[Pay 29/4] [$250] HIGH: [Polish] Combine image attachment with the unsent composed message

[quinthar]

Problem:

Today when you upload an image while a message is drafted in the compose window, it:

1. Sends whatever is drafted
2. Sends a 2nd message containing only the image

This means that even if the two are conceptually related (ie, the comment is describing the image), it will be forked into separate reactions, and have separate threads.

Solution

Rather than sending images as a totally separate message, combine the message and the attachment into a single message, such that it gets the same reactions and are part of the same thread.

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @bfitzexpensify

[roryabraham]

Personally I think this issue kind of "beats around the bush" – I would love to see our efforts spent towards building full support for inline images in messages, GitHub-style, with image previews inlined in react-native-live-markdown.

[jeremy-croff]

Personally I think this issue kind of "beats around the bush" – I would love to see our efforts spent towards building full support for inline images in messages, GitHub-style, with image previews inlined in react-native-live-markdown.

Is this really how our customers would use it?
Slack for example does not have inline images in messages, cause it's just chat. This allows the full image to be previewed that's attached without it being cumbersome for the content your typing.

Jira and GitHub have inline messages, where the image is converted with the upload path because it's used for steps and detailed information, it's like a whole mini text editor. I think those use cases are more prosumer, rather than consumer.

[roryabraham]

My opinion is that the inline image support offered by GitHub and Jira is superior in every way to the way images are handled by Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc...

Those platforms don't make it any easier to add images to a message. The only advantage over GitHub for example is that you don't have to switch to the Preview tab to see how the image looks in your final message. But that limitation won't apply in New Expensify.

I believe that the inline image experience I'm proposing would be better than any of the other platforms we've listed here and as such would be a differentiating factor in our chat platform.

[quinthar]

I agree with @roryabraham -- this is just a step in that direction. A more complete plan is here: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C01GTK53T8Q/p1708849229702429?thread_ts=1707270017.261459&cid=C01GTK53T8Q

[quinthar]

I think we should start with this to fix our current image support, but I agree we should add true inline image support -- and ultimately, large object support as well. But that's a bigger project that probably warrants a design doc, this is more low hanging fruit.

[tgolen]

I confirmed a few things via Slack, and it sounds like this is the detailed path to move forward on this issue:

• When a comment is made that has both an attachment and a text comment
• Upload the file as normal
• Retrieve it's URL
• Format the URL like the HTML that results from the Markdown code from HIGH: [Polish] Add support for inline image Markdown #37246
• Add that HTML at the end of the text comment instead of creating a separate report action

[quinthar]

#37246 is on staging; I'm taking this off hold! @tgolen can you give an ETA for when you can take it up?