Identity change message is incomprehensible to normal users

[kongo09]

Steps to reproduce

1. Observe the warning that an identity has changed

Outcome

What did you expect?

Clear message with clear next best action

What happened instead?

Unclear message and no next best action. Being forced to say OK to something that might not be OK

• the message talks about a person's identity having changed. The identity of the real life person surely has not changed, but this tries to say that the cryptographic identity has changed, which is different. Even simpler, it just says that the person registered the account on a new device, correct?
• the message says "might" but what does that mean? Has it changed or not?
• the message required me to hit OK without a way to initiate verification

WhatsApp approaches this differently

The initial message is somewhat clearer, more assertive and doesn't require an action.

The learn more offers a verification. The text has clear wording about what has happened.

Thanks to key transparency, the verification can be as simple as a tap.

Your phone model

Pixel 8a

Operating system version

Android 14

Application version and app store

Element X 25.03.1-nightly

Homeserver

Element.io

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[manuroe]

Thanks @kongo09 . @mxandreas can you manage this feedback please?

[mxandreas]

This feedback is overall on my radar and we have talked about a few things we could try to improve:

1. Changing the OK button to Close / Dismiss.
2. Using the wording - the "Person has reset their identity". Which then can be used to say that you should confirm with the other person if they actually did it.

I do want to say that I do not think there is a clear and simple solution here that "just works". What is comprehensible, is very subjective and depends on the knowledge. Thus, people come up with suggestions which works for them, without not much evidence that it works for others, so we keep changing it.

[kongo09]

If we don't know, then we should follow the market standard and write:

The cryptographic identity of [MXID] has changed because they registered their Matrix account on their device again. (Verify identity) [Link] or (Learn more) [Link]

The button should be simply an X to dismiss as we use it in other places.

We might also want to consider saving space on the avatar.