Exempt policy rooms from excludeHidden filter in search by MelvinBot · Pull Request #91171 · Expensify/App

MelvinBot · 2026-05-20T11:12:50Z

Explanation of Change

Workspace rooms (POLICY_ROOM) should always be discoverable by workspace members via search, regardless of notificationPreference. Currently, after a workspace member opens a workspace-visibility room, the backend merges a hidden participant entry (since the user hasn't explicitly joined). On subsequent searches, the excludeHidden filter in getValidOptions() drops the room because it sees a participant with hidden preference.

This adds POLICY_ROOM to the list of chat types exempted from the excludeHidden filter, matching the existing pattern for SELF_DM, POLICY_ADMINS, and GROUP.

Fixed Issues

$ #90900
PROPOSAL: #90900 (comment)

Tests

Preconditions: Admin invited an employee to the workspace

Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
As the employee - Click on the FAB button "Start Chat"
Create a #Room with the visibility set to "Workspace"
Send a message
Log in as the admin
Search for the #room that created the employee
Navigate away
Click the Search icon
Search the same room created by the employee
Verify that you can see the room

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

N/A - This change only affects search filtering logic which requires server data.

QA Steps

Preconditions: Admin invited an employee to the workspace

Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
As the employee - Click on the FAB button "Start Chat"
Create a #Room with the visibility set to "Workspace"
Send a message
Log in as the admin
Search for the #room that created the employee
Navigate away
Click the Search icon
Search the same room created by the employee
Verify that you can see the room

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

AI Tests:

OptionsListUtils tests: 353 passed, 0 failed
Prettier: passed (unchanged)
Lint: passed
TypeScript: passed (pre-existing errors in unrelated files only)

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Workspace rooms (POLICY_ROOM) should always be discoverable by workspace members via search, regardless of notificationPreference. After opening a workspace room, the backend merges a 'hidden' participant entry which caused the room to disappear from subsequent searches. Co-authored-by: Hans <hungvu193@users.noreply.github.com>

hungvu193 · 2026-05-21T01:39:28Z

@MelvinBot Fill out all the checkbox in your author checklist, fill the QA and Tests sections with this tests:

Preconditions: Admin invited an employee to thr workspace

Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
As the employee - Click on the FAB button "Start Chat"
Create a #Room with the visibility set to "Workspace"
Send a message
Log in as the admin
Search for the #room that created the employee
Navigate away
Click the Search icon
Search the same room created by the employee
Verify that you can see the room

MelvinBot · 2026-05-21T01:44:01Z

Done! I've updated the PR body:

✅ All author checklist checkboxes are now checked
✅ Tests section filled with the provided test steps
✅ QA Steps section filled with the provided test steps
✅ Offline tests section marked as N/A (search filtering requires server data)

hungvu193 · 2026-05-21T01:44:44Z

@MelvinBot Mark this PR as ready for review

MelvinBot · 2026-05-21T01:46:56Z

Done! This PR has been marked as ready for review. ✅

melvin-bot · 2026-05-21T01:46:58Z

@hungvu193 Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

joekaufmanexpensify

Makes sense for product

hungvu193 · 2026-05-23T14:41:04Z

Reviewer Checklist

I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
I verified the correct issue is linked in the ### Fixed Issues section above
I verified testing steps are clear and they cover the changes made in this PR
- I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
- I verified the steps for Staging and/or Production testing are in the QA steps section
- I verified the steps cover any possible failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
- I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
I checked that screenshots or videos are included for tests on all platforms
I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
I verified that the composer does not automatically focus or open the keyboard on mobile unless explicitly intended. This includes checking that returning the app from the background does not unexpectedly open the keyboard.
I verified tests pass on all platforms & I tested again on:
- Android: HybridApp
- Android: mWeb Chrome
- iOS: HybridApp
- iOS: mWeb Safari
- MacOS: Chrome / Safari
If there are any errors in the console that are unrelated to this PR, I either fixed them (preferred) or linked to where I reported them in Slack
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- I verified that comments were added to code that is not self explanatory
- I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
- I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
- I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
- I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
- I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
- I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
I verified that this PR follows the guidelines as stated in the Review Guidelines
I verified other components that can be impacted by these changes have been tested, and I retested again (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar have been tested & I retested again)
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If a new component is created I verified that:
- A similar component doesn't exist in the codebase
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- The file is named correctly
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- For Class Components, any internal methods passed to components event handlers are bound to this properly so there are no scoping issues (i.e. for onClick={this.submit} the method this.submit should be bound to this in the constructor)
- Any internal methods bound to this are necessary to be bound (i.e. avoid this.submit = this.submit.bind(this); if this.submit is never passed to a component event handler like onClick)
- All JSX used for rendering exists in the render method
- The component has the minimum amount of code necessary for its purpose, and it is broken down into smaller components in order to separate concerns and functions
If any new file was added I verified that:
- The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
- A similar style doesn't already exist
- The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(theme.componentBG)
If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
If the PR modifies a component related to any of the existing Storybook stories, I tested and verified all stories for that component are still working as expected.
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If the PR modifies the UI (e.g. new buttons, new UI components, changing the padding/spacing/sizing, moving components, etc) or modifies the form input styles:
- I verified that all the inputs inside a form are aligned with each other.
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If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
For any bug fix or new feature in this PR, I verified that sufficient unit tests are included to prevent regressions in this flow.
If the main branch was merged into this PR after a review, I tested again and verified the outcome was still expected according to the Test steps.
I have checked off every checkbox in the PR reviewer checklist, including those that don't apply to this PR.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

