What functionality is provided by indicator-messages in UM 18.04 out-the-box?

I have Ubuntu MATE 18.04.1 installed.

After some manipulations with indicator-messages I have "back-ported" well known e-mail notification named Popper (again, previously I did it for UM 16.04 and UM 14.04).

The backporting manual is presented on AskUbuntu.
As the result I have indicator-messages showing e-mails with Popper:

During back-porting I have manually installed GTK2-parts (such as python-gnomekeyring and indicator-messages-gtk2 and others).

The ideas behind this post:

  1. To inform you about the fact that Popper is working again on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It is very useful, I use it in daily basis last 7 years.
  2. To ask a question about out-the-box functionality of indicator-messages. What is it supposed to do out-the-box?
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I believe it works with Thunderbird and Pidgin once you open them. (Are either installed out of the box? I don’t use them and usually choose the minimal install option.)

Another mail notifier it works with is mailnag.

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I have just tested Thunderbird with out-the-box indicator-messages.

It shows only number of messages, it is not enough for me.


I know MailNag, I tried it before and during porting of Popper. MailNag is less customizable than Popper.
I tried to install MailNag on UM 18.04 - account was set correctly, then it play sound on message receive, but does not change indicator-messages appearance. Also tested on Unity - it does not work either. So I contacted developer about packaging of mailnag-messagingmenu-plugin and mailnag-unity-plugin for 18.04 LTS. But with mailnag-messagingmenu-plugin it does not work on UM 16.04 LTS. But it is other story (as I remember it is not implemented here).


What else support indicator-messages? Pidgin maybe?