Supermail — Reading View: Focus Mode & Auto-Hiding Toolbar

What it is

What it does

When you open an email in Supermail, the reading view keeps its chrome minimal so the message itself is the focus:

• The top action toolbar (Reply, Filter, Focus, Pin) and the bottom action bar (done / snooze / label / trash …) are hidden by default and peek back when you move your mouse to them (or tab into them with the keyboard).
• A Pin toggle locks both bars open if you'd rather keep them visible all the time.
• On a touch device (no hover), the bars stay shown, since there is no mouse to peek with.

Where to find it

Inside Supermail's reading view — the action bars hide and peek back, and the Pin toggle locks them open.

How it behaves

Focus mode (distraction-free reading)

Focus mode goes a step further: it hides the reading-view chrome entirely for keyboard-first reading. Toggle it with the Focus button in the toolbar, or press Z.

• The toolbar and the bottom action bar disappear for a clean, distraction-free read.
• You can always get out. While focus mode is on, an "Exit focus mode" button stays visible in the top-right of the email header — so you are never stuck. Click it, press Z, or move your mouse to the top of the email to bring the full toolbar back (without leaving focus mode).
• The exit works everywhere: mouse, keyboard, and touch / no-hover devices, which rely on the always-visible button.

The "Start a session" button

The "Start a session" button in an email's header — which spawns an Omniscio session seeded with the whole thread (Omniscio desktop only) — is icon-only: just its chat-plus icon, with the full description shown as a hover tooltip.

Notes

• These are automatic reading-view behaviors — there is no setting to configure.
• They are device-local UI preferences kept in the Supermail plugin's own storage (not Omniscio's synced AppSettings), so they do not carry across devices.
• Not the same as Omniscio's other "Focus Mode." The app-level toolbar bell / batch-alerts Focus Mode (which quiets inbox notifications) is a completely separate feature; this page is only about Supermail's reading-view focus mode.

What changed (2026-08-07)

• Focus mode is no longer a trap. Previously, turning it on hid the toolbar that held the focus toggle itself — leaving no visible way out (only the undocumented Z key). Now an always-visible "Exit focus mode" button shows while focus mode is on, and hovering the top of the email brings the full toolbar back.
• The "Start a session" button is now icon-only — the text label was removed; the icon and its hover tooltip stay.

Related

• supermail.md — the full Supermail email client reference (layout, filters, split inbox, sidebar modes).
• supermail-send-shortcuts.md — the composer's reply-focus + send behaviors (the writing-side twin of these reading behaviors).