Open Radar

 
Summary:
Mission Control should badge the app icons it displays to match those shown in the Dock. Mission Control is the go-to place in Lion to see running applications and jump between them. But to check whether Mail.app has new messages for you, you have to check its icon in the Dock, not the icon shown on the full-screen app space within Mission Control.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make Mail.app full screen.
2. Mark a message unread in Mail.app.
3. Show Mission Control.
4. Check the app icon on the full-screen space to see whether Mail.app has an unread message or not.

Expected Results:
5. The app icon on the space is badged the same as the app icon in the Dock.

Actual Results:
5. The app icon is not badged on the space. The only icon badged is that in the Dock.

Regression:
None. Mission Control is new with Lion.

Notes:
The Cmd-Tab app switcher also fails to badge app icons. But Launchpad DOES badge app icons to match the Dock.

This is especially frustrating when you have small Dock icons that magnify on mouseover. To check for badges, you have to either skim the mouse over the Dock, or squint, even though there's a nice, big icon displayed by Mission Control.

01-Aug-2011 02:59 PM Jeremy Sherman:
Correction: Cmd-Tab app switcher does in fact badge app icons. This leaves Mission Control as the oddball in the desktop UI: in every other app-switching interface, an app icon will appear badged if it has a badge number.