Workspace - Member's workspace chat shows "This is where you'll track expenses" when viewed as admin

[vincdargento]

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Version Number: 9.3.52-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #86460
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sjdoijsoidnisonjdosnj2@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.2 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Log in with new Gmail account.
3. Skip work email step.
4. Select Track and budget expenses.
5. Complete the onboarding.
6. Go to workspace settings > Members.
7. Invite a member to the workspace.
8. Go to Inbox.
9. Open search router.
10. Open member's workspace chat.

Expected Result:

Member's workspace chat should display "This is where X will track expenses to Workspace. Just use the + button.".

Actual Result:

Member's workspace chat shows "This is where you'll track expenses" when viewed as admin, which is not appropriate as admin cannot track expense in member’s workspace chat.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screenshots/Videos

bug.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #86460

[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.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

The welcome message logic in SidebarUtils.getWelcomeMessage (SidebarUtils.ts:1288) checks isTrackIntentUser to decide between showing "This is where you'll track expenses" vs "This is where [Name] will submit expenses to [Workspace]". However, isTrackIntentUser is derived from the current logged-in user's onboarding choice (NVP_INTRO_SELECTED in Onyx), not the report owner's. There is no check that the current user is the owner of the workspace chat being viewed.

So when an admin who selected "track expenses" during onboarding opens a member's workspace chat, isTrackIntentUser evaluates to true and the wrong self-referential message is displayed.

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

Add an ownership guard so the track-intent message only shows on the user's own workspace chat:

1. In ReportWelcomeText.tsx, read currentUserAccountID from Onyx (session) and pass it to getWelcomeMessage.
2. In SidebarUtils.getWelcomeMessage, change the condition at line 1288 from isTrackIntentUser to isTrackIntentUser && report?.ownerAccountID === currentUserAccountID.

This ensures the "This is where you'll track expenses" message only appears when the viewer is the report owner, falling through to the standard "[Name] will submit expenses to [Workspace]" message for all other viewers.

What alternative solutions did you explore?

An alternative would be to check ownership inside ReportWelcomeText.tsx before passing isTrackIntentUser (i.e., pass false when the user doesn't own the report). This achieves the same result but keeps the guard closer to the data source rather than in the utility function.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis, or explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.