Add a UI to explore public spaces

[SimonBrandner]

IMO, this should be a completely different dialog from the current explore rooms dialog. This is to create a clear separation between spaces and rooms and to avoid confusing users. I think Discord can be a good place from where to take inspiration.

Related: element-hq/element-web#17244

Edit by @kittykat:

For this to progress, product need to have a proposal on best approach or options from developers/backend to chose how to proceed
In terms of UI, this could be presented in the new search experience with a "Spaces" filter, similar to "Rooms" that we will have in the new search dialog.
When a space is clicked, it should open the "Explore space" page.
On mobile, spaces and rooms are differentiated by round or square avatars, this could continue to be the way to differentiate them in the search results until search filtering is added.

• Web: add a "spaces" filter to the new search experience (needs design)
• Android: make sure that spaces are differentiated from rooms in the results
• iOS: make sure that spaces are differentiated from rooms in the results

See here for proposal

[aaronraimist]

keywords: search find

[cognifloyd]

I think "Explore rooms" could be reused to provide this feature, but it needs a filter to say "Only show spaces".

[SimonBrandner]

I think "Explore rooms" could be reused to provide this feature, but it needs a filter to say "Only show spaces".

This would work at first but in the long term I think it should be its own thing that would be opened from the space panel so that it's more user friendly

[not-a-dev-stein]

It can be done in a really similar way to Discord. The "explore rooms" button can stay where it is and the "explore spaces" button can be added below or on top of the already existent "create a space" button, to have clear separation between the two.