bug: Reply Button Not Functioning Properly in Chat

[jjinendra3]

Description

When clicking on a chat message, the Reply button does not seem to work. This might be because the entire message is wrapped inside a button/Touchable that opens the thread. While this design makes it easier for users to enter a thread without searching for the reply button, I don't think this was the intended behavior.

Screen Recording

WhatsApp.Video.2025-03-03.at.11.20.56_4b3b0995.mp4

Proposed Solutions

We have a few possible ways to address this:

1. Remove the Reply button altogether if we continue allowing users to open threads by clicking anywhere on the message.
2. Disable the whole message click and make sure only the Reply button opens the thread.
3. Reply button opens the thread and focuses on the text input opening the keyboard inside the thread. (Clicking will open it like this )

Please share your thoughts on which approach would be best. I'm happy to discuss further! 🚀

[jjinendra3]

Hey @diegolmello , Could you please tell me the preffered way here? Thanks a lot.

[diegolmello]

I didn't understand the issue. Tapping reply goes to the thread. What's wrong?

[jjinendra3]

I didn't understand the issue. Tapping reply goes to the thread. What's wrong?

The issue is that the Reply button itself doesn’t have any functionality. Currently, clicking on the Reply button doesn’t trigger any action on its own because the entire message is wrapped inside a Touchable, which opens the thread.

So, whether we click on the message or the Reply button, the result is the same – the thread opens. This makes the Reply button redundant since it doesn’t perform an independent action.

An example to demonstrate what I’m trying to achive in the mobile client:

[diegolmello]

Got it.
Disagree on the proposed changes though.

There's no issue on having the button to show the user there's a thread or touching the button or message doing the same thing.
It's ok. The user needs to go to the thread and that's it. There's no bug. Not in code and not in UX.
In the future we could remove thread button, but I want to keep it consistent with web client.

Your third proposal is an advanced hidden feature (or a hidden feature for heavy users).
It's interesting, but I wouldn't go that way.

Twitter does something like that:

• if you press comment icon, it opens the reply composer
• if you press the tweet, it shows replies

Instagram doesn't:

• both comment icon and comment just open comments section

Since we may want to remove the button in the future, no reason to work on anything fancy, right?

What you could do though is:

• Refactor Message component to use react-native-gesture-handler
  • this initiative could be expanded to use RNGH everywhere, so we remove deprecated touchable libraries and unify the usage into RNGH
• Add a swipe left gesture to Message to open or create a new thread
  • the swipe gesture would translate the whole message to the left while displaying a thread icon, similar to Telegram

Both the migration to RNGH and the swipe gesture are initiatives we would like to have because they enhance the UX, but it's not a priority for us atm.

Can you do it? @jjinendra3

[jjinendra3]

Hey @diegolmello ,

Sure! I'd be happy to take this up.

Just to confirm:

1. Are we updating only the Message component to use react-native-gesture-handler, or should we replace all Touchable components across the app?
2. For the swipe left gesture, it should open an existing thread or create a new thread when swiped left and released. Right?

I'll get started! 🚀

[diegolmello]

1. Yes, you can make it only for message on this first PR
2. Yes.

[jjinendra3]

Got it! Thanks!