Feature request: press Tab to focus the "send a message" textbox after Signal is opened/focused

[pureandclear]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

---

Feature description

It would be nice if when you pressed Tab, the "send a message" textbox became focused and you could start typing a message. Discord has this feature, and it makes quickly opening the app + starting typing quick and easy.

Steps to reproduce

1. Have Signal minimized/minimized to tray
2. Open Signal
3. Press Tab

Actual result:

Focus gets cycled to something possibly other than the "send a message" textbox. To start messaging, I either have to [1]manually aim my mouse at the textbox and then click it, or [2]press tab enough times that the textbox got cycled to.

Expected result:

The "send a message" textbox should become selected so I can start typing, regardless of whatever had focus the last time the window was open.

Platform info

Signal version:

1.15.5

Operating System:

Windows 10 x64

[dalelarsen]

I recently left Whatsapp and they have this too. Clicking a conversation or clicking anywhere on the conversation background actually focuses the message input. In Signal I often find myself typing only to find out I do no have the message input focused. In Whatsapp, it seems that if you start typing at all and are not focused to an input, it sends focus to the message input of the conversation you are on. Very good UX. Signal needs this.

[jajajaime]

I wanted to add that if you have a conversation open and start typing, the Send a message field should be focused on key down.

[hiqua]

@jajajaime there's a PR for that: #4998

On another note, there is already a keyboard shortcut to focus the composer.

[jajajaime]

@hiqua - thanks for the heads up! The shortcut is ⌘ + shift + t if anyone else runs into this.

Hopefully the PR gets merged!

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.