[Due for payment 2026-07-17] [$250] Entire system message is copied when part of message is selected and copied to clipboard

[applause-bot]

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Version Number: 9.4.28-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #92142
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sdjoisndjosjoisjdoj@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.5 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Create an expense.
4. Open the report.
5. Click Submit, Approve and Mark as paid.
6. Type marked as paid and send it.
7. Select "marked" on the message sent in Step 6 > right click on the message > Copy to clipboard.
8. Paste the copied text in the composer.
   → "marked" is pasted in the composer.
9. Select "marked" on the paid system message in Step 5 > right click on the message > Copy to clipboard.
10. Paste the copied text in the composer.

Expected Result:

"marked" will be pasted in the composer.

Actual Result:

The entire system message "marked as paid" is pasted in the composer, which is different from the behavior when text is selected individually in the sent message in Step 8.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7201125_1783367221393.6.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Mita Rachim
Bug ID: 7201125

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @mallenexpensify

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022074805690115712048
• Upwork Job ID: 2074805690115712048
• Last Price Increase: 2026-07-08

[applause-bot]

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/0c02c4a89c127d75ec82825f3bb572f2a6c96857923b90b2f4090158418015f4

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #92142

[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?

This is a pre-existing bug in the "Copy to clipboard" context-menu handler that was surfaced (not introduced) by PR #92142.

The copy handler reads the highlighted text into a single variable but only honors it in a fallback branch at the very bottom of a long if / else if chain:

• The selection is captured at ContextMenuActions.tsx:929: const content = selection || messageHtml;
• It is only used in the fallback branch ContextMenuActions.tsx:1320-1326 (else if (content)), which is where regular chat messages land — so they copy just the selection. ✅
• System messages (e.g. "marked as paid", approved, reimbursed) match a dedicated earlier branch that reconstructs the full message from the report action and ignores selection entirely — e.g. the REIMBURSED branch at ContextMenuActions.tsx:1096-1106. It always copies the whole reconstructed string. ❌

Before #92142, system-message text wasn't selectable on desktop web, so a user could never produce a partial selection for those actions and the "copy full message" behavior was invisible. Making the text selectable exposed the latent mismatch.

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

Prefer the user's selection when one exists, before the type-specific dispatch. Add an early guard near line 929, inside the if (!isAttachment) block and before the if (isReportPreviewAction) chain, along the lines of: if selection is non-empty, run the existing mention-cleanup and setClipboardMessage(selection), then return — so any partial selection (regular or system message) copies exactly what's highlighted.

This matches the reported expectation (Step 8 vs Step 10 should behave identically) and keeps the full-message reconstruction as the default when nothing is selected.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Add if (selection) { ... } handling to each individual system-message branch. Safer if any branch intentionally copies richer text than what's rendered, but it's repetitive across dozens of branches and easy to miss one. The single early guard is preferred unless there's a known case where the copied text must differ from the selectable rendered text.

Investigation details & evidence

• Handler entry: ContextMenuActions.tsx:895-929
• The if/else if chain (lines 930–1331) tests the report-action type from most-specific to least-specific. System/violation/task/basic-message actions — exactly the renderers touched by Make system/violation messages text-selectable on desktop web #92142 (InlineSystemMessage.tsx, ReportActionItem/TaskAction.tsx, ReportActionItemBasicMessage.tsx, ReportActionItemMessageWithExplain.tsx) — match earlier branches (e.g. MARKED_REIMBURSED line 1094, REIMBURSED line 1096, APPROVED, violations) that call Clipboard.setString(<reconstructed full message>) and never reference selection.
• Regular messages match no type-specific branch and fall through to else if (content) at line 1320, where content = selection || messageHtml, so the selection wins.
• Confidence: High. Pure client-side control-flow; fully determinable from source, no production logs needed.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team:
To accept: @MelvinBot implement [this](https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/95463) to create a draft PR.
To refine: @MelvinBot <your feedback>
To reject: Explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.