I'm on Fedora Workstation 30 (with GNOME). Since upstream GNOME doesn't seam ready any time soon to deliver a workable alternative to the traditional system tray on which many applications still relies, I think that Fedora Workstation (which comes with GNOME) should consider to include by default one of the GNOME shell extensions that provides the service. This missing feature in Fedora Workstation makes many third-party applications/services (Nextcloud, Telegram Desktop, Dropbox, Skype, Steam, Variety, Discord, Slack, Insync, etc.) almost unusable. Most (if not all) others Fedora spins / Desktop Environments (KDE, MATE, XFCE, etc.), provide support for tray icons /appindicators. Ubuntu, which also relies on GNOME shell, also manages to offer this feature through a preinstalled extension (see below). I think it is fair to say that most users would see such a feature as a basic one, that should be supported out of the box, without having to go through the installation of an extension. The right extension to include is probably KStatusNotifierItem/AppIndicator Support, since it seems to be actively maintained, as it is also included by default in Ubuntu: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/ There is also other extensions (like Topicons - with variants plus or redux), but it's not clear if they are still maintained and they only provide the legacy tray icons service, not the new appindicator service. Probably not the best option.
I had to switch folks from Fedora to Ubuntu only because Ubuntu supports sys tray app status indicators and Fedora 30 (now 31) does not support it. I agree with mlaverdiere. Skype and Slack and other useful office applications really need this feature for productivity reasons. Ubuntu (now 19.10) provides this feature by default, so does Mac OS X, and so does Windows 10. If and when Fedora provides it again in the future, I will have everyone switch back to Fedora. Other than that, I love Fedora (and RedHat).
This message is a reminder that Fedora 31 is nearing its end of life. Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 31 on 2020-11-24. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '31'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version. Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not able to fix it before Fedora 31 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora, you are encouraged change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above. Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete.
Fedora 31 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2020-11-24. Fedora 31 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this bug. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.
Obviously, it is an ongoing bug, still present in Fedora Rawhide (and current Fedora 34 beta). Again, the absence of such a feature in Fedora Workstation makes it hard (or impossible) to use a lot of application/services that relies on a system tray/appindicators icon and forces user to go the extra steps to install the extension themselves. Not user friendly... Easy solution: integrating: gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (which works with Fedora 34 and, being well maintained, has always work with previous GNOME/Fedora version): https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/264
Here are links for the new appindicator spec draft + GNOME design for background apps: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-specs/-/merge_requests/54 https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Design/os-mockups/-/issues/191 The possibility of integrating gnome-shell-extension-appindicator until a proper upstream solution is implemented is being discussed here: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/246#comment-834588
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 38 development cycle. Changing version to 38.
Another possible solution to this problem could be extending the GNOME Background Apps support (that is based on xdg-desktop-portal background portal) to also cover non-Flatpak apps + maybe also adding some kind of compatibility layer redirecting SNI/systray apps to the xdg-desktop-portal background portal as mentioned in this comment: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/264#comment-868911 Or at least implementing some basic stub API functions of SNI/systray to allow apps like Telegram to run on background. But that's just my personal idea.
Ignore what I said about Telegram in my previous comment. Telegram is now able to run on background on stock GNOME (without the AppIndicator extension) since latest update. There are no workarounds needed anymore.
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 40 development cycle. Changing version to 40.
This component is maintained by the GNOME project. Issues with it should be reported directly to GNOME at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/. This issue should only be kept open if it: 1. Relates to Fedora packaging or integration with other Fedora components 2. Is required for Fedora release processes, such as blocker bugs and freeze exceptions If this issue isn't needed for either of these two reasons, please: * create an issue with GNOME * add a link to the GNOME issue here * close this issue as CLOSED/UPSTREAM Thank you!
The issue at stake here is not a bug in a GNOME component, but a bug (missing feature) in the Fedora Worstation distribution. The issue is that Fedora Workstation, as a distribution, should include the KStatusNotifierItem/AppIndicator GNOME extensions by default (activated upon installation)like it already includes/activates by default some other extensions, until (if it ever happens someday) upstream GNOME provides a tray/appindicator support (or any valid alternative).