Bugs in chat image picker

[ulisesmac]

Bug Report

Problem

The image picker when trying to attach an image load very slowly, also it repeats a portion of images on large albums (let's say with 200+ pics).

When the user switches to another album, some photos from the old album are still there

Expected behavior

Properly list the pics and perform better

Actual behavior

Pics cycle and are displayed across albums, also the perf is low (tested on Android)

Reproduction

1. Open a chat
2. Try to attach an image from an album with multiple pics (200+)

Additional Information

• Status version: 2.33 (from Playstore)
• Operating System: Android

I cannot share a video with the reproduction because it shows many private files, but I'd highly appreciate a quick check from @status-im/mobile-qa to confirm this issue is reproducible by them

[ilmotta]

@churik when possible, could the QA team verify this issue exists and provide more details on top of what @ulisesmac already shared? Since this is a common user journey in the app and one with high expectations of working like other messengers, it would be good to understand its impact for prioritization purposes. Thanks

[pavloburykh]

@churik when possible, could the QA team verify this issue exists and provide more details on top of what @ulisesmac already shared? Since this is a common user journey in the app and one with high expectations of working like other messengers, it would be good to understand its impact for prioritization purposes. Thanks

Hey @ilmotta! I can confirm that the issue is reproducible on Android (Samsung Galaxy A52, Android 12). At the same time I was not able to reproduce it on iOS.

The steps are similar to what @ulisesmac described:

1. Open the gallery
2. Navigate to an album with a large number of images (in my case, 1000+)
3. Select an image
4. Scroll down within the album
5. Select another image
6. Continue scrolling and selecting images
7. Observe the image picker's behavior, especially looking for repeated content

Actual result:

1. After a certain point, the image picker becomes noticeably slow — there's a significant delay between tapping an image and seeing the selection counter appear.

2. As you continue scrolling and selecting images, portions of the album begin to repeat. You can see this behavior in the video below — pay close attention to the image marked with selection counter "3."

Video

[ajayesivan]

The chat image picker performance issue also exists on iOS. I just tested the latest App Store version on an iPhone 15, and images load very slowly. Switching between albums, even smaller ones with fewer than 100 images, can sometimes take up to a minute to load.

My device has thousands of photos, which might be contributing to the delay. Unfortunately, I’m unable to share a screen recording as it contains personal images.

Just wanted to flag that this affects iOS as well.

[ajayesivan]

I’ll take a look at this issue.

[ulisesmac]

@ilmotta I'd prefer not to tag this issue as bounty, of course, any help is welcome, but this is an important part of the app and should be properly addressed. IMO, particularly this one requires a significant amount of time to investigate, test, address and optimize. I'm not sure if an external contributor is willing to invest that amount of time.

So, if we keep the bounty tag, at least we should provide the expectations for a PR to be accepted as something that actually solves the issue (so we effectively save CCs time). E.g. We want to solve the bug of the cycling images, but also want it to perform better, so, how better? is there any other fix included (figma design checks, code-level improvements like events, etc)?

Please, before starting the work, let's be clear with the expectations.

[ilmotta]

@ilmotta I'd prefer not to tag this issue as bounty, of course, any help is welcome, but this is an important part of the app and should be properly addressed. IMO, particularly this one requires a significant amount of time to investigate, test, address and optimize. I'm not sure if an external contributor is willing to invest that amount of time.

So, if we keep the bounty tag, at least we should provide the expectations for a PR to be accepted as something that actually solves the issue (so we effectively save CCs time). E.g. We want to solve the bug of the cycling images, but also want it to perform better, so, how better? is there any other fix included (figma design checks, code-level improvements like events, etc)?

Please, before starting the work, let's be clear with the expectations.

I very much agree @ulisesmac. If it fits your schedule and desire, please feel free to change the issue description with clear expectations to help @ajayesivan. For example, currently we have the expectation Properly list the pics and perform better, but what does it mean to "properly list pics" and what does it mean to perform better?

About the issue being doable by external contributors, this is an important point, but since the image picker is not a high priority at the moment, I think this issue fits the bill well. For a Mobile CC, making the RN upgrade work is more important, for example, so we have to carefully pick our battles carefully.