Chat - Imported contact list name is not shown in the expense

[applause-bot]

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Version Number: 9.4.20-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #91395
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): testpayment935@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Pull Request QA execution
Device used: Samsung s10/ Android 12
App Component: Chat Report View

Action Performed:

1. Open Expensify app
2. Open the create-expense flow and grant contacts permission when prompted.
3. After observing the imported contacts list, choose one with a name
4. Create the expense

Expected Result:

After create an expense by selecting a contact, recipient name appears correctly throughout the flow.

Actual Result:

The recipient name disappeared after creating the expense in the header and expense detail page.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7191466_1782427309313.Screen_Recording_20260626_013105_Expensify.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Mita Rachim
Bug ID: 7191466

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #91395

[melvin-bot]

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

[applause-bot]

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[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.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

PR #91395 fixed the name display only on the selection/confirmation side. The imported contact's name is carried on participant.text / participant.firstName / participant.lastName (set by getParticipantsOption) — but never on participant.displayName.

When the expense is actually created, the recipient's name is lost in two independent places:

1. The contact's name is never persisted to Onyx. The optimistic personal detail written during creation reads only participant.displayName (undefined for device contacts), so it falls back to the phone login. participant.text / firstName / lastName — where the name actually is — are never read. See MoneyRequestBuilder.ts:1531-1542.

2. Even a persisted name would be ignored. The header and expense detail page resolve the recipient name purely via an accountID → Onyx allPersonalDetails lookup (getReportName → getDisplayNameForParticipant), which short-circuits to the formatted login (phone number) for any record flagged isOptimisticPersonalDetail: true — ReportUtils.ts:3534-3536.

That's why the name shows in the list/confirmation step but reverts to the phone number in the header and detail page once the expense is created.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Both break points are in Expensify/App, so this is fixable here:

1. In getMoneyRequestInformation, build the optimistic personal detail from the contact's actual name — fall back through participant.text / participant.firstName / participant.lastName (not just participant.displayName) — and persist firstName/lastName plus a real displayName.
2. Either stop flagging the imported contact's record as isOptimisticPersonalDetail (so the name resolves normally), or adjust the short-circuit at ReportUtils.ts:3534-3536 to prefer a real display name when one exists before falling back to the formatted login. Step 1 alone is not sufficient without this.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Carrying participant.text through to the header/detail render path instead of relying on the Onyx lookup — rejected as more invasive, since those views are intentionally accountID-driven and would diverge from how every other report resolves names.

Investigation details & data flow

1. User selects imported contact → name on participant.text / firstName / lastName, displayName unset (OptionsListUtils/index.ts:349-360).
2. Confirmation step renders the option's text, so the name shows correctly (IOURequestStepConfirmation.tsx:253-268).
3. On confirm, the same participant (name in .text, no displayName) is forwarded unchanged into creation (TrackExpense.ts:1690-1692).
4. Break Some initial fixes and code style updates #1: optimistic detail built from participant.displayName || payerEmail → phone number; text/firstName/lastName ignored (MoneyRequestBuilder.ts:1531-1542), written to PERSONAL_DETAILS_LIST with isOptimisticPersonalDetail: true.
5. Header → AvatarWithDisplayName → getReportName → getDisplayNameForParticipant({accountID}); detail page's "From" field uses getReportName(parentReport) (MoneyRequestView.tsx:1064-1068).
6. Break Fix spaces #2: getDisplayNameForParticipant returns the formatted login for optimistic records (ReportUtils.ts:3534-3536) → phone number displayed.

Related issue: #91150 — the original "contact names not displayed in contact list" issue that PR #91395 fixed. Same feature, but a distinct break point (list display vs. post-creation persistence); not a duplicate.

Confidence: High — every link in the chain is confirmed by direct code reading, and this is a deterministic client-side data-flow bug (no logs needed). The fact that PR #91395 only touched the selection/confirmation display path exactly explains why the name shows during selection but not after creation.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team:
To accept: @MelvinBot implement [this](https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/94644) to create a draft PR.
To refine: @MelvinBot <your feedback>
To reject: Explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.

[aswin-s]

@MonilBhavsar @mitarachim

This isn't a regression introduced by PR #91395, and it's outside the scope of the original issue (#91150).

PR #91395 fixed the contact name display in the selection/contact list and confirmation step — that was the entirety of issue #91150. It only touched the display path (OptionsListUtils, PersonalDetailOptionsListUtils, IOURequestStepConfirmation).

The problem reported here is different: the name disappears in the report header and expense detail page after the expense is created. That's a separate break point in code the PR never touched:

1. MoneyRequestBuilder.ts builds the optimistic personal detail from participant.displayName || payerEmail — for device contacts the name lives on .text/.firstName/.lastName, so the phone number gets persisted.
2. getDisplayNameForParticipant in ReportUtils.ts short-circuits to the formatted login for any record flagged isOptimisticPersonalDetail: true, so the post-creation report view always renders the phone number.

Neither of these is part of the original issue or this PR's scope, so this should be tracked as a separate follow-up rather than a deploy blocker on #91395.