Expose "Do not disturb" in a unique way

[cajus]

Operating System

Fedora 39

XDG Desktop Portal version

1.18

XDG Desktop Portal version (Other)

No response

Desktop Environment

GNOME

Desktop Environment (Other)

No response

Expected Behavior

Current desktop environments like KDE, GNOME and Xfce have a feature to enable a DND mode. Currently this seems to be meant for standard desktop notifications only, but that kind of flag also could be useful for other apps (i.e. VoIP clients, that need to send ring tones).

I would expect that a DND flag is a portal queryable/monitorable flag. Maybe in the way KDE already does that.

Current Behavior

As of now there is no unique way of advertising that the desktop environment is in DND mode:

KDE

For KDE, DBus is used in the org.freedesktop.Notifications interface, which adds an Inhibit flag there.

GNOME

Here, gsettings is used (org.gnome.desktop.notifications show-banners), which cannot be monitored properly from inside a flatpak.

Xfce

For Xfce, DBus is used org.xfce.Xfconf /org/xfce/Xfconf org.xfce.Xfconf.xfce4-notifyd /do-not-disturb.

There may be more - thats what I've found so far.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Toggle DND in your DE
2. Check if you can get hold of that information from inside a flatpak

Anything else we should know?

No response

[GeorgesStavracas]

I'll move this into a GitHub discussion since we GitHub issues strictly for bug reports nowadays

[cajus]

Thanks! Sorry for putting it in the wrong place...

[Mikenux]

Hello Cajus,

In https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/pull/1304/files, there are sound, vibration and led-color properties which all seem playable by the system (if implemented). So, it is not necessary for apps to be aware of DND mode - it is just a matter of sending the appropriate signals. Read this PR a bit and say if anything is missing and/or wrong from your point of view.

[Mikenux]

This may be necessary in the case of an app playing radio or stream.

[cajus]

Thanks @Mikenux - will take a look at it. It sounds a bit like it could help for call handling (just bringing up a window at the desired position isn't easy in wayland times). No idea yet, if it helps with suppressing ring tones, etc. as the complete audio handling is routed via pipewire. Just a flag that says "do not disturb" would be completely sufficient.

But as said - I need to look at the PR more in depth.

[Mikenux]

I am not at all in favor of applications being aware of DND mode. In my opinion, DND is a setting that must be respected by applications, and giving them the possibility of being aware of it also gives them the possibility of disturbing. Perhaps it depends on how this will be implemented (something we don't know), but it's best to be cautious by default.

For applications playing sound on the application side (radio, stream), perhaps:

• Reserve this feature for alarm notifications (which in my opinion require other hints such as a precise time).
• Since we have a specific content type, users can grant an exception for alarms to sound in DND mode in system settings.
• Let them play the radio or stream only if we can mute the sound for them in DND and/or silent mode if the user does not allow sound. This avoids knowing that the user does not want an alarm to sound. The system can play a vibration or LED pattern predefined by the system, depending on user settings.