desktop: don't copy non-message items when selecting message text (#6993)

* desktop: don't copy non-message items when selecting message text

Selecting text across messages also copied the text of event/info
items (e.g. "connected") that fell inside the selection, even though
those items are never highlighted as selected.

getSelectedCopiedText emitted text for every merged item between the
selection bounds. Event/info items have no msgContent but a non-empty
text, so as interior items their text was copied. Skip items whose
content has no msgContent - only real messages are copyable.

* plans: add 2026-05-20-fix-copy-non-msg-items.md

apps/multiplatform/common/src/commonMain/kotlin/chat/simplex/common/views/chat/TextSelection.kt

@@ -217,6 +217,9 @@ class SelectionManager {
         val hi = maxOf(r.startIndex, r.endIndex)
         return (lo..hi).mapNotNull { idx ->
             val ci = items.getOrNull(idx)?.newest()?.item ?: return@mapNotNull null
+            // Only real messages are copyable. Event/info items (e.g. "connected", calls, e2ee info)
+            // have no msgContent and are never highlighted as selected, so they must never be copied.
+            if (ci.content.msgContent == null) return@mapNotNull null
             if (ci.meta.itemDeleted != null && (!revealedItems.contains(ci.id) || ci.isDeletedContent)) return@mapNotNull null
             val sel = selectedRange(range, idx) ?: return@mapNotNull null
             selectedItemCopiedText(ci, sel, linkMode)

plans/2026-05-20-fix-copy-non-msg-items.md

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# Desktop: text selection copies non-message event items
+
+Branch: `nd/fix-copy-non-msg-items` · code commit `a536452ca` · PR [#6993](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/pull/6993).
+
+## 1. Problem statement
+
+The Desktop "select text in messages" feature (PR [#6725](https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/pull/6725)) lets the user drag a selection across several message bubbles and copy it. When the selection spans a chat event/info item — a "connected" event, a member "joined"/"left" event, a call event, an e2ee-info line, a feature-change line — the copied text includes that item's text, even though the item is never shown highlighted as part of the selection.
+
+Expected: only real message text is copied. Observed: event/info text such as "connected" is appended into the clipboard between the selected messages.
+
+### Privacy note
+
+Event/info item text is produced from localized string resources (`generalGetString`, `RcvConnEvent.text`, etc.) — it is rendered in the language the user has chosen for the app, whereas real message text is not. A user who selects and copies a long span of messages carelessly, then pastes it into another chat or app, can therefore leak their chosen interface language through the event lines mixed into the paste. For a privacy-focused messenger this is a metadata leak, not only a cosmetic bug.
+
+## 2. Root cause
+
+`SelectionManager.getSelectedCopiedText` (`TextSelection.kt`) builds the copied string by iterating every merged-item index between the selection bounds and emitting each item's text:
+
+```kotlin
+return (lo..hi).mapNotNull { idx ->
+    val ci = items.getOrNull(idx)?.newest()?.item ?: return@mapNotNull null
+    if (ci.meta.itemDeleted != null && ...) return@mapNotNull null
+    val sel = selectedRange(range, idx) ?: return@mapNotNull null
+    selectedItemCopiedText(ci, sel, linkMode)
+}
+```
+
+For an *interior* item in a multi-item selection, `selectedRange` returns `0 until Int.MAX_VALUE` — the whole item is treated as selected — so its text is emitted unconditionally. The only items previously skipped were deleted ones.
+
+Anchor/focus character tracking (`setupItemSelection`) is wired up only for real message views (`FramedItemView`, `EmojiItemView`); event/info items never register offsets and never compute a highlight range. So an event item caught between two selected messages is invisible to the highlight but fully visible to `getSelectedCopiedText`. The copy logic and the on-screen selection disagreed.
+
+The distinguishing property: a real message has `ci.content.msgContent != null`; every event/info `CIContent` variant returns `msgContent == null`.
+
+## 3. Solution summary
+
+`apps/multiplatform/common/src/commonMain/kotlin/chat/simplex/common/views/chat/TextSelection.kt` — one guard, +3 lines.
+
+In `getSelectedCopiedText`, skip any item whose `content.msgContent` is null, alongside the existing deleted-item filter:
+
+```kotlin
+if (ci.content.msgContent == null) return@mapNotNull null
+```
+
+Only real messages now contribute copied text — which is exactly the set of items that are selectable and highlighted, so the clipboard matches the visible selection. `content.msgContent` is the existing model property used elsewhere to tell a real message apart from an event/info item.
+
+## 4. Alternatives considered (and rejected)
+
+- **Special-case only "connected" events.** Matches the literal report but leaves the identical bug for every other event/info item (joined/left, calls, e2ee info, feature changes) — same class, same language leak.
+- **Make event items non-selectable / consume the drag.** Larger change to the selection gesture; event items are already non-anchorable, and the bug is purely in the copy aggregation, not in the gesture.
+- **Filter at the call site (`onCopySelection`).** Duplicates the message/non-message distinction outside the one function that owns copied-text assembly; `getSelectedCopiedText` is the correct single source.