Notification preference: return hidden if empty

[s77rt]

Explanation of Change

If user has no notification preference set (i.e. empty) then return hidden which is the default.

Fixed Issues

$ #63355
PROPOSAL:

Tests

1. Create FAB and create a group chat
2. Go offline
3. Click + then Split expense
4. Go to a different chat
5. Verify the group chat is still displayed in LHN

Screen.Recording.2026-01-02.at.1.05.20.AM.mov

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

Same as Tests

QA Steps

Same as Tests

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

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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  • I added steps to cover 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)
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

[melvin-bot]

@truph01 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]

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/libs/ReportUtils.ts	73.05% <100.00%> (-0.03%)	⬇️

... and 24 files with indirect coverage changes

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[truph01]

Reviewer Checklist

• I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
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  • 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
• I included screenshots or videos 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)
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• 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.
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-01-16.at.14.56.36.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-01-16.at.14.55.33.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-01-16.at.14.53.48.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-01-16.at.14.51.40.mov

[truph01]

@s77rt Could you help merge main?

[s77rt]

Merged main

[truph01]

@s77rt
The NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCE constant is currently defined to include only these four values:

App/src/CONST/index.ts

Lines 1489 to 1494 in e94f05d

	NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCE: {
	MUTE: 'mute',
	DAILY: 'daily',
	ALWAYS: 'always',
	HIDDEN: 'hidden',
	},

However, in the case of this bug, as you can see, a "" (empty string) value appears.
Do you think we should:

1. Add "" to NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCE, or
2. Ensure on the backend that a notification preference with the value "" is never returned?

[s77rt]

Hmm actually yeah I think 2 makes the most sense. I will need to double check that

[s77rt]

Closing this in favor of https://github.com/Expensify/Auth/pull/19321. Thanks @truph01

[s77rt]

Actually we can't just stop sending "" because we need to send something still when a notification preference is updated e.g. if we are updating user pref to hidden from always, then we'd send nothing and the notification pref would be always still.

[s77rt]

@truph01 Can you please continue test/review the PR as is

[truph01]

The PR looks good. @QichenZhu, would you mind taking a look at this PR since you are C+ for the original issue?

[QichenZhu]

Is this expected? After clearing the cache, the group chat disappeared from the LHN.

Screen.Recording.2026-02-02.at.8.28.04.PM.mov

[neil-marcellini]

(Neil's AI Agent)

LGTM! The fix correctly handles the case where notificationPreference is an empty string by using || instead of ??. The empty string should be treated as falsy and default to hidden, which is the expected behavior. Good unit test coverage as well.

Neil

I have manually reviewed this PR as well.

[s77rt]

@QichenZhu Interesting! I think that could be a backend issue, it seems that the report is seen as empty since no report action is returned. But I also see a 1:1 chat but is displayed in LHN still. I will handle this separately so let's not block on this

[s77rt]

But I also see a 1:1 chat but is displayed in LHN still

So for 1:1 we create the IOU split action and also a report preview (for your split share) which is returned in OpenApp (since it's a parent of another report) while group chats only have IOU action

[neil-marcellini]

Merged with the PR reviewer checklist action pending since it was previously fully posted.

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🍎 iOS 🍎	cancelled 🔪

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