Thunderbird is a pleasingly powerful, but often overlooked email client that comes from the same stable as Firefox. Mozilla’s email client features a similar add-on system to Firefox and this means that the program can be endlessly extended and customized to suit the needs of individual users. Thunderbird Conversations is an add-on that many Gmail users will appreciate, as it brings the threaded conversation view that many people have become so used to to Thunderbird.

Working with conversation view means that it is much easier to follow the flow of an email exchange without the need to jump back and forth between individual emails or to perform unnecessary searches. This new viewing mode is compatible with any type of email account that can be access through Thunderbird – it is not limited to Gmail accounts.

This in itself is interesting enough, but the add-on has more to offer than that. There is also an inline reply mode that makes it faster than ever to respond to the emails you receive, and when you are browsing through your emails you can take advantage of Thunderbird Conversations’ tool tip. Hold the mouse over the name of an email sender or recipient and information from your contact list will be displayed.

Thunderbird Conversations also features support for a number of keyboard shortcuts and boasts an auto-complete feature that helps to speed up text entry.  There are also a number of other features to investigate such as the ability to hide text that has been quoted in an email by making it collapsible.

The add-on is currently in alpha, so some stability issues are to be expected at this stage – although we did not run into any problems during testing. You can find out more and download a copy of the extension by paying a visit to the Thunderbird Conversations review page.