XF 2.4 Direct message labels

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on our first Have you seen...? thread about the upcoming Add-on update notifications for XF 2.4. It's exciting for us to start this process so soon after the release of XenForo 2.3! And while we are not sticking to a specific schedule for this series of HYS threads, our next one is already here!

This time around we are adding Direct message labels as a way for people to be able to add a little more organisation to their inboxes. This is a long standing suggestion (or two) which, when coupled with direct message search which we added in XF 2.3, makes direct messages much more user friendly and intuitive for members and staff alike.

One of the best parts of this is that the functionality will be very familiar to you if you've ever tagged a thread or added a label to your bookmarks.

Here's what the Inbox looks like in XenForo 2.4:

To add or modify existing labels, you just click the tag/label icon to load the edit labels overlay:

You are able to add up to 10 labels to each direct message, with no limit to the number of different labels you can create.

You can filter the direct message list by a single label, either by clicking one of the existing labels in your list of direct messages, or via the filter bar:

You can also search for messages by multiple labels using direct message advanced search:

To help you better manage your direct messages, you can use the inline tools to add or remove labels from multiple messages at a time:

Prior to the release of XenForo 2.4, we will be exploring ways of exposing a list of all of your direct message labels to make filtering your messages even easier. If you have any feedback or suggestions as to what would work best for you in managing your direct messages labels, please do let us know.

And that's it for this time but all being well, the next entry into this Have you seen...? series for XenForo 2.4 won't be too far away and the subject of that one will likely be your first look at the brand new editor!

Stay tuned for that and thanks as ever for the ongoing support and continued feedback.

 

[Mendalla]

We still use DMs a fair bit, or that's my perception. I usually have a few new DM threads a month myself.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I was genuinely curious as to how many sites have a DM system so active it needs a labelling feature.

Xenforo Ltd ?

 

[cdub]

I was genuinely curious as to how many sites have a DM system so active it needs a labelling feature.

Xenforo Ltd ?

@Bob and @Russ for sure. Honestly I could use it too with all the DMa I get.

 

[mjda]

I was genuinely curious as to how many sites have a DM system so active it needs a labelling feature.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I get multiple DMs a week. Especially during the active season on my site, it's not uncommon for me to get at least one a day. A lot of those can't be acted on immediately, so being able to label them will be extremely time-saving for me.

 

[Paul B]

Support sites are going to use them more than others I expect, and site staff are probably going to receive them more than regular members.

I have over 300 pages here:

But I also have 100 pages on my own site.

 

[cdub]

I know searching WITHIN a conversation was super helpful. Had a couple that were hundreds of pages long and I'm sure still people have me beat lol.

 

[Alpha1]

The more usable XF conversations become, the more it will be used. Previously it was a headache if you needed to find a conversation or something in a conversation. Search, labels and bookmarks will help with that. So its a welcome step forward.
Of course the elephant in the room is live features like live loading of new messages, who is viewing , read receipt and 'user is typing...' to make conversations more engaging and less archaic. With such features users would have less of a need to switch to a messaging app.
Many suggestions have been posted for live loading of new messages, but it seems all are binned.

 

[James]

I'll be honest for me personally direct messages hold no merit - improved or not. Back in 2010 I was getting regular messages but I've probably had 3 new conversations in the past 9 years. But I see the value for the majority. I feel like my decline in DMs has correlated with my decline in social media interaction in general - I don't really respond to dms, inboxes, pms, even notifications on socials.

That being said I do appreciate the updates to the feature - and I'm sure updates will come to many more features over the cycle.

 

[beerForo]

If it was a real messenger you probably would. I've had to move conversations to a messenger app due to seeing the red bell and having to refresh XF simply to read the reply.

 

[James]

If it was a real messenger you probably would. I've had to move conversations to a messenger app due to seeing the red bell and having to refresh XF simply to read the reply.

I don't value forum softwares as an instant messaging platform - whether capable or not. Personal choice of course but if I want real time communication I'm going for a signal, telegram, WhatsApp, etc..!

But obviously I understand different strokes...

 

[beerForo]

However it's annoying when wanting to keep support in-house without having to use another app.

 

[Paul B]

I've had to move conversations to a messenger app due to having to refresh to see a reply.

Have you also moved email to a messenger app due to having to refresh to see a reply?

Or DMs on Bluesky, Twitter, etc.?

 

[beerForo]

Have you also moved email to a messenger app due to having to refresh to see a reply?

Or DMs on Bluesky, Twitter, etc.?

No

 

[Paul B]

Thought so.

 

[James]

I think personally because of the plethora of tools available, one platform doesn't need to be "everything" (don't tell Elon - X ), it's so easy to whip up a discord, install a real time tool, open up some alternative...

 

[beerForo]

Thought so.

No, you knew so.

 

[Suzanne O]

Support sites are going to use them more than others I expect, and site staff are probably going to receive them more than regular members.

I have over 300 pages here:
View attachment 315117

But I also have 100 pages on my own site.

Wow that's a lot of pages..

 

[beerForo]

I was simply talking about when you are in the DM in XF. You have to refresh to see a reply or if there even is one, so it is multiple refreshes. I understand you are saying I should treat it more like an email, but you also send out an email to tell us we have a reply to the DM, so that's the email. I guess it's the email to tell us we have a reply to the email-like DM. I just mentioned it's annoying which I find it to be. But I understand you want it to be more like email.

 

[Arantor]

I wonder how common that use case is that you get replies to DMs that quickly that you haven't left the page to go do something else. Me, I sometimes don't get replies to DMs for days and I'm not leaving the tab open the whole time for that.

 

[beerForo]

It's not a big deal, I didn't even suggest they change it. I just mentioned to the person I quoted that they might use it more if it were a true messenger, as I know I would.