"You can't see earlier messages." appears in situations where room history is likely to be readable soon

[anoadragon453]

Your use case

What would you like to do?

When being invited to an encrypted room by a client that has implemented support for matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#3061 (such as Element Web), one should expect to receive history for that room if room's history settings allow for it.

Today, it takes some time (a couple minutes in most cases) for the message keys to arrive. element-hq/element-web#23778 will make this situation better, but while the user is waiting they will see the following message:

Users see this and assume they will never receive the encrypted messages, and are surprised when the messages do eventually pop in (element-hq/element-web#23093) with no warning or notification.

I propose that Element shows a different message to the user if:

1. the room history is configured such that room history should be shared, and
2. the user was invited to the room (this can be dropped when MSCs such as MSC3917: Cryptographically Constrained Room Membership matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#3917 allow for other devices in the room to trust the newly added one(s)).

Element could say something along the lines of: "Waiting for earlier messages" with the subtitle "Older messages in this room are encrypted, and may take some time to appear."

Why would you like to do it?

The current UX does not prompt users to check the room again later to see if message history has been fetched.

Have you considered any alternatives?

No response

Additional context

Only some clients implement MSC3061 today. In cases that an inviting client does not, then message history will never be decrypted.

It's important to communicate to the user that while we are waiting for message history to be decrypted, it's possible that it never will be. Arguably message history for encrypted rooms should always be shared in the future as clients and the spec develops.

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Originally filed as https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/23795, then moved here.

Are you willing to provide a PR?

Yes

[anoadragon453]

This issue was duplicated. See #838 instead.

[anoadragon453]

@kittykat The automation CI for this issue failed FYI https://github.com/vector-im/element-meta/actions/runs/3499037929