Pigeon Email Notifier

A GNOME Shell extension for email notifications using GNOME Online Accounts.

Features

• Gmail, Outlook, and IMAP support via GNOME Online Accounts
• Desktop notifications for new emails
• Priority-only mode for important emails (disabled by default, Gmail/Outlook only)
• Notification grouping when too many unread emails (configurable threshold)
• Persistent notifications (disabled by default)
• Sound notification (disabled by default)
• Click notification to open email in browser or launch default mail client

Note

• Exchange accounts are not supported
• Outlook notifications require GNOME Online Accounts ≥ 3.55. Older versions use a Microsoft API that has been decommissioned.

Requirements

• GNOME Shell 48 or later
• A Google, Microsoft, or IMAP account configured in GNOME Online Accounts Settings > Online Accounts

Important

• Debian-based: sudo apt install gir1.2-goa-1.0 gir1.2-xmlb-2.0
• openSUSE: sudo zypper install typelib-1_0-Goa-1_0 typelib-1_0-Xmlb-1_0
• Gentoo: Ensure dev-libs/libxmlb is installed with the introspection USE flag

Log out and back in after installing dependencies.

Installation

From extensions.gnome.org

Pigeon Email Notifier on EGO

Manual

git clone https://github.com/subz69/pigeon 
cd pigeon
make install

Then restart GNOME Shell and enable the extension.

Troubleshooting

No notifications appearing?

• Ensure you have a Google, Microsoft, or IMAP account added in Settings > Online Accounts
• Check that accounts are enabled and authorized
• For IMAP accounts, verify your server settings and credentials are correct

Unable to check emails?

• Re-authenticate your account in Settings > Online Accounts
• Remove and re-add the account if issues persist

Found a bug or issue?

Please open an issue with the relevant output of:

journalctl --grep=pigeon --no-pager

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! For larger changes, please open an issue first to discuss the approach.

Translations

Pigeon supports internationalization. To add a new translation:

1. Generate a new translation template:

   make new-po LANG=xx  # Replace 'xx' with your language code (e.g., ja, nl, ru)

2. Edit the generated po/xx.po file with your translations

3. Test your translation:

   make install

4. Submit a pull request with your po/xx.po file

Credits

Based on gnome-email-notifications by Shuming Chan, Stuart Langridge and Adam Jablonski. Complete rewrite for GNOME Shell 48+.

Logo based on Animal Pack Redux by Kenney.nl (CC0).

License

Copyright (C) 2026 subz69
Licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later.