GNOME Designers Lay Out Some Of Their GNOME Shell Dreams

Written by Michael Larabel in GNOME on 11 August 2026 at 08:35 AM EDT. 60 Comments
GNOME
GNOME interaction designer Tobias Bernard has shared some of the plans and ideas for long-term GNOME Shell improvements they have been eyeing for future GNOME releases.

Some of the areas being looked at for improvements to the GNOME Shell include search enhancements, like making search results display with richer content and actions. With the GNOME Shell "quick settings" area they also want to add the ability to customize the quick settings with adding or removing different options depending upon your needs.

GNOME Shell designers and developers have also been looking at simplifying the calendar popover, drag and drop window organization, mosaic and tiling support, and enhancing window switching. There are also mock-ups around a login screen grid, a dynamic battery icon, and the ability to have a transparent panel for GNOME Shell.

GNOME transparent panel


These GNOME Shell design dreams cover a variety of areas they are looking at, some of which are further along than others and may require more developer capacity, prototyping, and testing before coming to fruition.

Those wishing to learn more about these GNOME Shell design dreams can learn more via the GNOME Shell Dev Blog. What are you dreaming about for the GNOME Shell and hope to see in a future release?
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