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I would like to see the "new messages" count number on my taskbar, like Google Mail, for example something like:
Inbox(2) - Mozilla Thunderbird
I found FireTray, but it doesn't quite work, the taskbar remains unchanged even when I have new messages:
Is it possible to have count number like GMail? I am using Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, Xenial with KDE and Thunderbird version 52.6.0.
First thing, ensure that indicator support is installed on your system (packages libindicator7 and libindicator3-7).
This will enable you system to receive indicator messages.
$ sudo apt-get install libindicator7 libindicator3-7
Then on Thunderbird open Tools → Add-ons. There ensure that the Extension named "Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher Integration" is enabled (it should be installed by default).
This will enable Thunderbird to send indicator messages to the system.
Finally restart Thunderbird.
This is how the badge icon appears in the default "Task Manager" (which is your case),
while this is how it appears switching to the "Task Manager Icon Only" applet.
In any case, note that the indicator does not count the number of unread messages, but the new messages instead (which is what you asked for). For example, here I have a lot of unread messages, but only 2 of them are new. That's why the counter indicator shows the number 2.
libindicator3-7 and libindicator7 are already installed by default as well as "Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher Integration" add-on in Mozilla Thunderbird. So all steps provided in another answer were useless in my case.
I remember that I had messages' count badge displayed on my notebook with Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS installation. It uses GNOME as desktop environment by default. I installed kubuntu-desktop there and switched to KDE Plasma later. But in a fresh installation of Kubuntu 18.04.2 with KDE Plasma only a badge with messages' count is not shown.
Following this fairly old thread I got it working by installing thunderbird-gnome-support package:
sudo apt install thunderbird-gnome-support
Just restart Thunderbird after that.
