{"id":3754,"date":"2022-03-12T19:36:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T01:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2022-03-12T19:36:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T01:36:12","slug":"universal-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8stars.org\/a\/2022\/03\/12\/universal-follow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal follow-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently read The Case for \u2018Mark as Unread\u2019 in Messages<\/a> at Daring Fireball. It seems like a reasonable idea, but doesn’t go far enough.<\/p>\n

I have used “mark as unread” in Mail as a signal to come back to a message for further attention, but I prefer not to. I want unread status to indicate that something is, you know, unread<\/em>. I do use the intensely nerdy Smallcubed Mailsuite<\/a>, which lets me tag messages for future action, and Mail natively has flags. Either of those seem like a better option than “mark as unread.”<\/p>\n

But also, we use a lot of different messaging-type apps in this modern world, and we need a way to remind ourselves to follow up on messages in all of them.<\/p>\n

So here’s an idea: a universal follow-up queue. Apps would give you a command for sending a message to your follow-up queue. I imagine this would be implemented as a special view in the Reminders app. Here’s my idea of what it would look like:<\/p>\n

\"Universal<\/p>\n

The list gives a few sorting options seen at the top.<\/p>\n

Each card shows the name, avatar, subject line\/channel\/conversation name (as appropriate), source app, the time added to the queue, and some preview body text. A red dog-ear in the corner indicates that a “time due” has been set.<\/p>\n

Hovering over a card shows actions that can be taken. From left to right:<\/p>\n