An inside look at the making of Mozilla Thunderbird, and community-driven conversations with our friends in the open-source software space.
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24 recent
June 16, 2026Episode 347 min
Thundercast - S3E3 - Thunderbird ESR 153
ThunderCast, the official Thunderbird podcast is back for another season! In this episode we focus on the upcoming ESR 153 release, codename Meadow.Roadmaps: https://roadmaps.thunderbird.net/Developer guides: https://developer.thunderbird.net/Ideas for Thunderbird desktop and mobile: https://connect.mozilla.org/User support for Thunderbird desktop and mobile: https://support.mozilla.org/Submit your questions at podcast@thunderbird.net
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April 30, 2026Episode 244 min
Thundercast - S3E2 - Contributor journey
ThunderCast, the official Thunderbird podcast is back for another season! In this episode we focus on the contributor journey, analyzing what we currently have and what are our plans to improve jumping into the Thunderbird community.Roadmaps: https://roadmaps.thunderbird.net/Developer guides: https://developer.thunderbird.net/Ideas for Thunderbird desktop and mobile: https://connect.mozilla.org/User support for Thunderbird desktop and mobile: https://support.mozilla.org/Submit your questions at podcast@thunderbird.net
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March 17, 2026Episode 153 min
ThunderCast - S3E1 - Roadmaps
ThunderCast, the official Thunderbird podcast is back for another season! Let's kick things off with some insights on our roadmaps and what's ahead for our desktop and email clients.User testing discussions: https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/Roadmaps: https://roadmaps.thunderbird.net/Developer guides: https://developer.thunderbird.net/Ideas for Thunderbird desktop and mobile: https://connect.mozilla.org/User support for Thunderbird desktop and mobile: https://support.mozilla.org/Submit your questions at podcast@thunderbird.net
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December 1, 2025Episode 1543 min
State of the Thunder 14: The 2026 Mobile Roadmap
As 2025 winds down, its time to start thinking of what we want to achieve for our Android AND iOS apps next year. Alessandro walks us through the 2026 mobile roadmap, covering our urgent priorities, feature wish list, and a glimpse at our upcoming design plans for the entire Thunderbird project.Resources: Current Android Roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/thunderbird/projects/19 TB Pro Announcement: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/04/thundermail-and-thunderbird-pro-services/ Mobile Development Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#tb-mobile-dev:mozilla.org Thunderbird for Android GitHub Issues: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues
(00:00) -
(00:00) - Intro
(01:47) - Thunderbird Pro in Mobile
(05:49) - How we build a roadmap
(07:40) - Android initiatives
(12:51) - Material 3 or Material You
(21:05) - Calendar Exploration Questions
(31:26) - Roadmap items for our community
(33:34) - iOS initiatives
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November 14, 2025Episode 1455 min
Bonus Episode: An Android Retrospective
If you can believe it, Thunderbird for Android has been out for just over a year! In this episode of our Community Office Hours, Heather and Monica check back in with the mobile team after our chat with them back in January. Sr. Software Engineer Wolf Montwé and our new Manager of Mobile Apps, Jon Bott look back at what the growing mobile team has been able to accomplish this last year, what we’re still working on, and what’s up ahead.
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October 10, 2025Episode 1352 min
State of the Thunder 13: How the Roadmap Gets Made
Welcome back to another State of the Thunder! In this episode, Managing Director Ryan Sipes is leading us through how the Thunderbird roadmap. Unlike other companies where roadmaps are driven solely by business needs, Thunderbird is working with our community governance and feedback from the wider user community to keep us honest even as we move forward.Resources: Mozilla Manifesto: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/ Share big ideas: https://connect.mozilla.org Report desktop bugs: https://bugzilla.mozilla.orgReport Android bugs: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/Engage with the Thunderbird Council: https://council.thunderbird.net Desktop roadmap: https://developer.thunderbird.net/planning/roadmap Mobile roadmap: https://developer.thunderbird.net/planning/roadmap
(00:00) - Intro
(00:19) - How a software roadmap gets made
(02:27) - A brief history of Thunderbird
(06:24) - Writing next year's roadmap
(12:16) - Community contributions in the roadmap
(24:43) - Engage with the project
(27:56) - How we incorporate feedback
(29:24) - Why telemetry is important
(33:12) - How people can see our roadmaps
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September 23, 2025Episode 1240 min
State of the Thunder 12: Community, Android, and Mozilla Connect
We're back with our twelfth episode of the State of the Thunder! In this episode, we're talking about community initiatives, filling you in on Android development, and finishing our updates on popular Mozilla Connect requests, including true Conversation View!
(00:00) - Intro
(01:21) - Austin RiverHacks
(05:40) - Ask-a-Fox
(15:13) - More Mozilla Connect Updates
(16:03) - Native system notification integration
(24:10) - Conversation View
(26:51) - The new Panorama database initiative
(36:04) - A few Thunderbird Pro updates
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September 11, 2025Episode 1153 min
State of the Thunder 11: Mozilla Connect Updates
State of the Thunder is back after a short hiatus for a new season of answering questions and providing our community with updates on all our products, from mobile and desktop clients to the upcoming Thunderbird Pro! In our first episode of the new season, Alessandro and new cohost Michael Ellis tackle a new batch of your questions with help from members of the Thunderbird team and community. Then they provide updates on the 20-ish top Thunderbird suggestions in Mozilla Connect.
