretty popular feature (or at least pop-out windows of chats.)

[lukemk1]

Does anyone have an update as to whether or not this is being worked on or where it is at? I would love this feature as well.

[j-mikhail]

Until the Signal team gets around to implementing this, here's a quick workaround:

1. Select _View_ from the menu, then _Toggle Developer Tools_.
2. In the _Elements_ tab, expand the body tag, then the div tag of class inbox index.
3. Click on the div tag of class gutter inactive.
4. In the _Styles_ tab, which is usually underneath, find the gutter class.
5. Change the width parameter to 75px (the size may vary on your screen)
6. Enjoy!

The only downside is you'll have to repeat these steps every time you relaunch Signal.

[vcavallo]

Until the Signal team gets around to implementing this, here's a quick workaround:

...

The only downside is you'll have to repeat these steps every time you relaunch Signal.

Alternatively, as a single step, open those same Developer tools, then click the Console tab, and enter this within:

document.getElementsByClassName('gutter inactive')[0].style.width = '75px';

(or whatever size you want other than 75.)

[dangerousfreedom]

Thank you very much, @j-mikhail and @vcavallo

[kjablon]

What's the underlying reason behind this? Is is that your screen isn't big enough for everything you want to see, so you think this should be cut? Or is it that you just never need anything but the user/group avatar?

I know this comment was posted a couple of years ago, but I wanted to add my two cents: what brought me searching for this feature was privacy. I do use Signal in places where others could potentially see my screen, and while I'm not concerned about my chat itself, the names and pictures are relatively prominent. I'm aware I could disguise names or follow the workarounds in this thread (thank you!), but a feature I would be happy to see would be the option to hide my contacts.

[jovanshernandez]

This issue has been open for going on 2 years. I love using Signal but when updates that include adding new stickers are more important than user requested features...

Kind of makes me think twice.

I know there are ways to resize the window with dev tools. I don't want that option. That requires me to edit code every time I open Signal.

This feature/function should really be implemented.