[$500] [HOLD on retest] New message marker displayed when revisiting expense report

[nlemma]

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Version Number: 9.1.77-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail: https://github.com/Expensify/Expensify/issues/455281
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): N/A
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Windows 10 - Chrome
App Component: Chat

Action Performed:

1. Open a workspace chat with no unsettled expenses
2. Create one new money request
3. Open the expense report
4. Update the money request information (any)
5. Go back to workspace chat
6. Open the expense report again

Expected Result:

There is no new message marker

Actual Result:

New marker line is displayed

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6868878_1750801506912.bandicam_2025-06-25_00-39-28-440.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021943460631863674453
• Upwork Job ID: 1943460631863674453
• Last Price Increase: 2025-07-24

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @twisterdotcom (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.

[nabi-ebrahimi]

Proposal

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

New message marker displayed when revisiting expense report

What is the root cause of that problem?

We never account for the one transaction thread report's lastReadTime. We always check the lastReactTime of the report.

App/src/pages/home/report/ReportActionsList.tsx

Lines 200 to 202 in af8418a

	const reportLastReadTime = report.lastReadTime ?? '';

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

We can check if transactionThreadReport?.lastReadTime exists, so it is a oneTransactionReport, so get the lastReadTime from transactionThreadReport, if not, then we get the lastReadTime from the report.

const reportLastReadTime = transactionThreadReport?.lastReadTime ?? report.lastReadTime;

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

None

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[truph01]

Proposal

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

• The "new message" marker is incorrectly displayed.

What is the root cause of that problem?

• We use lastReadTime in the following file to determine whether a message is unread and whether to display the "new message" marker:

App/src/pages/home/report/ReportActionsList.tsx

Line 202 in 9c6f6b3

const reportLastReadTime = report.lastReadTime ?? '';

• The logic checks whether lastReadTime is less than the created timestamp of the reportAction. If so, the message is marked as unread:

App/src/libs/ReportActionsUtils.ts

Lines 1872 to 1878 in 28a6d10

	function isReportActionUnread(reportAction: OnyxEntry<ReportAction>, lastReadTime?: string) {
	if (!lastReadTime) {
	return !isCreatedAction(reportAction);
	}
	return !!(reportAction && lastReadTime && reportAction.created && lastReadTime < reportAction.created);
	}

• In the case of a one-transaction view, the lastReadTime retrieved here:

App/src/pages/home/report/ReportActionsList.tsx

Line 202 in 9c6f6b3

const reportLastReadTime = report.lastReadTime ?? '';

is from the expense report, whereas the reportAction comes from the transaction thread report. This mismatch causes the lastReadTime to be less than reportAction.created, resulting in the "new message" marker being incorrectly displayed.

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

• We should adjust the calculation of lastReadTime to correctly handle the one-transaction view case. Specifically, we should use the most recent lastReadTime between the expense report and the transaction thread report:

const reportLastReadTime = (report?.lastReadTime > transactionThreadReport?.lastReadTime
    ? report.lastReadTime
    : transactionThreadReport?.lastReadTime) ?? '';

This ensures that the correct lastReadTime is used when determining whether to display the "new message" marker.

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

• None.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021943460631863674453

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @s77rt (External)

[s77rt]

@nabi-ebrahimi @truph01 Thanks for the proposal. In order to identify the root cause I think it would be a good start to identify why this happens only after you change the expense amount? If I send a message and come back there is no unread marker.