Optional grouping in Cinnamon’s notification history

[JasonRobards]

Why group notifications?

When several notifications arrive from the same app, they can fill Cinnamon’s notification history and make messages from other apps harder to find. I’d like to add an optional Notification history grouping setting under System Settings → Notifications.

• Off (default) — Show each notification separately, as Cinnamon does today.
• By application — Group notifications from the same app.
• By application and notification title — Group notifications only when both the app and title match. For example, reminders and event invitations from the same calendar app can form separate groups.

Each group is an expandable card with a count badge. Click it or press Enter or Space to expand it. Each notification can still be dismissed individually, and a single notification keeps its usual card. Changing the setting immediately reorganizes the notifications already in history.

Implementation

The prototype is split into two patches.

cinnamon-desktop-notification-history-grouping.patch applies to linuxmint/cinnamon-desktop.

• schemas/org.cinnamon.desktop.notifications.gschema.xml.in adds the history-grouping GSettings key under org.cinnamon.desktop.notifications, with off as the default.

cinnamon-desktop-notification-history-grouping.patch

cinnamon-notification-history-grouping.patch applies to linuxmint/cinnamon.

• files/usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/modules/cs_notifications.py adds the dropdown under System Settings → Notifications.
• files/usr/share/cinnamon/applets/notifications@cinnamon.org/applet.js listens for setting changes and groups the existing notification cards in the history view. It uses the resolved desktop app ID when available, falls back to the desktop-entry hint or notification source, and includes the title in the group key in the third mode. Reusing the existing cards preserves individual dismissal.
• js/ui/messageTray.js clears the previous history container reference when a card is taken out of history to display as a banner. When the card returns, the applet uses its current title to place it in the correct group or show it as a standalone notification.

cinnamon-notification-history-grouping.patch

Testing

I tested the prototype live on Linux Mint 22.3 with Cinnamon 6.6.9 on X11. The checks covered replacing a grouped notification with a different title, dismissing one item at a time, clearing a mix of groups and standalone cards, and reversing the sort order. I also checked keyboard controls, long titles, and badge readability in light and dark themes.

The patches apply cleanly to linuxmint/cinnamon at 946e5a9 and linuxmint/cinnamon-desktop at 4f797bc. The upstream applet passed the behavior harness, and a live desktop test on an upstream build is still pending.

Would this fit the built-in Notifications applet? I’d welcome feedback on the grouping modes and the card layout, and I’m happy to open linked pull requests for the two repositories.

[eco-star]

That is a very useful idea! :)