Implement Date dividers within chats to distinguish Today, Yesterday and other dates.

[johnmlee101]

Feature Request: Have visible indicators when chats change days, similar to how Slack separates individual days with a bar
Problem: When reading chat history, I had a hard time finding out where a discussion started a few days ago, and it required a bit of scanning each chat to see when that day occured.
Solution: Add an indicator between each day of the week that changes between messages, giving indication when that message was sent in an easy way.

Slack

Whatsapp

Original report: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C01GTK53T8Q/p1682528022290149

cc @puneetlath @flodnv

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[MelvinBot]

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

[johnmlee101]

We had this detailed in our Mentions doc

[puneetlath]

Here's what we have in the mentions doc:

• In order to make more space for handles, we will shorten the timestamp to be just the time (e.g. reduce it from “Yesterday at 10:57 AM” to just “10:57 AM”).
• We will then show the date using a date label, which signifies the date between chat messages in the chat body and floats above the content at the top of the screen, similar to how Slack and WhatsApp do.

[bionanek]

Hi there! I'm Jakub from Callstack - expert contributor group - and I would like to take a look at this task ☺️

[puneetlath]

Cool! Looking forward to your proposal.

[OlimpiaZurek]

Hi. I'm Olimpia from Callstack - expert contributor group - I would like to take over this task from Jakub :-)

[OlimpiaZurek]

@puneetlath Could you give me permissions to access the mention doc? Thanks!

[OlimpiaZurek]

And are there any figma designs that I can use to get colors, pixels, etc?

[puneetlath]

@OlimpiaZurek shared the Figma mock with you: https://www.figma.com/file/WtqVXdvroIWPLj3kgFI1nM/Mentions?type=design&node-id=569%3A22196&t=lf8A82kBsxrSGPfL-1

[puneetlath]

@OlimpiaZurek when do you think you'll be able to post a proposal?

[OlimpiaZurek]

@puneetlath I should be ready with a proposal next week. It's hard to say which day exactly because I'm also working on another issues. But I've already started working on a solution and have made a lot of progress. There are a few more things I need to figure out before I can post the proposal.

[puneetlath]

Ok great. Looking forward to it.

[puneetlath]

@OlimpiaZurek do you have an updated ETA?

[OlimpiaZurek]

Since I had to finish work on another topic, I went back to work on this one today, so I probably won't be ready with a proposal this week (as we also have a workshops on Friday). I'll keep you updated.

[puneetlath]

Ok. I'd love to get this done by the end of the month if possible.

[burczu]

Hey! It's Bartek from Callstack - expert contributor group - I'll take this issue over from Olimpia.

[puneetlath]

@burczu do you have an ETA on a proposal?

[dannymcclain]

@Expensify/design how do these fit in with the New messages pill? Do we already have that figured out? I hadn't thought of it until now.

[shawnborton]

Oh interesting, definitely didn't think of that either! Slack does it where the new message pill just replaces the date pill. I suppose we could do something similar?

[dannymcclain]

Oh yeah that could work.

[MrRefactor]

Oh interesting, definitely didn't think of that either! Slack does it where the new message pill just replaces the date pill. I suppose we could do something similar?

Implemented!

[MrRefactor]

PR ready for review

[melvin-bot]

This issue has not been updated in over 15 days. @puneetlath, @MrRefactor, @thesahindia eroding to Monthly issue.

P.S. Is everyone reading this sure this is really a near-term priority? Be brave: if you disagree, go ahead and close it out. If someone disagrees, they'll reopen it, and if they don't: one less thing to do!

[puneetlath]

Given focus, I think maybe it's best for us to just close this for now. We can always do it in the future if it becomes more of a priority. What do you think @Expensify/design @johnmlee101?

[johnmlee101]

Hard to say honestly, it feels like this has added a lot of unanticipated complexity, but I still find this to be a bit of a polish that breaks expectations from other chat applications. How much more work do we expect this to take?

[MrRefactor]

Its hard to say, as discussed with @puneetlath I removed "flowing" indicator, but after migration to typescript Im struggling with issues on ios/android native.

[dannymcclain]

I'm a bit torn, and curious for other design team members' thoughts. On the one hand this is definitely a nice quality-of-life improvement. On the other hand, since we include the date of each message posted, it's not critically necessary for determining "when you are" while looking at a chat.

[shawnborton]

I'm also quite torn... I do love how much it simplifies our message timestamps, but at the same time, we need to consider how this will work for threads, particularly our new thread ancestry style.

Maybe we would need to follow Slack's lead there and not use this style within threads, and only use it for rooms/DMs?

[dannymcclain]

we need to consider how this will work for threads, particularly our new thread ancestry style.

I had not even considered this inside threads 😳. Good point.

[dubielzyk-expensify]

Maybe we would need to follow Slack's lead there and not use this style within threads, and only use it for rooms/DMs?

Same. Hadn't considered that either, but I think your suggestion works well here @shawnborton .

I kinda feel like we should get this one done unless it's a huge lift. It's good quality of life and I worry that if we punt it, it'll be forgotten about. But I don't feel super strongly 😄

[puneetlath]

Ok sounds good. @MrRefactor what do you think it would take for you to get the v1 done?

[MrRefactor]

Ok sounds good. @MrRefactor what do you think it would take for you to get the v1 done?

Hey, right now Im fully occupied with react-native upgrade. As I finish it, I will work on v1.

[roryabraham]

thanks @MrRefactor, I think that's correct prioritization.

[MrMuzyk]

I am Michał from Callstack - expert contributor group. I've been asked to take over this issue since @MrRefactor is busy with RN upgrade :)

[puneetlath]

As discussed in the PR, we're going to set this aside for now and focus on other things as the implementation has been more complicated than expected and there are a lot of edge-cases to consider.