As we head into the summer months, a new Extended Support Release (ESR) is in full bloom. Thunderbird 153 “Meadow” is out now, and from all of us at MZLA, the Thunderbird Council, and our global community of contributors, we can’t wait for you to try it out.

“Meadow” builds on Thunderbird 140 “Eclipse,” along with the steady stream of features and improvements that have landed in the Monthly Release channel over the past year. This release makes first-time setup smoother with a redesigned Account Hub, brings native Microsoft Exchange support out into the open, and lets Thunderbird take on the colors of your desktop. Add privacy-minded networking, friendlier notifications, and a healthy crop of refinements, and Meadow is ready to grow with you.

In addition to these headline features, there’s a whole host of other updates you’ll love, including:

Looking Forward

Thunderbird 153 “Meadow” might seem soothing and calm, but we’re excited to get these features into your hands. And if you’d like updates like these more often, there’s no need to wait for the annual release: switching to Thunderbird Release gets you new updates on a monthly basis.

Thunderbird 153 Availability for Windows, Linux, and macOS

Even with QA and beta testing, any major software release may have issues that only surface after significant public use. That’s why we’re rolling out automatic updates gradually, enabling them more broadly as we confirm everything is stable. 

Manual upgrade to 153 is now enabled via Help > About — you can upgrade now or wait to receive automatic updates. Thunderbird 153.0 is also offered as a direct download from thunderbird.net. Be sure to select ‘Thunderbird Extended Support Release’ in the ‘Release Channel’ drop-down menu.

For Linux users running Thunderbird from the Snap or Flatpak, 153 will be available within the next few weeks. Likewise, Thunderbird 153 will arrive on the Microsoft Store by mid-July.

Full release notes can be found here.

If you have any issues, please reach out to support.

Have an idea? We want to hear it! Submit your ideas here.

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One of the most exciting aspects of bringing Thunderbird Pro to life is the opportunity to build an email service from Thunderbird together with our community, giving users the control and freedom they expect without relying on third party email service providers.

Over the past few months, we’ve been checking in with our community through quick surveys, and the feedback is clear: people care most about Thundermail. We’re listening and working to deliver what you expect as quickly as possible, focusing our resources on building a great Thundermail experience first, with Appointment and Send as power features alongside that foundation. We’re also adjusting the initial price to better align with your expectations.

We’ll be sending out the first wave of Early Bird Beta invites next month. If you haven’t already, please join the waitlist HERE and keep an eye on your inbox. We’re excited to get Thundermail into your hands and continue building it together.

Latest Thundermail Developments

Our work right now is focused on making Thundermail reliable, easy to set up, and ensuring a smooth onboarding experience with an intuitive design, both visually and functionally.

Sign-in and Setup

A new connection flow is in development that will make it much easier to add a Thundermail account to Thunderbird, including options like QR code setup and deeper integration within the app. We have also fixed a range of sign in issues, improved domain setup, and made it easier to move from account creation to actually using the service.

The account dashboard has been updated for a cleaner look, smoother onboarding, and easier access to the key details our users care about.  Configuring settings like app passwords, custom domains and aliases are now front and center when you first sign in.

Infrastructure

On the infrastructure side, we’re continuing to improve stability and performance. This includes completed work on upgrading Stalwart to strengthen spam detection so legitimate emails are far less likely to end up in spam, along with improvements to how we monitor the services so problems are easier to catch and less likely to affect users. Everyday actions like archiving and managing settings should feel more intuitive for users, and the web app, add-ons, and related services now work together more smoothly.

April Onward

• Next up for the account experience is better alias and custom-domain handling, and even better integration between Thunderbird and the web account flow.
• The dashboard is also getting another round of refinement so settings, account details, and subscription information are easier to understand at a glance.
• Thundermail work continues by focusing on reliability and security, including aliases, delivery, transport security, and admin access controls.
• There will also be a final layer of polish across the entire experience between the web app, add-on, and desktop flows.
• Finally: Webmail is moving up our priority list. While still early, development is actively progressing and we’re aiming to bring a usable experience much sooner than originally planned.

Progress on Appointment and Send

While Thundermail is our primary focus, work on other Thunderbird Pro services is continuing.

For Appointment, we’ve made progress on reliability and backend performance, including improvements to how calendar tasks are processed and fixes to event handling. Our priorities heading up to the release are also focused on reliability, with refinement on calendar connections, event syncing, Zoom access, and a simpler first-time setup flow.

For Send, we’ve made substantial visual improvement so that it feels like a more natural part of Thunderbird Pro. We’ve also made a number of security improvements and are continuing to evaluate infrastructure choices to ensure long term reliability. Our priorities for Send in the coming months include better encryption-key handling and clearer password-protected downloads.

What’s Next

We’ll begin inviting people from the waitlist into the Early Bird beta shortly. If you haven’t signed up yet, now’s the time. Your feedback will directly shape how Thundermail evolves.

For more up to date news, check out our services roadmap at: https://roadmaps.thunderbird.net/services/

If you want to get involved in the direction of these features or want to contribute ideas to the team, you can visit https://ideas.tb.pro/.

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