First predesign questions:

• How should we show these?

  • I suggest we just show a new section in selection lists titled Invite to Expensify, styled the same as the existing Recents and Contacts sections:
  

• Should we try to support web?

  • I suggest no (for the V1, anyways). There's an experimental ContactsManager web API, but it only works on Android atm. Furthermore, it doesn't support importing all contacts and displaying them using our own UI. Instead, it's more like what we have in OldApp that pulls up the native contacts app and allows you to select contacts to import.

• Should we try to support desktop?

  • I suggest yes. It may be a bit involved to set up, but fortunately our needs should be pretty simple. It might look something like this:
    • Use the same Swift code to access contacts on macOS and iOS. CNContactsStore works on both.
    • Use the same C code on iOS and macOS to create C bindings for the swift code
    • (here's where things start to differ) on desktop, create a Node.js addon with JS bindings to the C /Swift code
    • Require the Node.js addon in desktop/main.ts
    • Use the Electron context bridge to provide a renderer process interface for the Node.js code that can be used to access contacts

• Should we use a library for this?

  • There are a couple of options, such as react-native-contacts and expo-contacts. However, because the native code should be quite simple and none of the existing solutions support (or would be expected to support) Electron, I suggest we just create our own small library for this.

posted first predesign (saving library/implementation details for a 2nd predesign):

https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C01GTK53T8Q/p1724440169163019

Posted here, but I don't think this is a project for #wave-collect.

Moved to #f1-25june2025

Predesigns two and three:

• https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C01GTK53T8Q/p1724788943149429
• https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C01GTK53T8Q/p1725403445145239

Summarizing all of our predesign decisions and getting this ready for handoff:

• When revealing users imported from contacts which aren't yet an Expensify contact, we'll show them just like any other user. We won't draw any additional attention to the fact that they don't yet have an Expensify account, and won't introduce a new Invite section to selection lists
• Every time SelectionList mounts, we'll:
  • verify we have permission to access contacts.
    • If the user has given permission to access contacts, proceed to the next step.
    • unless the user has explicitly denied permission, request permission to access contacts, then proceed to the next step
  • import all phonebook contacts, include them in the SelectionList result set
• If a user has explicitly denied permission to access contacts, and have entered a search query which yields no results, then instead of simply showing No results found, we would show:
  Not seeing who you're looking for? Want to [import your phonebook contacts](link)?
• Only iOS and Android are in-scope for the V1. I think the V2 can target desktop as well, maybe web in a (distant) V3 if the web API improves.
• We should show a user's contact photo when searching for them and they don't yet an Expensify account.
• If they do have an Expensify account, but their Expensify account is using a default avatar, and your phonebook contact has an avatar for them, then we should show your phonebook avatar for the user rather than their default Expensify avatar
• Let's also roll-our-own small amount of native code for this directly in E/App rather than using or publishing a separate package. Let's use Nitro Modules for this native code.

last slack update: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C035J5C9FAP/p1726770468190059?thread_ts=1725380343.339199&cid=C035J5C9FAP

👋🏻

You can use https://github.com/s77rt/react-native-contacts (a Turbo Module) for reference

@perunt how is the PR going? Can you you give us an update?

hey @blimpich, we just finished fixing the Nitro issue (the library we use for this module). Tomorrow, I'm going to show some metrics about it and move that module to the Expensify repo

Sounds great! Thank you for the update 👍

I think you're good to go now. Please make sure this is tested locally against HybridApp builds though, as any new issues with the build process could block App development just as we are OOO for the holidays.

I've tested it on my end. @DylanDylann also finished his testing. So I think we're good to go, @blimpich.

I have to wait to merge unfortunately. We're having a fire right now related to our hybrid app (just sprung up this morning) and merging a big PR is likely going to get reverted again. I'll try to get it in this week and confirm that it won't get reverted again, but probably won't happen today.

By the way, I’d be happy to help with this as well. We have some extra cycles at Margelo, so feel free to reach out if you need anything!

Merged again. Hoping this time nothing happens to get it reverted 🤞🍀

Merged again. Hoping this time nothing happens to get it reverted 🤞🍀

Hey all, I just wanted to check this was tested on HybridApp iOS and Android?

As C reviewer, I only test on Newdot

Hey @Julesssss
I don’t have access to the hybrid app repo yet. Maybe I can run it through a GitHub Action and test it out?

Hey Ben, can you let me know what the updated payment date should be on this if it was reverted? @blimpich

Hey all, I just wanted to check this was tested on HybridApp iOS and Android?

It was not, sorry @Julesssss I completely blanked on checking that 😞. You very clearly asked to have us check that, that is 100% my bad.

Hey Ben, can you let me know what the updated payment date should be on this if it was reverted?

@zanyrenney if this doesn't get reverted again (it might), then December 25th would be the pay out date I believe.

Payment Summary

Upwork Job

• Contributor: @perunt is from an agency-contributor and not due payment
• ROLE: @DylanDylann paid $(AMOUNT) via Upwork (LINK)

BugZero Checklist (@zanyrenney)

• I have verified the correct assignees and roles are listed above and updated the neccesary manual offers
• I have verified that there are no duplicate or incorrect contracts on Upwork for this job (https://www.upwork.com/ab/applicants//hired)
• I have paid out the Upwork contracts or cancelled the ones that are incorrect
• I have verified the payment summary above is correct

It was not, sorry @Julesssss I completely blanked on checking that 😞. You very clearly asked to have us check that, that is 100% my bad.

Yeah the problem is that it's not compatible with Hybrid App right now and it might not be too easy to fix since we don't have much knowledge of the internals of Nitro Modules. We'll try to make it work though 🚀

Yeah it's pretty difficult for anyone to test right now. Especially just after the submodule change and other build issues 😭

@zanyrenney we ended up reverting again fyi.

@perunt @DylanDylann work is being done to make it so that you can test Hybrid App in the near future, but lots of Expensify Engineers are taking time off this time of year so we might have to wait till January. We're close to getting working ad-hoc builds here, so hopefully that can be used soon.

Will keep you updated on adding you to the Mobile-Expensify repo. Takes time. We're revamping some internal processes to make this easier in the future. Sorry about all the reverts 😢

@perunt no rush, but when you get a chance can you re-raise the PR?

In the meantime, I'm going to change this to weekly cadence.

Okay, I'm going to open it again. It's funny how many times it has been reverted, especially since there's no direct issue with the PR 🥲
This time, we’ll definitely get it merged 😸

Will keep you updated on adding you to the Mobile-Expensify repo. Takes time. We're revamping some internal processes to make this easier in the future. Sorry about all the reverts 😢

It will make things easier, thank you!

Payment Summary

Upwork Job

• Contributor: @perunt is from an agency-contributor and not due payment
• ROLE: @DylanDylann paid $(AMOUNT) via Upwork (LINK)

BugZero Checklist (@zanyrenney)

• I have verified the correct assignees and roles are listed above and updated the neccesary manual offers
• I have verified that there are no duplicate or incorrect contracts on Upwork for this job (https://www.upwork.com/ab/applicants//hired)
• I have paid out the Upwork contracts or cancelled the ones that are incorrect
• I have verified the payment summary above is correct

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.0.78-6 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• Revert "Revert "Contacts import"" #54209

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2025-01-02. 🎊

For reference, here are some details about the assignees on this issue:

• @perunt does not require payment (Contractor)
• @DylanDylann requires payment (Needs manual offer from BZ)

BugZero Checklist: The PR adding this new feature has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed:

• [@DylanDylann] Please propose regression test steps to ensure the new feature will work correctly on production in further releases.
• [@zanyrenney] Link the GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.