Published . Development milestone: October 28, 2026.
Mail filters that keep your place.
October 28 brought one-click Mail filters and a live desktop check, alongside development changes for clearer app badges at larger text sizes and a more orderly Contacts shutdown.
Sometimes you want to see the unread messages in a folder without constructing a search. Or find the conversation with an attachment while leaving the rest of your inbox alone. October 28 added that kind of quick narrowing to Ecliptic Mail, with care to keep the message you are reading from disappearing under your pointer.
Mail’s update reached the installed development desktop and was tried there. Two other changes, for the app grid and Contacts, were committed in development source but were still awaiting package publication at the day’s cutoff.
Four buttons, wherever you read your mail
Unread, Starred, Attachments and To me now sit above the conversation list in folders, All Inboxes, saved searches and search results. Click a filter to turn it on, then click again to turn it off. Several together show conversations matching all the chosen conditions, such as unread mail with attachments.
To me checks whether one of your own account addresses or configured sending identities appears in To or Cc. The same meaning is available as to:me in search, so the button and a typed query agree.
The count line names the filters in use. If nothing matches, Mail explains that and offers Show all to clear the quick filters. A button already implied by the current view is hidden: the Unread view does not need another Unread switch.
Keep the context while you read
Opening a conversation with Unread enabled marks it read, as before, but it now stays in the filtered list while you read it. The same protection applies when a conversation opened under Starred loses its star. Changing the filters or choosing another source lets it be evaluated afresh.
Choosing another folder resets the quick filters. That helps avoid a folder appearing empty simply because a filter was left on elsewhere.
Starting a search carries the active filters into the query. While searching, the buttons and their search terms update one another; clearing the search returns to the folder with the filter choices left by that search. The existing date choices, saved-search control and option to include Junk and Trash remain search-only controls.
The buttons wrap in a narrow window, have accessible names and show their pressed state in light and dark themes. The maintained Mail help now explains the controls and their search terms.
More readable app badges, still awaiting an update
The app grid’s New and Update labels previously sat over the app icon. At a larger desktop text size, the labels grew while the icon stayed the same size, allowing the badge to cover much of the image.
The development change places the badge beneath the app’s name instead. An isolated rendering check at normal and double text size reported the icon fully visible in both cases. This had not yet been published as a desktop package, and the updated layout still needed a check in the installed app grid at the larger text setting.
A more orderly stop for Contacts
Contacts also received shutdown hardening after an earlier crash during power-off. The new source waits for active synchronization work, stops the notification loop and closes the database in a more deliberate order. Additional crash diagnostics can leave more useful information for troubleshooting.
That is a targeted reliability change, not a confirmed explanation of the original crash. The new isolated stop test also passed on the old code, so it did not reproduce the failure. Its cause remained uncertain, and a clean real power-off or a diagnostic trace was still needed. This change, too, was awaiting package publication at the cutoff.
What was checked
The recorded Mail suite completed 281 tests with three optional large-mailbox tests skipped. New cases cover combined filters, counts, empty results, keeping an opened conversation in place, paging, saved searches and the search round trip. Private-display checks exercised named controls and tab order through the window APIs, and inspected both themes and a narrow layout; they were not physical mouse and keyboard tests.
The later development record reports the Mail and help update installed, the filters tried live and working, and no Mail warnings or coredumps since that installation. That is a useful check on one desktop, with broader configurations and longer use still to exercise.
Contacts’ separate recorded suite completed 132 tests without skips. Its shutdown test repeatedly stops a service in an isolated home while a fake notification service sends events on a private bus. Those checks support the hardening work while leaving the original power-off failure unresolved.
This entry records development through October 28. Public release preparation continues separately.