[Due for payment 2026-05-11] Chat - Maximum character limit error message cuts off if composer expanded

[vincdargento]

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Version Number: 9.3.61-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2219752/folder/13176681/test-cases/41236983
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): fischer9966+053122@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Regression TC Execution
Device used: iPhone 17 Pro / 26.4.1, iPad 9th Gen / 26.4.1
App Component: Chat Report View

Action Performed:

1. Open Expensify app on iPhone or iPad
2. Login with any account
3. Open any chat
4. Enter a text that is over 15k characters
5. Verify the compose box displays an error that the maximum amount of characters is 15k
6. Expand composer field

Expected Result:

Composer displays an error that the maximum amount of characters is 15k if composer expanded

Actual Result:

Maximum amount of characters error message is truncated if composer field expanded

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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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @DylanDylann

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @inimaga (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.

[OSBotify]

Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #87639 - "ReportActionCompose 3/6: ComposerProvider with subcomponents" by @adhorodyski (High confidence)
Related Issues: #87097

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #87639 is a large refactor of the ReportActionCompose component. The restructuring changed how ExceededCommentLength is rendered when the composer is in full-size (expanded) mode, causing the error message to be truncated. Reverting is the safest path since this is a large refactoring PR and the fix is non-trivial.

Assigned: @adhorodyski (PR author), @DylanDylann (approving reviewer), @cristipaval (approving reviewer)
Labels: DeployBlockerCash kept (frontend App PR is the cause). DeployBlocker is not present, no change needed.

Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• The bug reports the character-exceeded error message is truncated when the composer is in expanded (full-size) mode, on iOS and Web (Chrome).
• PR ReportActionCompose 3/6: ComposerProvider with subcomponents #87639 was merged on 2026-04-20 and is included in the current staging deploy (version 9.3.61-1). The bug is only reproducible on staging, not production — consistent with this PR introducing the regression.
• The PR is explicitly a refactoring of ReportActionCompose that creates new subcomponents including ComposerExceededLength and ComposerFooter, and changes where ExceededCommentLength is rendered in the component tree.

Verification

• Affected file: src/pages/inbox/report/ReportActionCompose/ComposerExceededLength.tsx — created by PR ReportActionCompose 3/6: ComposerProvider with subcomponents #87639
• Affected file: src/pages/inbox/report/ReportActionCompose/ComposerFooter.tsx — created by PR ReportActionCompose 3/6: ComposerProvider with subcomponents #87639
• Affected file: src/components/ExceededCommentLength.tsx — the error message component
• PR ReportActionCompose 3/6: ComposerProvider with subcomponents #87639 directly created these files and refactored how ExceededCommentLength is placed in the component tree.

Root Cause

In the original ReportActionCompose, ExceededCommentLength was rendered directly inside a View that conditionally applied styles.chatItemComposeSecondaryRow based on screen width and network state. PR #87639 extracted this into ComposerFooter (which applies styles.chatItemComposeSecondaryRow to its container View) and ComposerExceededLength (which renders ExceededCommentLength).

The ExceededCommentLength component itself applies styles.chatItemComposeSecondaryRow directly to its Text element (which sets a fixed height). Combined with the ComposerFooter wrapper also applying that same style to the outer View, the text is doubly height-constrained. The numberOfLines={1} on the Text component further limits the display. When the composer expands to full-size mode, the layout changes cause the fixed-height constraint to truncate the error message rather than letting it wrap or fully display.

The pre-refactor code placed the ExceededCommentLength text directly in a sibling View inside OfflineWithFeedback, and the layout remained stable in both normal and expanded composer states. The new component hierarchy introduced by PR #87639 breaks this behavior.