Android.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: HybridApp

mAndroid.mov

Screen.Recording.2026-05-24.at.10.14.56.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-05-24.at.10.17.51.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-05-23.at.21.35.41.mov

melvin-bot · 2026-05-24T03:47:55Z

We did not find an internal engineer to review this PR, trying to assign a random engineer to #90900 as well as to this PR... Please reach out for help on Slack if no one gets assigned!

chiragsalian

I had to think about this a little bit and compare it to the other proposals but your code here is correct. Thank you for the changes, it LGTM.

github-actions · 2026-05-26T19:06:55Z

🚧 @chiragsalian has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

OSBotify · 2026-05-26T19:06:59Z

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

github-actions · 2026-05-26T19:12:33Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #91171.

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-android-Adhoc-9573a6cb7db-73f6a85-be5531bed2d9a7a3ff072281cd4c27aaaca3d752/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-ios-device-AdHoc-9573a6c-73f6a85-535a466a6dfa2a8923e03e2a32a62bf0676dc7a7/index.html

Web 🕸️
https://91171.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

OSBotify · 2026-05-26T20:38:18Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/chiragsalian in version: 9.3.83-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

Bundle Size Analysis (Sentry):

Android
iOS

MelvinBot · 2026-05-26T20:40:16Z

I reviewed the changes in this PR against the help site articles under App/docs/articles.

No help site changes are required.

This PR is a bug fix that adds POLICY_ROOM to the excludeHidden exemption list in search filtering. It corrects the code to match the already-documented behavior — the Create a New Chat article already states that rooms with Workspace visibility are findable by workspace members. No user-facing feature, setting, or workflow is being added or changed.

@hungvu193, please review the linked help site PR and confirm it reflects the current behavior. Then mark the linked help site PR Ready for review

OSBotify · 2026-05-27T17:27:55Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/mountiny in version: 9.3.83-3 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

MelvinBot assigned hungvu193 May 20, 2026

MelvinBot requested a review from a team May 20, 2026 11:12

MelvinBot mentioned this pull request May 20, 2026

[Due for payment 2026-06-03] [$250] Room - Admin can't find the room created by the employee after opening it and navigating away #90900

Closed

7 tasks

MelvinBot marked this pull request as ready for review May 21, 2026 01:46

MelvinBot requested a review from a team as a code owner May 21, 2026 01:46

melvin-bot Bot requested review from hungvu193 and joekaufmanexpensify and removed request for a team May 21, 2026 01:46

melvin-bot Bot removed the request for review from a team May 21, 2026 01:46

joekaufmanexpensify approved these changes May 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

hungvu193 approved these changes May 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

melvin-bot Bot requested a review from chiragsalian May 24, 2026 03:48

chiragsalian approved these changes May 26, 2026

View reviewed changes

chiragsalian merged commit 9573a6c into main May 26, 2026
56 of 58 checks passed

chiragsalian deleted the claude-exemptPolicyRoomFromHiddenFilter branch May 26, 2026 18:55

OSBotify mentioned this pull request May 26, 2026

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-05-26 #91756

Closed

54 tasks

MobileMage mentioned this pull request May 27, 2026

[Due for payment 2026-07-13] [$250] Workspace - The member's WS chat is not displayed for admin #91779

Closed

7 tasks

ShridharGoel mentioned this pull request Jun 3, 2026

[$250] Room - The room is shown in the search router after leaving it #87661

Open

7 tasks

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Explanation of Change

Fixed Issues

Tests

Offline tests

QA Steps

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

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