(00:00) - Introduction
(03:23) - Accidental Message Order Sorting
(08:49) - Move Focus Keyboard Shortcut
(11:33) - Option for Simplified Thunderbird?
(21:16) - Thunderbird Version in Ubuntu PPA
(24:12) - Top 20-ish features requested in Mozilla Connect
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July 30, 2025Episode 1052 min
State of the Thunder 10: Answering Community Questions!
Welcome back to State of the Thunder! In this edition, we're taking more community questions on a range of topics. From improving Settings to the role of Add-ons and more, the Thunderbird team is tackling your most urgent inquiries!
(00:00) - Intro
(01:56) - Supporting and Sustaining FOSS Projects We Use
(05:49) - Future UI Settings Plans
(14:05) - Account Setup and Manual Configuration
(21:34) - Balancing Complexity and Simplicity
(32:58) - Benefits of the New Monthly Release Channel
(38:01) - JMAP Support in Thunderbird
(41:12) - Maintaining Backups in Thunderbird
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July 15, 2025Episode 955 min
State of the Thunder 9: Answering Your Thunderbird Pro Questions
In the latest State of the Thunder, we're answering your questions about the upcoming Thunderbird Pro offerings and introducing our new head of Community Programs. Michael Ellis is here to help us better serve our community, and he's placed a call for ideas on Mozilla Connect for ideas to improve the Thunderbird community: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/have-ideas-to-improve-the-thunderbird-community/m-p/100264#M38972 Question 1: With these new services, will there be less effort spent on desktop and mobile? Answer: No! Lately we've added several new developers to our desktop and mobile teams. TB Pro is a collecting of projects (not products) that mean to coexist besides our core products and fill in missing pieces for users. Question 2: Why is Appointment being developed as a stand-alone? Answer: As a stand-alone, users can adapt it for their individual use, and core users don't have to use it if they don't want to. Also, this gives us time to help the underlying protocols add support for what Appointment needs to run natively. Question 3: Can you deploy Appointment on your own infrastructure? Answer: Yes! We know many of our users like to self-host and so we wanted this option. But offering to manage it on our own infrastructure is not only good for people who don't want to manage it themselves, but it's an opportunity to not only keep Thunderbird financially sustainable but to raise the resources to make it truly competitive. Question 4: Are there plans to make Send part of the core Thunderbird app? Answer: No, not for the foreseeable future. We'd like to have it as an opt-in system add-on. We still have Filelink, which has allowed us to build Send. Developing Send can possibly allow us to expand on Filelink's abilities! Question 5: In Send, is there a file size limit for each file? Answer: As far as we know, no. You'll have a limit of how much storage you'll have, which right now we're imagining will be 500GB for a normal subscription. Subscription costs will both pay for the storage itself and its management. As Send is open source, we'll have free options for folks who want to self host with their own storage. Question 6: Will I be able to use Thundermail with another client? Answer: Of course! As you can imagine, we're big fans of open standards! Thundermail will also support JMAP. Question 7: Any plans for future Google-like products connected to Thundermail? Answer: This is largely up to the community! We have no shortage of ideas how we could expand TB Pro into those spaces, but this depends on our success. (So be sure to sign up for the mailing list and use the service if you us to move closer to a fully featured suite.) For some of those services, stakes are very high, so before moving into them we'd want to be certain we could do them well. Question 8: Do we have a public roadmap for these projects? Answer: We've started a process to make a public roadmap, along the lines of our mobile roadmap which shows current and planned sprints. This will be done in collaboration with the Thunderbird Council and will help our community get involved with these projects. Resources: Call for ideas to improve the community: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/have-ideas-to-improve-the-thunderbird-community/m-p/100264#M38972 Consensus scheduling proposed standard: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-calext-vpoll/ Filelink info: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/filelink-large-attachments TopicBox Mailing Lists: https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/latest Thunderbird GitHub Repositories: https://github.com/thunderbird Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ Thunderbird Development Docs: https://developer.thunderbird.net/
(00:00) - Intro
(00:43) - Introducing our new Community Manager
(07:00) - Q1 - Investing in Services AND Desktop and Mobile
(15:26) - Q2 - Appointment as a stand-alone app
(20:46) - Q3 - Upcoming features for Appointment
(27:56) - Q3.5 - Open source paid products
(31:29) - Q4 - Will Send be part of the core desktop app?
(35:13) - Q5 - Are there individual file size limits in Send?
(43:22) - Q6 - Will I be able to use Thundermail with another client?
(47:10) - Q7 - Are there any plans to expand Thundermail into a Google-like suite?
(51:44) - Q8 - Will there be public roadmaps for services projects?
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