Finding contacts and rooms is too difficult

[raphj]

Currently, if I understand correctly, there are several ways of finding User B for User A with Riot:

1. On the mobile application, this is easy if user B provided their phone number on registration and is in the phone contact list of user A.
2. By their email address, if user B provided their email address to Matrix AND to user A.
3. By typing @username:matrix.org.

If User B found and started a conversation with User A, User A only knows User B's username. If User A wants to invite User B to a room, User A must use method 3 to find User B.

Problem is, having to type @username:matrix.org is counter intuitive.

Also, I can imagine users tell "Add me, my username on Riot is xxx", not really "Add me, my username on Riot (actually on the Matrix network) is @xxx:matrix.org". People are not always aware of the decentralized nature of Riot / Matrix and are probably not yet familiar with the concept of decentralized chats, like they can be with email.

Should Riot provide a shorthand, such that when looking for 'username', it actually suggests '@username:matrix.org'?

In the same way, finding a private chat room requires typing #chatroom:matrix.org.
Should Riot provide a shorthand, such that when looking for 'room', it suggests '#room:matrix.org'?

I'd also argue that using the context, '@' and '#' could be dropped when this is not ambiguous, such that typing username:matrix.org or room:matrix.org works in relevant input boxes.

[dkasak]

This issue I opened is related: element-hq/riot-android#2062

The above is a nice usability suggestion, but I would argue that matrix.org probably shouldn't be special cased, but instead the HS the user is registered on should be. Also, when suggesting the user or room, the full @ or # ID must be shown.

[nunoperalta]

Completely agree with this. Makes no sense that I have to type all that big form of username, when typing "username" could simply default to the domain I am currently.

I actually struggled a lot to type my friend's username, as I was typing it but it was always giving "No results.".