# Using @ breaks adding groups to message
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [October 17, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721 "2018-10-17T12:27:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@robmc](https://meta.discourse.org/u/robmc)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/1 "2018-10-17T12:27:27Z")
When adding users to a new message, using the `@` symbol searches only usernames, not groups.
Is this intentional? Looking back at [previous instructions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-mentions-and-messages/36228), it seems that we were encouraged to use the `@`
> [@Allow groups to be mentioned and sent messages](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-groups-to-be-mentioned-and-sent-messages/36228/1):
>
> The composer was extended to allow you to use a group name as target for a message (provided the group allow messaging)
>
> 
When trying to send a message to a group, where Everyone is allowed to mention and message the group, you are unable to add them. It appears that if you start with the `@` symbol the autocomplete only accepts usernames, even if you add the full name of the group.
If you just enter text however, then the group names do appear
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/2 "2018-10-18T00:21:34Z")
> [@robmc](#):
>
> When adding users to a new message, using the `@` symbol searches only usernames, not groups.
To me this looks like a regression, @j.jaffeux do you recall anything here?
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 7:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/3 "2018-10-18T07:17:50Z")
No, it’s not select-kit. And I don’t think I ever touched this.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 7:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/4 "2018-10-18T07:22:35Z")
@nbianca I recall you worked on this selector in the past can you have a look at this issue?
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### Author:  [@nbianca](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nbianca)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/6 "2018-10-18T15:55:18Z")
I tried to bisect this, but I had no luck… because this has been broken before v1.8! (I could not install older versions because I had problems with dependencies that were not worth the time) 💥
Anyway, I got it fixed. The problem is that the query that gets to the server includes `@` which seemed to work fine for usernames (`Search.ts_query` is pretty smart), but did not for groups.
Fixed by
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/6506](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/6506)
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/7 "2018-10-18T16:02:13Z")
> [@nbianca](#):
>
> The problem is that the query that gets to the server includes `@` which seemed to work fine for usernames ( `Search.ts_query` is pretty smart), but did not for groups.
Since they both use the same namespace, should they also use the same code path for search (on the server)?
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### Author:  [@nbianca](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nbianca)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2018, 9:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/8 "2018-10-19T09:30:20Z")
Currently there is search data for users, topic, posts, categories and tags, but none for groups. Implementing it is definitely possible, but I do not think it is worth the effort.
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2018, 9:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/9 "2018-10-19T09:41:01Z")
I see, we should at the very least do the same stripping on the server for those who call the API directly.
And maybe give some (_`ts_query`_) ❤ to [`Group.search_groups`](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/5f86564da1bc7c921bf1ed791b3ebc00b5917525/app/models/group.rb#L387-L391) as well 😉
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### Author:  [@nbianca](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nbianca)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/10 "2018-10-19T09:44:25Z")
> [@zogstrip](#):
>
> I see, we should at the very least do the same stripping on the server for those who call the API directly.
At first I implemented the stripping on the server side, but then I realised it isn’t server’s fault. If the client wants correct results, they should ask the correct questions.
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### Author:  [@nbianca](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nbianca)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-breaks-adding-groups-to-message/99721/11 "2018-11-02T16:00:03Z")
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