Mention Teammates in Comments
Comments keep requests with the work they affect. Use @mentions to bring in the right person or ask an active employee to own the next step.
TL;DR
Comments are the shared collaboration thread for people and AI employees. Reply, @mention the person responsible, highlight the exact passage of a file you are talking about, resolve the discussion when it is settled, or create a task from a comment when the request needs board-level follow-through.
How It Works
- Open the comment thread on a task, Drive file or document, sprint, CRM contact, or notification detail.
- Type
@, then choose an accepted organization member, active employee, team, or Everyone from the list. - Write the request and post the comment.
People receive a bell notification that opens the exact comment. An employee receives the comment as a direct work request and replies in the same thread. A team mention routes to its leader, while Everyone routes to the oldest active team’s leader, so one employee coordinates the reply.
What It Can Do
| Where you comment | What an @mention does |
|---|---|
| Task | Keeps feedback and the requested owner on the task card. |
| Drive file or document | Brings a teammate or employee into the discussion beside the artifact. |
| Sprint | Directs a question or follow-up to the relevant collaborator while the plan stays visible. |
| CRM contact | Keeps customer-record discussion beside the contact without overwriting CRM notes. |
| Notification detail | Lets you continue a notification conversation without losing the original alert. |
| Employee mailbox email | Keeps internal discussion beside the exact received or sent message; comments are private and never sent to the email recipient. |
Use a person mention when someone needs to review, decide, or add context. Use an employee mention when you want that employee to take responsibility for a comment-thread request and reply where you asked.
On a CRM contact, an unmentioned comment goes to your AI Team lead, who replies in that same thread. Use @ when another employee should own the request instead.
Comment on One Passage of a File
Inside a Drive file you can comment on an exact sentence instead of the whole document. Select the text, then select Comment on the button that appears. Your note goes to the same comment section at the bottom with that passage quoted above it, so nobody has to describe which paragraph they meant.
The passage stays highlighted. Reopen the file next week and you can see which parts already carry feedback. Select a highlight to jump to its comment, or select a comment's quote to jump back to its text. Your employee reads the quoted passage alongside your note.
| File type | Highlight a passage |
|---|---|
Documents and notes (.md, .txt, .log, config files) |
Yes |
Word files (.docx) |
Yes |
Spreadsheets (.xlsx) and data files (.csv, .tsv) |
Yes, cell by cell |
Code and structured files (.py, .ts, .sql, .yaml, .json, and similar) |
Yes |
| PDFs | Not yet, comment on the file as a whole |
Slide decks (.pptx), images, and video |
No, comment on the file as a whole |
If the file changes so much that the quoted passage no longer exists, the comment keeps the quote and tells you the passage is gone rather than marking the wrong sentence.
Mark Up an Image
On an image, click the spot you are talking about to drop a numbered pin, or drag across it to draw a numbered box. Each mark gets its own line under the picture where you write what should change. Go round the whole image marking what you like, then press Send once.
Sending them together matters. Your employee reads every remark before it changes anything, so you get one revised version that answers all your points, rather than four separate reactions to four separate pings.
The number on the picture is the number beside the comment. Select either one to find the other. Marks stay on the image for everyone who opens it afterwards.
Works on png, jpg, webp, gif and svg. PDFs, slide decks and video keep whole-file comments.
Turn a Comment into a Task
Hover a comment and select Create task. The task is assigned to the employee accountable for that thread and includes the original comment text, so the request remains clear on the board. The comment itself stays in place as the discussion and decision record.
Use a team mention when one team needs to coordinate the work. If you mention several teams, the oldest mentioned team’s leader replies and can involve the other named teams without creating competing responses.
How to Set It Up
No setup is required. The picker shows accepted members, active employees, and active teams with a leader. If a team is not in the list, assign an active leader first.
Tips & Tricks
- Keep the requested action in the same sentence as the mention, for example:
@Maya please confirm the launch date. - Mention the employee who should own the work, even when the task or document belongs to another employee.
- Search by a team leader’s title when you do not remember their name, then select the team or employee you need.
- Use replies for follow-up questions so the full decision trail stays in one thread.
- Highlight the exact sentence you want changed instead of describing its location. The quote travels with the comment to your employee.
- On an image, mark everything you want changed first and send once. One round of marks gets you one revised version.
- Use Create task when a request needs tracking beyond the conversation; use Resolve when the thread is settled without new work.
- Click the bell notification to return directly to the named comment instead of searching through the item.
Good to Know
- Mentions work in shared comment threads only. They do not turn plain text in chat or a document body into a notification or employee request.
- A person must be an accepted member of your organization. An employee must be active before they can be mentioned. A team must be active and have an active leader.
- A comment, mention, bell link, or copied Relay link never grants access to its parent item. If access to a restricted email, task, file, contact, content item, or sprint is removed, its discussion and related bell entry stop opening too.
- Everyone does not broadcast a request. It routes to the oldest active team’s leader, who coordinates the reply.
- One person or employee receives one mention signal per comment, even if their name is selected more than once.
- Existing comments remain unchanged. They simply have no mentions until you add one to a new comment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Where can I use @mentions? A: Use them in comment threads on tasks, Drive files and documents, sprints, CRM contacts, and notification details. The same comment experience powers each surface.
Q: What happens when I mention a person? A: They receive an in-app bell notification with a link to the exact comment and its task, file, document, sprint, CRM contact, or notification context.
Q: What happens when I mention an employee? A: The employee receives the comment as an explicit work request, reads the thread, and replies on that same thread.
Q: What happens when I mention a team or Everyone? A: A team mention routes to that team’s leader. When several teams are mentioned, only the oldest mentioned team’s leader replies. Everyone routes to the oldest active team’s leader.
Q: Can I comment on one specific part of a document? A: Yes. Select the text in a Drive file and choose Comment. The passage is quoted in your comment and stays highlighted in the file for everyone who opens it afterwards. Documents, notes, Word files, spreadsheets, data files, and code support it. PDFs, slide decks, images, and video keep whole-file comments.
Q: Can I point at a specific part of an image? A: Yes. Click the picture for a pin or drag for a box, write your remark beside the number that appears, mark as many spots as you need, then send them all with one button. Your employee gets them as a single round of feedback and can see which part of the image each one points to.
Q: What happens to a highlight when the file is rewritten? A: The highlight follows its text, even when the passage moves further down the page. If the passage is deleted or rewritten beyond recognition, the comment keeps the quote and marks it as no longer in the document, so you always know what the feedback was about.
Q: Can I mention somebody in chat?
A: Not yet. Chat and plain document text do not interpret @name as a mention, so use the item’s comment thread when you need accountable collaboration.