[pdcarlson]

Fixes #3774

Asked by: Shawn (shawnatomklein-eng), 2026-11-12 (coordinator chat on Paul's second account; person at the keyboard unconfirmed).

The direction rests on Shawn's account of a conversation with Paul that was never written down. Shawn says they agreed Messages sits to the right of Chat home, reached by a swipe from right to left, like Instagram. That reverses Paul's last written note on #3738 (2026-11-08), which put Messages on the left, reached by a swipe right. Shawn's 2026-11-10 note on #4047 gives the reason: the left side belongs to the side menu idea. The decision is recorded on #3774: #3774 (comment)

Summary

On Chat home, a slide from right to left opens Messages. The top-right Messages button stays, so anyone who never finds the gesture, and VoiceOver or TalkBack users, still have one tap to it. Back from Messages works as on every pushed screen. Web got its Direct messages row and list in #4370 and #4445.

Comparable app: Instagram, where a swipe left from the feed (or the paper-plane button) opens messages.

How it behaves

• It works from Chat home only, not the other tabs. It opens Messages on release, not following the finger. A long enough slide opens it, and so does a quick shorter flick.

• Only a leftward slide starts it. A mostly vertical move stays the channel list's scroll.

• It holds while the filter menu, the account menu or a row's actions menu is open. This follows the repo's rule that an open overlay holds screen gestures (useHoldSwipeBack). A slide the system cancels opens nothing.

• Android limits:

  • With gesture navigation, a slide that starts at the right edge is the system's Back gesture, which no app can intercept. So on Android the swipe works from inside the screen.
  • Messages arrives with the stack's default Android transition (a fade or scale), not a slide from the right. The route's animation is set in app/(app)/_layout.tsx, one of the eight frozen hotspot files, so that change is filed as the integrator issue Mobile (integrator): Messages slides in from the right on Android too #4447.
  • On a long enough channel list, Android's own scroll takes a slightly diagonal move sooner (about 8dp), so the swipe there wants a straighter slide.

  All three are written in the spec.

• No new native module (react-native-gesture-handler was already in the app), so it ships over the air.

Recorded decisions this changes

• Mobile Chat top bar: Messages door at the top left, your photo opens your profile, glass buttons #3738 and Mobile: swipe between the bottom tabs, and swipe right from Chat to open Messages #3739 (Messages to the left of Chat, reached by swiping right): reversed in direction, per Shawn's account above. Dated in spec/ui/mobile/navigation.md.

Changes

• apps/mobile/lib/chat/messages-swipe.ts: what counts as the swipe (thresholds and opensMessages), with tests.
• apps/mobile/components/chat/messages-swipe-area.tsx: the pan, held while enabled is false.
• apps/mobile/app/(app)/(tabs)/index.tsx: Chat home wraps itself in it, held while a menu or a row's actions are open. A small diff, which keeps conflicts low.
• apps/mobile/vitest.setup.ts: the gesture mock now records activeOffsetX, failOffsetY and enabled, so specs can pin them.
• apps/mobile/lib/chat/chat-home.spec.tsx: tests for the wiring, direction, vertical hand-over, route, cancelled pans and holding under a menu.
• Specs: spec/ui/mobile/navigation.md (§ Global entries, "Swipe to Messages") and spec/ui/mobile/screens.md (the Messages row).
• What's new line: packages/validation/release-notes/claude-dm-phone-swipe-3774.md.

Docs / Spec impact

• Spec impact: Updated (above).
• Docs impact: None.

Test plan

• Mobile lib/chat and components/chat tests: 65 files and 1355 tests passing. tsc --noEmit and eslint are clean.
• Not verified on a device. Expo Go can't run in this sandbox, so the gesture's feel and its interplay with the list scroll come from reading the code and RNGH 2.32's source, not from a phone. Worth a try on an iPhone and an Android phone before this ships. Check:
  • a swipe from mid-screen opens Messages;
  • vertical scrolling and pull-to-refresh still work;
  • long-pressing a row, then sliding, doesn't open Messages under the menu.
• CI checks pass.

Review

/diff-review ran a full workflow round: 3 finders and a checker. Fixed:

1. The swipe was live under open menus.
2. A cancelled pan still navigated.
3. The Android claims were overstated (right-edge back, transition, scroll slop).
4. No test pinned the wiring.
5. The screen inventory named only the door.

One finding was PLAUSIBLE (a long-press menu left open over Messages) and is fixed by holding the swipe while a row's actions are open; a device would confirm it. The branch's first push was a parking push made with --no-verify before this PR; the review covered all of it, and its marker is on the pushed head.

Release label

release:minor

Debt spotted

• Mobile (integrator): Messages slides in from the right on Android too #4447 (filed): the Android slide-from-right transition, an integrator change to a frozen file.

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