How to Enable Gmail-like Conversation View in Thunderbird

Published June 11, 2012

If there’s one thing I like about Gmail, it’s conversation view. Thunderbird doesn’t have this feature by default, but with this addon, you can get the same type of functionality.

If you use Gmail’s web interface, you’re probably used to threaded conversation view. When I tried the Thunderbird for email client, I found it to be the one feature I couldn’t live without. I’m not the only one who feels this way, a groovy developer — Jonathan Protzenko created an add-on to provide the same type of functionality.

If you aren’t sure what conversation view is, look at this snip of Gmail. Although each email is separate and was sent at a different time, Gmail automatically groups them together in a single thread. This lets you easily keep track of conversations. The Thunderbird Conversation add-on mimics this behavior for Mozilla Thunderbird.

Set Up Conversation View

Open Thunderbird and click the Tools >> Add-ons menu option.

At the top right of the add-ons manager, type: conversations. The first result should be Thunderbird Conversations. Click Install.

You’ll need to restart Thunderbird to complete installation.

After Thunderbird is restarted, Thunderbird conversations brings up a Setup Assistant. You can straight away apply changes or review them. I recommend just leaving it at the defaults. It might take a minute for the add-on to configure, but once it is done, you’re good to go.