Expense - Report RHP re-renders every time clicking Create expense

[lanitochka17]

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Version Number: 9.3.37-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #82764
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): biruknew45+yh6g@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Web
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition -
Have a report with a couple of expenses(at least two)

1. Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
2. Go to the workspace chat
3. Open the expenses Preview
4. Click on "+" > Create Expense

Expected Result:

The report RHP should remain stable when clicking Create expense

Actual Result:

Clicking on Create expense triggers a re-render of the report RHP

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7101658_1773359247469.bandicam_2026-03-13_02-45-46-516.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @GCyganek

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #82764

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[github-actions]

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[OSBotify]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #82764 - "Freeze non top screens to prevent extra-rerenders" by @VickyStash (High confidence)
Related Issues: #33725, #9402

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #82764 introduced screen freezing to prevent unnecessary re-renders of non-visible screens. However, this is causing the report RHP to re-render when clicking "Create expense" because the navigation triggers the freeze/unfreeze mechanism on the underlying screen.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash (this blocks the App deploy). DeployBlocker was not present on this issue, so no label changes are needed.

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• The issue is reproducible only in staging (v9.3.37-0), not in production
• PR Freeze non top screens to prevent extra-rerenders #82764 was merged on 2026-03-12 and is included in the staging deploy checklist
• The issue was reported on Web platform, which uses the split navigator
• Melvin-bot correctly identified PR Freeze non top screens to prevent extra-rerenders #82764 as the suspected cause

Verification

The causing PR modified:

• src/libs/Navigation/AppNavigator/createSplitNavigator/index.tsx - Added freezeNonTopScreens: true
• src/libs/Navigation/PlatformStackNavigation/createPlatformStackNavigatorComponent/index.tsx - Implemented screen freezing logic
• src/libs/Navigation/PlatformStackNavigation/createPlatformStackNavigatorComponent/ScreenFreezeWrapper.tsx - New wrapper component for freezing

These files directly control navigation and screen rendering behavior in the split navigator (used on web).

Root Cause

When the user clicks "Create expense" from the expense preview, the app navigates to a new screen. This causes the underlying report RHP to become "not on top" in the navigation stack. The screen freezing mechanism then:

1. Detects the report RHP is no longer the top screen (isOnTop = false)
2. Triggers the ScreenFreezeWrapper to freeze the screen
3. The freeze/unfreeze transition causes the visible re-render that users are experiencing

The issue occurs specifically on web because:

• The split navigator (with freezeNonTopScreens: true) is used on web layouts
• The RHP remains visible in the background while the new screen opens
• The freeze state change triggers a render that is visually apparent to users