[$1000] [HOLD for payment 2024-07-24] [Feature] Improve 'location' permission flow with explainer and denied handling modals

[Julesssss]

Problem

Currently, we do not handle the case where users deny the location permission. This leads to a few problems on our mobile apps:

• After requesting money, users are prompted for the location permission every single time which is confusing, invasive, and annoying
• If the user denies this permission, we are restricted from asking them again
  • iOS: We cannot ask again after the first denial
  • Android: We cannot ask again after the 2nd denial
• When restricted ^, we cannot deep link users to the permission settings page (on Android), we can only explain the actions they must take
• The current flow looks like a bug as we are asking for the location permission after the user has left the Request Money flow
• Android users who Scan a receipt, turn on location when requested, then accept the location permission remain stuck at the final step in the Request flow

GPS disabled, location permission disabled

iOS	Android

GPS enabled, location permission disabled

iOS	Android

Full location flow (Android)

Untitled.mp4

Solution

The typical solution for mobile apps is to implement the following for permissions:

1. We show a custom page/modal explaining why we are about to ask them to enable a permission and offering a choice(something like Okay or Cancel)
2. If they tap Okay, we show them the native OS permission prompt
3. If they tap 'Cancel', we do not show the native OS permission prompt
4. If we are denied asking the user, show a custom modal explaining how they can manually allow the permission from the OS App settings

This better explains to users why we need the prompt, and prevents the need for the complicated 'Please navigate to App Settings > Permissions, and enable XYZ' instructions.

---

We have already implemented the above flow for the Camera permission. Let's build a similar flow for the location prompt. Here is the Camera flow:

x	iOS	Android
Explainer
Native OS prompt
Denied

Proposed changes:

Pending @Expensify/design review

Location permission flow

• When 'Request' button is pressed at the end of the Scan Receipt flow, check for location permission:
  • If granted, continue as normal
  • If not granted, show a modal that explains what/why we about to ask for the users location, and give two options: 'Okay, Cancel'
    • Okay: Show the native permission prompt, continue as normal
      • NOTE: The OS will show an additional modal here if GPS is not enabled
    • Cancel: Continue as normal, without users locations
  • If we are denied from asking, show a 'Denied' modal that explains how users can re-enable the permission manually

- GPS disabled, permission disabled, GPS prompt closed
- GPS disabled, permission disabled, modal closed
- GPS enabled, permission enabled, permission prompt closed
- GPS enabled, permission enabled, permission prompt rejected
- GPS enabled, permission enabled, permission prompt approved
- Permission prompt rejected (once iOS, twice Android), disabled modal accepted
- Permission prompt rejected (once iOS, twice Android), disabled modal rejected

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01ae8e8fb606975e83
• Upwork Job ID: 1764983541349486592
• Last Price Increase: 2024-07-19

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @zanyrenney

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01ae8e8fb606975e83

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @dannymcclain (Design), see these Stack Overflow questions for more details.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @johncschuster (NewFeature), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/14418#:~:text=BugZero%20process%20steps%20for%20feature%20requests for more details.

[Julesssss]

Hi @Expensify/design team. Please share your thoughts and suggestions!

• One difference between the camera and location flow is that the camera explainer is displayed nicely within the in-page camera component, location doesn't have a similar in-page component so I assume we'd need to use a Modal instead?
• Asking for the location permission every time the user scans a receipt can get quite annoying. What are your thoughts here? Should we stick with this for now, or explore alternatives like a timed delay?

[twisterdotcom]

Asking for the location permission every time the user scans a receipt can get quite annoying. What are your thoughts here? Should we stick with this for now, or explore alternatives like a timed delay?

I agree, we don't do this in oldDot. I think we should ask once and if they choose "once" or "don't allow", we shouldn't ask again for SmartScan. (We can ask again for distance or anything else that may trigger it).

[dannymcclain]

Definitely agree with the planned course of action here—very standard 👍

One difference between the camera and location flow is that the camera explainer is displayed nicely within the in-page camera component, location doesn't have a similar in-page component so I assume we'd need to use a Modal instead?

Yeah I'm thinking a modal will be best too. Definitely open to other ideas from the design team or anyone else.
When/where would that modal pop up?

Do we have any "bottom docked" modal patterns in NewDot that we could use for this? Might be nicer than a full page takeover (on desktop I imagine it's still just going to be a small, centered modal).

I agree, we don't do this in oldDot. I think we should ask once and if they choose "once" or "don't allow", we shouldn't ask again for SmartScan. (We can ask again for distance or anything else that may trigger it).

Yeah maybe we should ask once per type of flow? (scan, distance, etc.)

[shawnborton]

Do we have any "bottom docked" modal patterns in NewDot that we could use for this?

Yup! It might be bottom-docked on mobile and then a centered modal on desktop for that pattern.

I agree with the general sentiment though - ask each time for location (assuming the user is tapping "My location"), and only ask once for SmartScan. We might consider re-asking after some time but we shouldn't ask every single time.

[dubielzyk-expensify]

I share the opinions here. Smart to go with the soft ask to ensure we don't end up in a hard-block permissions territory.

I could go either on bottom sheet vs centered modal on mobile. I don't mind centered as it's also similar to the permission dialog itself, but don't feel remotely strongly.

A few dialog options from other apps:

[Julesssss]

Excellent, thanks everyone. So the next step will be for the flow to be designed. @dannymcclain are you happy to do this?

It's not super high priority but it would be great to get this implemented (by a contributor) for the collect release. I believe we need the following:

• Component UI for explainer location permission prompt
• Component UI for declined location permission prompt
• (optional) update to existing modal for declined camera permission
• Copy and assets for the above

[rushatgabhane]

@Julesssss maybe you could add me back as C+ if this goes external.

