Inbox & unread message improvements

[corobin]

The way inbox messages are handled right now is sub-optimal in a number of respects. It takes a collection of 3 improvements to significantly improve the experience. Some have already been raised but not actioned on.

1. Unread badge

The main page (with all the menus and list of subreddits) menu item for "Inbox" should show the unread message count when there are unread messages.

Currently, the only way for RR to notify you of unread messages is by the notifications feature, which is not ideal for several reasons:

• it checks constantly whether the app is open or not. a user might want to only see if there are new messages when they actually open the app
• you can make it stop doing that by disabling the app from being able to run in the background. but this causes problems when the user for e.g. navigates away from the app for a while and when they go back they lose where they were in the app before
• it uses the android notification system, which a user might not want to clog up with those notifications
• if the user dismisses the notification, there is no persistent indicator that there are still unread messages anymore
• it would be bad to make the notification persistent for the same reason that the user might not even want a notification at all
• in summary: it is push, and push is intrusive.

a user might not want to be pushed new messages but still have a place inside the app where there's a passive indicator that they exist. an unread badge on the Inbox menu item does this.

Related prior issue: #1119

2. Highlight unread messages

Currently: Inside the Inbox, RR does not show any visual indicator to distinguish between read and unread messages in the main list (that shows both).

It should provide a visual cue of which messages are the unread messages. This is easily done by using a different background colour for unread messages.

3. Mark as read after click

Currently: RR does not mark any messages as read via user interaction.

From the Inbox, after the user interacts with a message (for example by pressing it to view it in context), it should mark the message as read (on the server). This is a natural behaviour and expectation.

Related prior issues: #347, #949

[folkemat]

I addressed 3) in #1210 and especially in #1238, it's just waiting for review

[corobin]

ooo, yes #1238 is the one, thanks!