[$250] LHN - Email is displayed instead of user name on LHN message preview

[nlemma]

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Version Number: v9.1.24-2
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A
If this was caught on HybridApp, is this reproducible on New Expensify Standalone?: N/A
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail: #59252
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): [email protected]
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: MacOS Chrome, Desktop
App Component: Left Hand Navigation (LHN)

Action Performed:

1. Start a chat with a user who has a display name (user A)
2. Click + > Create expense > Add amount > Next > Click Create expense
3. Navigate away form the chat
4. Go to Settings > Preferences > change priority mode to focus
5. Return to LHN
6. Go to Settings > Preferences > change priority mode to Most recent
7. Return to LHN
8. Open the chat with user A

Expected Result:

'User's display name owes amount' message should be displayed on LHN of the user you have requested money from

Actual Result:

'User's email owes amount' message is displayed on LHN. And the message is changed to 'User's display name owes amount' when opening the chat

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: Standalone
• Android: HybridApp
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: Standalone
• iOS: HybridApp
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6795782_1744098119397.Screen_Recording_2025-04-08_at_10.29.59_in_the_morning.mp4

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• thelullabyy | Contributor | 107032873

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @thelullabyy

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @lschurr (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @rlinoz (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[github-actions]

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[nlemma]

@lschurr FYI I haven't added the External label as I wasn't 100% sure about this issue. Please take a look and add the label if you agree it's a bug and can be handled by external contributors.

[samranahm]

Dupe of #59566

[rlinoz]

@nlemma why reproducible in production is N/A in this case?

If it is really a dupe as @samranahm is saying I think this should be reproducible in prod.

[nlemma]

Testers are seeing different behavior in production compared to staging for this issue.

bandicam.2025-04-08.16-11-15-769.mp4

[samranahm]

@rlinoz we have a bit different behabour for 1:1 chats in staging now #58271 (comment) we also discuss about it here #59566 (comment)

[jasperhuangg]

@samranahm Can you explain how this is a duplicate and how a proposal for that issue would fix this one?

[samranahm]

@jasperhuangg Sorry my bad that was similar one but for another translation iou.payerPaidAmount but here the issue is about iou.payerOwesAmount

[samranahm]

🚨 Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2025-04-12 11:58:53 UTC.

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

LHN - Email is displayed instead of user name on LHN message preview

What is the root cause of that problem?

App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts

Line 4200 in 9eb3655

return translateLocal('iou.payerOwesAmount', {payer: payerName ?? '', amount: formattedAmount, comment});

We pass the payer here without checking if its DM (we are not displaying the payerName for 1:1)
when there is no payerName

formattedLogin cause the email to display in alternate text

App/src/libs/SidebarUtils.ts

Lines 648 to 649 in 9eb3655

	if (shouldShowLastActorDisplayName(report, lastActorDetails)) {
	result.alternateText = `${lastActorDisplayName}: ${formatReportLastMessageText(Parser.htmlToText(lastMessageText)) || formattedLogin}`;

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Here

App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts

Line 4200 in 9eb3655

return translateLocal('iou.payerOwesAmount', {payer: payerName ?? '', amount: formattedAmount, comment});

We should explicitly check if the report is DM and in such case pass an empty string for payer to 'iou.payerOwesAmount'

return translateLocal('iou.payerOwesAmount', {payer: isDM(parentReport) ? '' : (payerName ?? ''), amount: formattedAmount, comment});

What specific scenarios should we cover in automated tests to prevent reintroducing this issue in the future?

N/A

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

To prevent the potential regression we can utilize isForListPreview

return isDM(report) && isForListPreview
    ? translateLocal('iou.payerOwesAmount', {payer: '', amount: formattedAmount, comment})
    : translateLocal('iou.payerOwesAmount', {payer: payerName ?? '', amount: formattedAmount, comment});

[samranahm]

LHN-812.mp4

[rlinoz]

Right, I think we can demote this one and get it fixed.

I think the problem is just not showing up in prod because we are not showing the IOU as the last message for some reason in prod.

[Ollyws]

@rlinoz no it's to return the display names instead of the emails in reportActionMessage

[melvin-bot]

@rlinoz, @Ollyws, @lschurr, @thelullabyy Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

[thelullabyy]

@rlinoz Any new update from BE side?

[rlinoz]

This looks like a simple change, I will check internally if there is any reason this should not be changed and will post back.

[melvin-bot]

@thelullabyy Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[rlinoz]

Writing PRs for this, should put for review on Monday.

PRs are up actually, probably deployed early next week.

[melvin-bot]

@thelullabyy Still overdue 6 days?! Let's take care of this!

[rlinoz]

@thelullabyy this is in staging

[thelullabyy]

@Ollyws After this PR. The behavior related to Bug 2 is changed. With that new change, we never show the "You". What should we do in this situation?
Root cause by this logic

App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils.ts

Line 582 in ce695b6

lastAction?.actionName === CONST.REPORT.ACTIONS.TYPE.REPORT_PREVIEW

[Ollyws]

Hmm good question, that PR does seem to violate the expected behaviour as detailed in this comment: #59812 (comment)
@rlinoz Do you have any idea as to the expected behaviour for the You: ?

[rlinoz]

From what I can tell that PR is just trying to avoid showing You: Manager:, and we still want to show You: when it makes sense.

[melvin-bot]

@thelullabyy Eep! 4 days overdue now. Issues have feelings too...

[Ollyws]

Hmm well #60307 has removed You: when the last message is an IOU or report preview.
Perhaps we can re-instate the You: for report previews aside from the Manager: case.

[rlinoz]

Yeah, actually cc @Expensify/design on this one.

When you create a report and we are showing the report preview message in the LHN, how should it be displayed?

1. You: ${User B's display name} owes ${amount}
2. ${User B's display name} owes ${amount}

[dannymcclain]

I'm honestly getting a little lost in all these—personally, I think it would be best to create the least amount of exceptions as possible, and have them all work as similarly as possible. Definitely want to hear others' thoughts who maybe have more understanding of how all these work though.

[shawnborton]

When you create a report and we are showing the report preview message in the LHN, how should it be displayed?

I think we need to first determine if we think a workspace chat should behave like a DM between two people (we never show You for previews), or more like a group or room (we always show You for previews). I think technically it's more like a room? So that being said, if you send a message in a room, we always prepend You: to the message preview. So I would expect the same here I think.

[rlinoz]

I agree workspace chats are more like rooms and it would be best to have the same pattern.

Perhaps we can re-instate the You: for report previews aside from the Manager: case.

So I guess we can go on with this @Ollyws @thelullabyy

[thelullabyy]

Thanks, I opened PR here