DC Desktop: Keyboard shortcut for archive/unarchive

SWEETGOOD · July 24, 2026, 2:42pm

I use DC a lot and would be happy to be able to speed things up a bit. Especially the archiving and unarchiving of chats is something I have to do regularly.

Currently there’s unfortunately no easy way to archive / unarchive (multiple) chats using the keyboard or the scroll wheel.

Current way:

Right click on a chat, context menu opens
Find and click the menu option “Archive / Unarchive”
Proceed in the same way with the next chat

My proposals:

Middle-click on a chat archives/unarchives it (like in Telegram Desktop)
Additional keyboard shortcut (e.g. [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [A]) archives/unarchives the currently selected/opened chat (like in Signal Desktop)

This would make things much easier

WofWca · July 24, 2026, 3:05pm

Good context menu implementations provide a way to focus or activate a menu item via shortcuts (usually displayed as an underlined character on the menu item label).
I would prefer to try to implement that first.

Ours is an in-house one (which suffers from many other issues also):

github.com/deltachat/deltachat-desktop

packages/frontend/src/components/ContextMenu.tsx

6aa25618b


      
            }}
            onMouseOver={() => {
              if (item.subitems) {
                expandMenu(index, levelIdx)
              } else {
                collapseMenu(levelIdx)
              }
            }}
            tabIndex={-1}
            data-testid={item.dataTestid}
            role='menuitem'
            // Context menus are not expected to change,
            // so it's fine to have index-based keys.
            key={item.dataTestid ?? index}
            aria-haspopup={item.subitems ? 'menu' : undefined}
            aria-expanded={item.subitems ? isExpanded : undefined}
            {...(item.subitems && { 'data-expandable-index': index })}
          >
            {item.icon && <Icon className='left-icon' icon={item.icon} />}
            {item.label}
            {item.subitems && <div className='right-icon' />}

link2xt · July 24, 2026, 3:15pm

Latest versions (2.56?) have command palette.

You can press Ctrl+P, then down (or type “ar”), then return:

Not saying there should be no keyboard shortcut, but there is a way to archive from the keyboard.

SWEETGOOD · July 24, 2026, 3:21pm

Good to know – I’m still on 2.53 and will give 2.56 a try. Thanks!

What directly comes to my mind when I read [CTRL] + [P] followed by ar and Enter is that I would probably need two hands to do that (or a very good keyboard aiming engine ). A simple keyboard shortcut like [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [A] or the mouse wheel button (middle click) can be done with a single hand