Pinned Messages QA

[kongo09]

@daniellekirkwood is moving the actions to other tickets so we can break this down into tasks for the team. Updated each section with the associated action. Questions in comments :)

Steps to reproduce

I spent some time with pinned messages to QA them.

Outcome

• [x] Developer Options Wording Not relevant, this flag will disappear

• Currently: Pinned Events

• Should this turn into a user setting, the term Events is more associated with a meeting event than with anything that can be pinned.

• Recommendation: Don't turn this into a user setting but make it default. If we use it as a setting, call it Pinned Messages

• [x] Power Level - feedback logged, https://github.com/element-hq/element-internal/issues/618

• Currently: requires Admin level

• this feels unfamiliar, as in WhatsApp anyone can pin a message in a group, not only an admin

• Recommendation: Would it make sense that the Admin setting would be something along the lines of "Only Admins can pin messages" with the default of "off"?

• [ ] Visibility - needs retesting, can't reproduce

• Currently: on EAX 0.5.3-nightly after getting admin rights and pinning the first message, the message is not visible in the room.

• Expected: message should be visible right away

• Workaround: leave the room and come back. Pinned message shows up then

• [x] Show All - verified in comments, it now works

• Currently: on EAX 0.5.3-nightl the "Show All" button doesn't work and does nothing

• Expected: list is shown

• Workaround: go to the room details and enter list there

• Update: now seems to work? Maybe something changed? Maybe flaky?

• Currently: the text for "show all" is taking a lot of attention and space in the pinned messages bar, which makes the pinned messages preview even less useful

• Recommendation: can we replace this text with a simple icon (like an eye or a zoom out or whatever)?

• [x] Pinned Messages List Senders - verified in comments, it works as expected, feedback logged https://github.com/element-hq/element-internal/issues/618

• Currently: Messages don't show sender

• Expected: Messages are displayed pretty much the same way they show in the timeline with a sender

• [x] Pinned Messages List Action Feedback logged https://github.com/element-hq/element-internal/issues/618

• Currently: Single tap on pinned messages does nothing

• Expected: View in timeline

• Workaround: Long tap to get context menu and tap "view in timeline" there

• [ ] View in timeline Action - needs further discussion (in Element)

• Currently: App jumps to timeline and scrolls around but not to the actual pinned message

• Expected: The pinned message is seen as the top message in the timeline

• Workaround: none

• [x] German translation https://github.com/element-hq/element-internal/issues/625

• Currently: pinned messages top bar says "1 of n Angepinnte Nachrichten"

• Expected: "1 of n angepinnte Nachrichten" (no capital A)

• Currently: headline of all messages view is "n pinned messages"

• Expected: "n angepinnte Nachrichten"

• Currently: pinned messages use "pin" and "unpin" in German. That's unusual at best.

• Expected: use WhatsApp translation "fixieren" for pin and "lösen" for unpin

Your phone model

Pixel 8a

Operating system version

Android 14

Application version and app store

0.5.3-nightly

Homeserver

element.io

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[daniellekirkwood]

Developer Options Wording

Irrelevant, it will not be a flag for users. It will be on. They can choose not to use it

[daniellekirkwood]

Power Level

Moderators and Administrators can pin messages. We've discussed changing the default access level but it is out of scope at this time. We cannot use WhatsApp for a benchmark in this case as WhatsApp limits the number of users in one room - we must be careful to not allow a spam vector.

We've identified this as something we will keep an eye on and iterate on in the future.

On Web, users may change the power setting so that all users in that room can pin a message. So this is non-blocking

[daniellekirkwood]

Show All

@kongo09 can you confirm it works on the latest version? I think you may have tested this before it was complete. I believe the fix has landed

Currently: the text for "show all" is taking a lot of attention and space in the pinned messages bar, which makes the pinned messages preview even less useful. Recommendation: can we replace this text with a simple icon (like an eye or a zoom out or whatever)?

Will add this to the feedback issue and discuss it with the team. It's not a blocker for launch.

[daniellekirkwood]

Pinned Messages List Senders Currently: Messages don't show sender

@kongo09 this should only be the case in DMs (rooms with one other person). Can you test and confirm please?

[kongo09]

@kongo09 can you confirm it works on the latest version? I think you may have tested this before it was complete. I believe the fix has landed

tried again just now, et voila, it works

[kongo09]

@kongo09 this should only be the case in DMs (rooms with one other person). Can you test and confirm please?

tried again just now and you're right, this works as expected

[daniellekirkwood]

Visibility: Currently on EAX 0.5.3-nightly after getting admin rights and pinning the first message, the message is not visible in the room.

We can't reproduce this - we think it might have something to do with the 'hide on scroll' implementation. Would you test again and scroll in the room before leaving and coming back to see if that works?

If it doesn't, we will need more info on this one...

[daniellekirkwood]

Pinned Messages List Action Currently: Single tap on pinned messages does nothing

Does Single tap on the timeline bring up the context menu?

[daniellekirkwood]

View in timeline Action Currently: App jumps to timeline and scrolls around but not to the actual pinned message Expected: The pinned message is seen as the top message in the timeline

I believe we've used the same behaviour as when you link to a message so it shouldn't be right at the top. The message should have some sort of highlight on it though -- that's now an open task, it's not blocking to the first release but we'll try to get it in any way.

[daniellekirkwood]

Translations -- Thank you! Will ask the team to update!

[kongo09]

Does Single tap on the timeline bring up the context menu?

obviously not and that's not what I would expect. I would expect that a single tap in the "all messages" list jumps to the timeline. This is the same behaviour that the somewhat similar "starred messages" list in WhatsApp has (and that I would also expect form a similar starred messages list in Element, once we get there).

[daniellekirkwood]

@kongo09 Will research but the banner already takes you to the message in the timeline so this feels duplicative to me. Also on WhatsApp iOS the Starred messages has a button that makes it clear that one-tap will take you somewhere... I don't think this is a blocker to launch, have added to the iteration feedback issue! Thanks

[kongo09]

I think we're talking past each other. The banner in the timeline (on Android) is also leading to some random place in the timeline, but I was talking about single tapping on a pinned message in the "all pinned messages" list

[daniellekirkwood]

You sent me a video and that's helped a lot - now working with the team how we address the pieces!