Unify room directory and explore space UIs

[robintown]

Your use case

What would you like to do?

Replace the current room directory UI with a specialized version of the explore space UI.

Why would you like to do it?

There is a large overlap in functionality between the room directory and explore space page. Unifying them would bring many benefits, including:

• Simplifying the experience by giving users a single interface to find rooms
• Making it easier to publish rooms to the directory by exposing the same "Add" and "Remove" button seen in spaces
• If desired, increasing the visibility of the room directory for first time users by making it the home page
• Making it simple to show spaces in the room directory, once that becomes a thing

How would you like to achieve it?

Something like this:

One functionality that the current room directory UI provides that we'd have to put elsewhere is the ability to join rooms by their alias. I think this would be a great opportunity to put it somewhere less hidden, such as in the room list + button:

One thing I don't know quite where to place though is the server switcher dropdown. I suppose the homeserver name could serve as the dropdown, though it would be a bit large.

Have you considered any alternatives?

No response

Additional context

No response

[SimonBrandner]

I don't think I agree since I feel like you have different expectations from the room directory. You expect the topic to be shown in a more prominent way for example

Related: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/3196

[germain-gg]

Removing the A-Spaces label as the issue only mentions spaces but is not related to them

[bkil]

Somewhat related to #21288 (as in possibly involving a restructuring of the explore rooms UI)

[robintown]

#22846 seems like an overall saner solution