Chat - Whisper to invite member reappears after inviting member to submit expenses

[vincdargento]

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Version Number: 9.3.7.0
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/test-runs/TR-3292/folder/13176685/41236620/1143583236
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): ibellicotest+2250@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Motorola MotoG60 / Android 12 (Hybrid app) - Windows 11 / Chrome
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

Prerequisite: Account has at least one workspace or private room conversation.

1. Open the staging.new.expensify.com website.
2. Open any workspace or private room conversation.
3. Mention another user that is not part of the chat.
4. Select "Invite to submit expenses"
5. Tap on "Got It" on whisper message.
6. Note that whisper to invite member reappears and options are unresponsive.

Expected Result:

Whisper to invite a member to chat, shouldn´t reappear after inviting the user.

Actual Result:

Whisper to invite a member to a chat, reappears after having invited the member to submit expenses.

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]

Triggered auto assignment to @mallenexpensify (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.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @marcochavezf (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: #79299 - "Call the invite whisper for only workspace chats" by @parasharrajat (High confidence)
Related Issues: #80101, #80062

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #79299 introduced a bug where whisper messages reappear after being resolved when inviting members to submit expenses. This PR has already been reverted in #80117 which was cherry-picked to staging on Jan 21. The revert should resolve this issue.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash as this is a Frontend bug. Once PR #80117 is verified to fix the issue, this blocker should be resolved.

Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• PR Call the invite whisper for only workspace chats #79299 was merged on Jan 18, 2026 and modified src/pages/RoomInvitePage.tsx
• The PR changed the invite flow to conditionally call inviteToRoomAction() only for workspace chats (using isPolicyExpenseChat check)
• For non-workspace chats, it calls inviteToRoom() instead
• This change caused multiple issues including app crashes ([Due for payment 2026-01-29] iOS - App crashes after inviting non-existing member to the room #80101) and problems with expense report access ([$250] Invited to chat only user can't open expense report from the first try #80062)
• Issue Chat - Whisper to invite member reappears after inviting member to submit expenses #80292 reports whispers reappearing after tapping "Got It" - reproducible in staging 9.3.7.0

Verification

The affected file is /home/runner/work/App/App/src/pages/RoomInvitePage.tsx:

• PR Call the invite whisper for only workspace chats #79299 modified the inviteUsers function (line 209-233)
• Added conditional logic to check isPolicyExpenseChat(report)
• Changed from using only inviteToRoomAction() to using both inviteToRoomAction() and inviteToRoom()

Git log confirms PR #79299 modified this file:

$ git log --oneline -- src/pages/RoomInvitePage.tsx | head -5

Root Cause

PR #79299 attempted to differentiate between workspace chats and other rooms for invitation whispers. However, the implementation caused issues with whisper state management where:

1. The whisper message for "Invite to submit expenses" would not be properly resolved
2. After tapping "Got It", the whisper would reappear
3. The UI would become unresponsive

PR #80117 reverted these changes back to the original behavior where all room invitations use inviteToRoomAction(), which should fix the whisper reappearance issue.

Next Steps

Verify that PR #80117 (already cherry-picked to staging) resolves this issue. If the issue persists after #80117, further investigation will be needed into the whisper resolution mechanism.