Give feedback with comments and mentions

Feedback loses half its meaning the moment it floats free of the thing it is about. A comment in ALLO lives on the work: pinned to the exact sticky note, image, or page it refers to, with a reply thread and a resolved state, so weeks later you can still see what was decided and why.

Put a comment on an object when the feedback is about that object, and on the page when it is about the whole section. Type @ to pull in the one person who needs to act, reply to keep a discussion in one thread, resolve it when it is done, and reopen it if the issue comes back.

The short version

Put a comment on an object when the feedback is about that object, and on the page when it is about the whole section. Type @ to mention the one person who needs to act. Reply to keep a discussion in one thread, resolve it when it is done, and reopen it if the issue comes back. Comments are the durable record; use chat and calls for the live conversation and write the decision back into a comment when it lands.

Who can do what

Every comment action is governed by one thing: whether you have comment access to the canvas. That single boundary decides adding, replying, reacting, and resolving, and it is the same for signed-in members and guests.

Two rules come up constantly: you can always edit or delete your own comment regardless of role, while deleting someone else's comment or a whole thread is reserved for the canvas owner; and guests never get thread moderation — a guest with comment access is a full participant, but resolve, reopen, and thread deletion stay with the canvas owner. If the comment tool is disabled, the cause is comment access, not a bug: the canvas is shared to you read-only, or guest access here does not include commenting.

Put the comment where it belongs

The most useful decision is where a comment lives. Anchor it to the object when the feedback is about that object; put it on the page when it is about the whole section.

Object comments stay tied to the thing they point at, so "replace this screenshot with the latest export" only makes sense when the comment is on that screenshot; anchored comments also appear in the Comments tab and can be resolved, which a stray text box never will. Page comments attach to the section ("this page is ready for review", "fold this before the client sees it"), so they travel with the page and count when it is deleted.

Mentions and notifications

Type @ and pick the person who has to do something, not the whole room. A thread with eight names is a thread nobody owns. Mention the decision-maker in the comment that contains the ask, not three replies later. Guests can mention people too when guest commenting is on; who appears in the suggestion list and how team or whole-canvas mentions resolve depends on sharing and membership (Mention people and canvas collaborators covers the targets).

A comment reaches someone two different ways: an explicit @mention is the strong signal that puts the comment in the recipient's Home Mentions and their Inbox, while thread participation is the soft signal — a plain reply in a thread they are part of shows in their Inbox but not in Home Mentions. So if you actually need a specific person, @ them.

Reply, resolve, and find threads

Reply inside the thread to keep a discussion connected; react when a thumbs-up would do. You can attach a supporting file by dropping it into the composer, but if the file needs visual review, put it on the canvas as an object and comment there. Edit your own comment to fix wording; if it captured a decision, resolve the thread instead of deleting it so the record survives.

Resolving collapses a thread to its latest comment, tucks earlier replies behind a N more comments disclosure, and stops new replies; reopen it from the thread header if the issue returns. Resolve and reopen are owner-and-collaborator actions — guests can keep talking but cannot close a thread. To find feedback, use the lime unread bubbles, the slide rail flags on pages with unread activity, and the Comments tab, rather than panning for bubbles; opening a thread marks it read. You can drag a bubble off the work it covers (it stays clamped to the page), and use Copy comment link to send someone straight to a thread — but a comment link is a pointer, not a key, so the person still needs canvas access. If unsure, share the canvas first (private vs share links explains the difference).

Before you delete an object or page

Comments live on the thing they are attached to, so deleting that thing takes the discussion with it. ALLO does not let this happen quietly: deleting an object or page with comments shows a confirmation naming exactly how many comments and threads will go. When that warning appears, usually resolve the thread if the discussion is finished, copy the comment link or text into a task or decision log first, or fold the page instead of deleting it so the comments stay.

For the live conversation, use chat for coordination and calls to talk something through, but write any decision that matters tomorrow back into a comment or the canvas itself — chat and calls are not the record.

Troubleshooting

• You cannot add a comment. It needs comment access. Check your role in Share; wait if the canvas is still loading; or note the canvas may be read-only because of the owning workspace's plan or billing, not your role — this turns off editing and commenting for everyone when that workspace is over its Free limit, over storage quota, or has an unpaid subscription. On a shared canvas the owner's workspace counts, so ask them to check their plan or fix a payment issue.
• Someone you mentioned cannot open the comment. They lack canvas access. Share the canvas, then resend the comment link.
• Resolve or reopen is missing. You are a guest, or you do not own the canvas. Thread moderation stays with the owner.
• A comment disappeared. Its object or page was deleted. If the page was only folded, the comments are still there — find it in the slide rail or Comments tab.
• A mention did not notify anyone. Confirm you used an explicit @ (a thread reply does not reach Home Mentions), that they have canvas access, that the thread is not already resolved, and that their notification settings or quiet-time are not holding back email and push. Inbox updates immediately; email is about a minute behind by design.