Mention people and canvas collaborators

Mentions are how ALLO turns a piece of canvas text into accountable collaboration. Use a mention when someone needs to see a question, approve a detail, answer a comment, review a chat message, or notice a decision on the canvas. For the full feedback loop, pair mentions with comments, Inbox, and the recipient's notification settings.

A mention is not the same as typing a name. A real mention is chosen from the @ picker and appears as a structured chip or link. That structure lets ALLO connect the mention to Inbox, notification settings, access checks, and profile or canvas navigation. If the text lives inside a note, shape, spreadsheet cell, or another editable canvas object, the mention starts from the rich text editor.

Where mentions are available

If a mention picker does not open in one surface, use the visible comment, chat, or rich text controls for that surface. ALLO does not expose every mention target everywhere.

Who and what can be mentioned

Mentioning someone does not grant access. If the person cannot open the canvas, share the canvas first or adjust their access, then mention them in the right thread.

All-canvas-member mentions use the current canvas as the audience boundary. In public project contexts, ALLO can still filter recipients to people who have actually joined or can access the relevant project and canvas. That is why all-canvas-member is not a reliable shortcut for "everyone in the workspace."

Add a mention

Type @ in a supported editor, then start typing the person, team, canvas, or audience name. Choose the intended result from the picker. If the comment toolbar has an @ button, you can use it to open the same mention flow at the cursor.

Before you send or save, check that the mention is a chip or selected result, not just plain text. Plain @Jordan text may look right to a human reader, but ALLO cannot treat it as a mention unless it was inserted from the picker.

For comments, put the mention in the comment that contains the request. For canvas objects, use mentions when the reference should stay visible on the canvas. For chat, use mentions when someone needs to notice the live conversation, but move durable review decisions into comments or canvas content.

What happens after you mention someone

When the comment, chat message, or rich text change is submitted, ALLO records the mention and creates mention recipients for the relevant people. Direct person mentions go to that person. Team mentions expand to team members. All-canvas-member mentions expand to the people ALLO treats as eligible canvas members for that canvas.

Those recipients can appear in Inbox and Home mention previews as explicit mentions. Delivery then moves through several layers:

• Push, email, desktop, and mobile delivery follow notification settings, device permissions, quiet-time settings, and ALLO's background notification processing.
• Mention email is scheduled one minute after the Inbox event, so it is normal for an Inbox item or badge to appear before email.
• External delivery can be skipped or delayed by user settings, device permissions, mail filtering, and access repairs.

Replies and thread participation can also create Inbox items, but Home Mentions is designed to highlight explicit mentions. If you need one person to act, mention that person directly instead of hoping they notice a busy thread.

ALLO avoids notifying the author as a recipient in several mention flows. If you mention yourself while drafting or replying, do not use your own notification experience as proof that recipients were not notified.

Editing text can add new mention records when the surface supports mention updates. It cannot pull back an email or push notification that has already left ALLO. If you accidentally mention the wrong person, edit the text, then leave a clear follow-up comment if the mistake could create confusion.

Avoid noisy mentions

Mention the smallest group that can act. A direct mention is best when one person owns the answer. A team mention is best when any member of that team can respond. All canvas members is best for rare canvas-wide calls, such as "We are starting review now" or "Please stop editing this page before export."

Do not mention a large audience for FYI updates or status decoration. That trains people to ignore mentions, which is the fastest way to make a collaboration system useless.

If you need awareness but not action, write a clear comment or update the canvas summary. If you need a decision, mention the decision owner and make the ask explicit.

Guests and external collaborators

Guests can comment, reply, and mention when guest access includes comment permission. They may not see the same suggestion list as workspace members, and they do not get every moderation action that owners or workspace collaborators have.

External collaborators can be valid mention targets when they are current canvas collaborators. Workspace-only targets, such as internal teams, may not be meaningful to a guest. If an external collaborator cannot open a mention, check the canvas share, guest link, workspace account, and whether they are signed in with the email that has access.

Why someone may not receive a mention notification

If a mention matters, combine the mention with a clear ask and a precise location. "Can you approve the copy in this note?" is better than mentioning someone beside a vague paragraph.