Request is still relevant. That would be a very good feature. The practice of using email programs, including on a smartphone, shows that it is very convenient to see the beginning of a message without any additional clicks or mouse movements.
It is also present in default mail app client in Mac OS X, and there it looks more attractive than in Outlook.

It would be convenient in addition, if it will be possible to set the size to display the message body. And also to set whether to replace line breaks with spaces to display more information in the same area.

Many applications have this feature. Apparently this is in demand

I'd like to have 2 line of the message list so I can read more content of the subject.

With large monitor this feature should be awesome

More support for this long requested feature. Thunderbird really looks old-fasioned without it. Unlike 15 years ago, most people use 16:9 monitors today, where the vertical view would be best - if it was possible to make the message headers multiline.

I really have to agree with the original poster here, if there isn't a technical reason for implementing this optional view then why is it not atleast considered or this bug closed with a statement that it wont be implemented?

If there is a genuine technical reason I can appreciate that although I don't think that would be the case as it is available in Geary, Apple Mail and Outlook to name just three clients. If it is a hard headed reason such as we 'we know better' and it isn't a feature that Mozilla would implemet then they should just be honest with that decision, we might not agree but I would respect that and then move on to something that would work better for me.

As stated above the VAST majority of useers have Widescreen displays on laptops and desktop PCs. It makes so much sense to use the 3 panel vertical view and having that additional line of text in a mail DOES help with mail triage. It is a time and usability improvement that should at least be considered.

Thunderbird sadly is falling further and further behind and looks very dated, I applaud the decision to include a PIM by default a few years back as the right and natural decision for the project to follow. I would be asking the question where does Thunderbird as a project see itself in the next 5 years?

I kindly ask that you give users the ability to have this optional display option to improve their experience with Thinderbird. You might even find that it brings a number of new users to your software.

I completely agree with the original poster and with Jamie M, above. This is not only as "outlook" layout, but the layout of most modern email clients that I have come across over the passed 6 years. There is a reason for this. The compact, multi-line layout of subject, correspondents, and dates WORKS! Thunderbird's column layout obscures information (even when I have the application full screen on a 2560x1440 monitor - I can't imagine what it is like on a laptop - haven't tried). The current Thunderbird layout does "get the job done" (I can use my mouse, drag, find the information I need with a bunch of fiddling), but there are more elegant solutions that have been around now for a long time. I would consider this feature to be a worthy "marketing" priority, that would help Thunderbird feel far less dated (and user friendly). I really encourage the developers to re-evaluate this.

15 years ago, seriously? OMG! 🙍‍♂️🤦‍♂️

+1 for the feature of having a two-lined messages list. We might even get crazy and ask for 3 lines. 🙋‍♂️

+2 for this feature. We just moved from probably 10 years of Outlook to Tbird and this is the most annoying missing feature aside from not handling pst files with passwords. I can't believe it's been 15 years and you guys haven't addressed this time-saving feature. How much spam do you guys get ? How many news emails that you just need to glance at and delete? This makes the job 1000x faster!

+1 for the feature of two-lined messages list, i changed from thunderbird to to outlook 6 or 7 years ago because this thing. to click one mail after another to find what you need is terrible. It´s a pity to have so powerful features and miss this simple thing

Agreed. I can understand that many users of Thunderbird are not used to this feature, nor care to use it, but it is (a) an industry standard and (b) notibly increases worflow. I hope this becomes a priority for this project because keep attempting to use this software but I always end up going back to a webapp. This is coming from a linux user.

+100 for this feature. I'm crying for this feature for years. Unbelievable that such modern thing is missing here. Mozilla & Thunderbird are doing great job by implementing various new features, so please, look on this one too.

How can we contribute to add this implementation of multi-lines on list of e-mails on Thunderbird?
Is there any way to proceed?

+1000 for this one.

(In reply to Alexander Jonathan Hardy Steffen from comment #35)

Agreed. I can understand that many users of Thunderbird are not used to this feature, nor care to use it, but it is (a) an industry standard and (b) notibly increases worflow. I hope this becomes a priority for this project because keep attempting to use this software but I always end up going back to a webapp. This is coming from a linux user.

I do agree, trying to move Outlook users to Thunderbird in my company, however the absence of that specific feature makes it impossible.

+1, vertical layout needs that.

Sample: https://roundcube.net/screens/skins/elastic/desktop/screens/mailbox_widescreen.png

Figured I'd show my support & bump via a +1.

Quite surprised that despite so much support and time for (what I would typically expect to be) a simple issue hasn't resulted in any resolution. I haven't even seen any addons which achieve this functionality.

(In reply to Henrique from comment #37)
How can we contribute to add this implementation of multi-lines on list of e-mails on Thunderbird?
Is there any way to proceed?

Additional +1 to this. I haven't done anything with Thunderbird dev in past but would be happy to give it a go or support in some other way.

This isn't exactly a big deal, the available layout is fine, it is just that this stacked layout is nicer, more informative and easier to read.
Further, having it would make for a kinder migration for many.

(In reply to Alexander Jonathan Hardy Steffen from comment #35)

Agreed. I can understand that many users of Thunderbird are not used to this feature, nor care to use it, but it is (a) an industry standard and (b) notibly increases worflow. I hope this becomes a priority for this project because keep attempting to use this software but I always end up going back to a webapp. This is coming from a linux user.

Aside: +1 to this too.

We're working on a new tree list widget which will allow us to be more flexible and implement this feature.

(In reply to kyran from comment #42)

Figured I'd show my support & bump via a +1.

Apologies, I believe this was a poorly directed message.

I believe my intended target was Bug 213945.

Having said that this feature would also be great.

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #43)

We're working on a new tree list widget which will allow us to be more flexible and implement this feature.

Great! Glad to hear! Thanks.

nb. To provide an update and give a sense of the effect of this sort of thing-- I've just switched to the Betterbird branch as this/the parent issue is resolved there.

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #43)

We're working on a new tree list widget which will allow us to be more flexible and implement this feature.

What a great news! Hope implementation will go smoothly!

I checked screenshots from Betterbird where such feature is implemented, and it looks great. I hope Thunderbird will join forces with Betterbird to bring all modern features.