Panel/Dock Layout with Multiple Windows of the same Application

[PanRoR]

Hello Pop!_OS Team and Pop!_OS Community,

I would like to propose a small usability improvement for the panel/dock regarding applications that have multiple open windows.

Current Behavior

Currently, when multiple windows of the same application are open, they are grouped under a single icon in the panel/dock.

To switch to a specific window, the workflow is:

Click the application icon.
A menu with previews of all open windows appears.
Click the desired window.

This requires two clicks every time you want to access a specific window.

Proposed Solution

Allow users to optionally disable grouping for applications with multiple open windows.

Instead of always grouping windows under a single application icon, each window could appear as its own entry in the panel/dock. This would make it possible to switch directly to a specific window with a single click.

Window Identification

To help distinguish between multiple windows of the same application, each window entry could display a small visual indicator on the app icon.

For example:

A small colored dot in the bottom-right corner of the icon.
The first window gets color A, the second color B, the third color C, and so on.
If the number of windows exceeds the available colors, colors could repeat.
Alternatively, combined indicators (split-color dots) could be used for additional windows.

This would provide a simple visual way to identify individual windows without changing the application icon itself.

Benefits

Faster window switching (one click instead of two).
Better workflow for users who frequently work with multiple windows of the same application.
Optional behavior, so users who prefer grouped windows can keep the current workflow.
Improves discoverability and accessibility of individual windows directly from the panel/dock.

I think this could be particularly useful for applications such as browsers, file managers, terminals, text editors, and development tools where multiple windows are commonly used.

Thank you for considering this idea and for all the great work on Pop!_OS.

Kind regards,
PanRoR

[leviport]

there is a feature request for this here: pop-os/cosmic-epoch#3080