Or, happy to implement it too!

[trjExpensify]

I agree asking for location permission every time you scan a receipt is annoying (and doesn’t it harm us if they keep saying no?), but equally it does greatly improve the results - so a one and done worries me a little. Bit of a spitball, but I wonder if we should explore doing something with the system message on SmartScan failures? So when it fails and you haven’t granted us location permissions, we surface that somehow in the expense thread as a protip to improve results?

…

On Tue, 5 Mar 2024 at 12:01, Ted Harris ***@***.***> wrote: Asking for the location permission every time the user scans a receipt can get quite annoying. What are your thoughts here? Should we stick with this for now, or explore alternatives like a timed delay? I agree, we don't do this in oldDot. I think we should ask once and if they choose "once" or "don't allow", we shouldn't ask again for SmartScan. (We can ask again for distance or anything else that may trigger it). — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#37736 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AD3246POARUGUFRQ2LXE57LYWWXXZAVCNFSM6AAAAABEG7UFUSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSNZYGYYDCOJRHA> . You are receiving this because you are on a team that was mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[dannymcclain]

Sounds good to me! I'll share some stuff here once I've had a chance to work on it.

[dannymcclain]

How about something like this? cc @Expensify/design

Note

Definitely need help with the copy.
For desktop, is it ok to throw a modal on top of another modal (RHP)?

[shawnborton]

Nice, that's looking good! I think it's fine to have the modal on top of modal situation on desktop.

For the illustration, I wonder if there's something to be tried by adding a receipt into the mix somehow? Basically communicating that we want the location of the receipt as it helps with currency accuracy.

[dannymcclain]

For the illustration, I wonder if there's something to be tried by adding a receipt into the mix somehow? Basically communicating that we want the location of the receipt as it helps with currency accuracy.

That's a good shout—any of these feeling closer?

[shawnborton]

Nice! I like 1 and 3 here. The simplicity of 1 is quite nice, though you lose the cool earth. What are you feeling?

[garrettmknight]

@shubham1206agra offer out to you.
Upwork Job: https://www.upwork.com/ab/applicants/1813618903142113868/hires?filter=shub&page=1

[shubham1206agra]

@garrettmknight I think the offer should be $500 here as this was created before the April 6 deadline.

[Julesssss]

We also need to discuss with @allroundexperts the price for this feature implementation. The scope was bigger than usual, and although the complication delays shouldn't be considered we agreed beforehand that this would be treated differently.

[allroundexperts]

We also need to discuss with @allroundexperts the price for this feature implementation. The scope was bigger than usual, and although the complication delays shouldn't be considered we agreed beforehand that this would be treated differently.

@Julesssss I'm happy with anything above $500 😄

[Julesssss]

I'd say $1000 seems fair considering the amount of work necessary here. We also started this a few months back, when the default bounty was higher. Perhaps we should agree on that payment including a fix for this mWeb permission task.

Leaving this for a couple of days to see if anyone disagrees.

[melvin-bot]

Upwork job price has been updated to $1000

[Julesssss]

Hi @allroundexperts. You may want to submit a proposal for this follow-up, considering you know the code well already.

[shubham1206agra]

Test steps

1. Prompted for permission, prompt rejected
   Setup: Location permission ASK / Location feature OFF/ON

• Create a money request from another user via the scan receipt flow
• Submit it
• In-app 'Allow location access' Modal should appear
• Tap 'Not now'
• The expense should submit without location data.

2. Prompted for permission, prompt accepted, OS prompt rejected
   [iOS/Android/Web ONLY]
   Setup: Location permission ASK / Location feature ON

• Create a money request from another user via the scan receipt flow and submit it
• In-app 'Allow location access' Modal should appear
• Tap 'Continue'
• The OS permission prompt should appear

[iOS/Android ONLY from here on]

• Reject it
• Keep repeating the above steps and rejecting the OS permission prompt
  (1-3, THE NUMBER OF TIMES YOU NEED TO DECLINE DEPENDS ON OS)
• Eventually the OS permission prompt will stop showing, instead our 'Allow location' modal should be displayed

3. No modal appears
   Setup: Location permission ENABLED / Location feature ON

• Create a money request from another user via the scan receipt flow
• Submit it
• No modals should appear, and the expense should submit with location data.

4. No prompt permission, GPS prompt appears
   [iOS/Android ONLY]
   Setup: Location permission ENABLED / Location feature OFF

• Create a money request from another user via the scan receipt flow
• Submit it
• You should be prompted to enable location/GPS
• Select option (Settings option will open the settings page. Not now option will submit the expense without location)

[garrettmknight]

New Upwork Job here

Payment Summary:

• Contributor: @allroundexperts $1000
• Reviewer: @shubham1206agra $1000 paid via upwork

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @zanyrenney (NewFeature), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/14418#:~:text=BugZero%20process%20steps%20for%20feature%20requests for more details. Please add this Feature request to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[garrettmknight]

@zanyrenney I've created the QA - can you just make sure these two get paid while I'm OOO? Thanks!

[shubham1206agra]

@zanyrenney @garrettmknight Accepted offer

[garrettmknight]

Paid! Just waiting on @allroundexperts to request now

[allroundexperts]

I've noted it down @garrettmknight. Feel free to close!

[Julesssss]

I've noted it down @garrettmknight. Feel free to close!

@allroundexperts I was about to close this issue, but I'm not sure what you meant by 'I've noted it down'? Can I assume you have received payment?

[allroundexperts]

I haven't received it yet. But I've added it to my tracker so even if its closed, I'd be able to still request the payment later on. I just do this to batch several payments together.

[Julesssss]

Oh great, thanks for confirming.

[JmillsExpensify]

$1,000 approved for @allroundexperts