"Start chat" doesn't start a new chat any more, but reuses an existing one

element-hq / element-web

A glossy Matrix collaboration client for the web.

https://element.io

Apache License 2.0

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"Start chat" doesn't start a new chat any more, but reuses an existing one #11809

Closed jomat closed 4 years ago

jomat commented 4 years ago

Description

We are starting new direct chats with other users for a number of reasons quite often. Since a while, an existing one is used instead of a new one being started.

Steps to reproduce

click the + button next to "People"
enter some user name
click start chat
repeat the steps above a second time

Expectation: Have two or more chats with the same user Result: Have one chat with the user

Workaround: Create a new room, set it to direct chat, invite the person, give the person PL 100, remove the room name (in the hope the user name will be displayed, what doesn't work always) and so on…

Version information

Platform: web (in-browser) For the web app:
Browser: Firefox 70.0.1
OS: Linux
URL: riot.asra.gr

t3chguy commented 4 years ago

This is intentional in preparation for https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2199

jomat commented 4 years ago

Would it be possible to have an option to choose between creating a new chat or reuse one of the existing ones?

t3chguy commented 4 years ago

That was the previous behaviour, as linked above the future in Matrix brings Canonical DMs where you have only exactly one DM with each person so no it will not be possible in the future, this DM will be used for things like cryptographic verifications and such

jomat commented 4 years ago

Ok, thanks for clarification and improving stuff :-) I'll miss that feature :-(

t3chguy commented 4 years ago

I'll miss that feature :-(

Me too :'(

turt2live commented 4 years ago

Do either of you have a rationale for wanting to do that? The spec is obviously not final and if there's compelling reasons to not go forward with it then now is the time to raise those reasons.

jomat commented 4 years ago

Right now: Messages couldn't be sent, clicking on "Resend all" didn't work. Closing the broken chat to open a new one would have resulted in losing history. In general: Sometimes DMs break in different ways, having a second room comes in handy.

Other times:

often discussing different topics and projects in different 1:1 chats
sometimes starting a 1:1 chat and inviting a third person that is also affected by the same topic - this probably also won't work anymore with the current idea of canonical DMs?
having encrypted and unencrypted DMs for different sets of trusted and untrusted devices

The concept of having direct messages as rooms with some special settings brings a lot of flexibility and it's a loss if it is abandoned.

jomat commented 4 years ago

Hit the wrong button, didn't want to reopen it :-/