Enable "Show previews of messages" by default

[MadLittleMods]

Enable the "Show previews of messages" setting in the room list by default. It was an instant value boost once I discovered it.

This was also mentioned in my initial user experience doc where I wrote down all the sticky pain points when first using Element. I only discovered this setting myself after 7 months of daily Element exposure. Here is another instance of someone having to ask where to enable it even after knowing about it.

[bmisiak]

Thanks for filing this!

I agree previews should be on by default, at least for DMs with people. Back before the redesign I suggested this design goal:

... as a way of clearly separating personal chats from big chat rooms (in addition to squircles ;))

[turt2live]

out of interest: were previews on for DMs by default? We have a product requirement somewhere that says previews should be on for DMs, but I'm not sure it was ever tested properly...

[Palid]

I think that if we were to change the defaults we should also iterate on the previews design, as currently everything is very cluttered together and could use a little bit more whitespace. If you compare it to the suggested redesign it's a night and day difference in readability. 😄

[MadLittleMods]

@Palid Can you link the redesign?

It doesn't feel strictly necessary to block this on a redesign if people already get value and doesn't stand out to me. Plus it's already a designed feature in the app. We can iterate that separately.

[Palid]

@MadLittleMods it's not as much as a redesign but some minor differences between implementation and design. I personally think it could be worth it to get two birds with one stone here, especially that we're changing the defaults.