Fix attendees selection to allow names instead of email or phone only && bug fixes

[lakchote]

Explanation of Change

Undoes the revert of #77995

And fixes these issues:

• [Due for payment 2025-12-31] Expense - Recents section only shows attendee added on confirm page and not in expense thread #78224
• [Due for payment 2025-12-31] Expense - Attendee remains selected and duplicated each time clicking on the selected attendee #78221
• [Due for payment 2025-12-31] Expense - Irrelevant result appears when typing name in Attendee field #78223
• [Due for payment 2025-12-31] Expense - Attendee added is shown as hidden #78238

Allowing plain-text attendee names (shouldAcceptName=true) exposed a bug where the optimistic “user to invite” option used an empty login for non email/phone inputs; this broke selection/dedup and display logic.

This PR fixes it by using the typed searchValue as the option login (the only stable identifier for name-only attendees), centralizing basic </> validation, and falling back to displayName when an attendee has no email.

Fixed Issues

$ #77993
PROPOSAL:

Tests

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Preconditon:

• Rules are enabled.
• Attendee tracking is enabled in Rules.

Test 1: standard flow

1. Go to a Control plan workspace
2. Create a new Submit expense or Track expense
3. Fill in amount and required fields
4. Tap on the Attendees field
5. Type a plain name like "Jeff Amazon"
6. Verify the invite option appears for "Jeff Amazon"
7. Select the plain name attendee
8. Verify the attendee is added and displays correctly
9. Save the expense and verify the attendee persists

test1.mov

Test 2: recents section shows attendee added on confirm page and also in expense thread

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Click + > Create expense > Manual.
4. Enter amount > Next.
5. On confirm page, click Attendee field.
6. Enter name (not email), select it and save it.
7. Click Create expense.
8. Open the expense thread.
9. Click Attendee field.
10. Enter name, select it and save it.
11. Go back to workspace chat.
12. Click + > Create expense > Manual.
13. Enter amount > Next.
14. On confirm page, click Attendee field.

Expected Result:

Recents section will show attendees added on confirm page (Step 6) and attendee added in transaction thread (Step 10).

test2.mov

Test 3: Attendee is unselected when clicking on the selected attendee

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Click + > Create expense > Manual.
4. Enter amount > Next.
5. On confirm page, click Attendee field.
6. Enter any name (not email), select it and save it.
7. Create the expense.
8. Open expense report.
9. Click Attendee field.
10. Click on the selected attendee from Step 6.

Expected Result:

The attendee will be unselected.

test3.mov

Test 4: Irrelevant result does not appear when typing name in Attendee field

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Click + > Create expense > Manual.
4. Enter amount > Next.
5. On confirm page, click Attendee field.
6. Enter name (not email) and select it.
7. Enter another name (not email) and select it.
8. Click Save.
9. Create the expense.
10. Click + > Create expense > Manual.
11. Enter amount > Next.
12. On confirm page, click Attendee field.
13. Enter any name that does not match the name in Step 6 and 7.

Expected Result:

Irrelevant result will be filtered out when typing name in Attendee field.

test4.mov

Test 5: Verify attendees names with special characters (< >) are not selectable

1. Launch app
2. Go to workspace chat
3. Tap + > Create expense > Manual
4. Enter amount > Next
5. Tap create expense
6. Open the expense
7. Tap Attendee field
8. Enter < any name >

Expected Result:

You should not be able to select it

test5.mov

Offline tests

NA

QA Steps

// TODO: These must be filled out, or the issue title must include "[No QA]."

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Same as in tests

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ Changes either increased or maintained existing code coverage, great job!

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/hooks/useSearchSelector.base.ts	20.63% <ø> (ø)
src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts	73.25% <80.00%> (+0.20%)	⬆️
...pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx	0.00% <0.00%> (ø)
... and 10 files with indirect coverage changes

[melvin-bot]

@jjcoffee Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[lakchote]

@jjcoffee assigning @eVoloshchak since he reviewed the original PR #77995

[eVoloshchak]

Reviewer Checklist

• I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
• I verified the correct issue is linked in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I verified testing steps are clear and they cover the changes made in this PR
  • I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
  • I verified the steps for Staging and/or Production testing are in the QA steps section
  • I verified the steps cover any possible failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
• I checked that screenshots or videos are included for tests on all platforms
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  • I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick).
  • I verified that comments were added to code that is not self explanatory
  • I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
  • I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
  • I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
  • I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
  • I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
  • I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
• If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
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• I verified other components that can be impacted by these changes have been tested, and I retested again (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar have been tested & I retested again)
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  • The file is named correctly
  • The component has a clear name that is non-ambiguous and the purpose of the component can be inferred from the name alone
  • The only data being stored in the state is data necessary for rendering and nothing else
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  • Any internal methods bound to this are necessary to be bound (i.e. avoid this.submit = this.submit.bind(this); if this.submit is never passed to a component event handler like onClick)
  • All JSX used for rendering exists in the render method
  • The component has the minimum amount of code necessary for its purpose, and it is broken down into smaller components in order to separate concerns and functions
• If any new file was added I verified that:
  • The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
• If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
  • A similar style doesn't already exist
  • The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(theme.componentBG)
• If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
• If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-01-09.at.16.30.20.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

Screen.Recording.2026-01-09.at.16.33.11.mov

iOS: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-01-09.at.16.23.38.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-01-09.at.16.26.53.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-01-09.at.16.19.14.mov

[trjExpensify]

@dubielzyk-expensify @dannymcclain - can be considered polish if this PR is good to go otherwise, but I think it would be nice to use default avatars instead of grey fallbacks here for these external attendees. I also wonder about the duplicate supporting text for the primaryLogin, and whether we should just hide that:

[trjExpensify]

No qualms from product, this feature should have existed with the original imp of attendee tracking! 👍

[dannymcclain]

I think it would be nice to use default avatars instead of grey fallbacks here for these external attendees

Yeah, I think that could be nice but I agree it can be follow-up polish. The only weird thing is that by giving them an avatar, it looks like they actually have an account, which they don't... So maybe it would actually be better to leave them as a placeholder?

I also wonder about the duplicate supporting text for the primaryLogin, and whether we should just hide that

Yeah, for these, since they're not really accounts, I can see the argument for just hiding the supporting text. Could definitely be a follow up.

Otherwise this is looking good to me. cc @dubielzyk-expensify

[eVoloshchak]

LGTM!

When performing Test 2 I noticed that recents aren't sorted in chronological order, which means after you have a few (4+), the most recent ones are not at the top and not visible
This isn't related to this PR and is the current behavior on staging, but I wonder if this is expected

[melvin-bot]

@MarioExpensify Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[dubielzyk-expensify]

Yeah, I think that could be nice but I agree it can be follow-up polish. The only weird thing is that by giving them an avatar, it looks like they actually have an account, which they don't... So maybe it would actually be better to leave them as a placeholder?

Exactly. I've had this gripe before and I believe we had this before we changed it. I pretty strongly think we should show the grey avatar if a user doesn't have an account yet since we assign the default avatars when they create an account.

Yeah, for these, since they're not really accounts, I can see the argument for just hiding the supporting text. Could definitely be a follow up.

I lean on keeping it just because that's consistent with how we show email addresses twice on accounts without names. No massive feels though.

[lakchote]

@MarioExpensify could you please review the PR when you can? Thanks!

[MarioExpensify]

LGTM!! Moving forward!

[OSBotify]

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

[OSBotify]

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/MarioExpensify in version: 9.3.0-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

[OSBotify]

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/francoisl in version: 9.3.0-8 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