Working together on a shared list

On a shared list everyone works the way the owner does: adding items, editing anything inside, shaping the list and talking in its shared conversation. Two properties keep track of people, Created by and Assigned to. The view you arrange is yours until you save it for everyone, and every move in or out of the list asks first.

Created by: who added each item

A shared list gains a Created by property the moment it is first shared, a person column Roma fills with who added each item. It is hidden until you show it, from the view's Properties, or in the browser and in the Mac app by adding it the way you add any property, where Created by stands last, after Date added and Last edited. It sorts and renames like any column, is never deleted or retyped, and stays once the list is unshared. In the browser and in the Mac app an item's ⋯ menu on such a list also says who created it, "Created by Mara Lund", under its edited stamp. On the iPhone the Properties toggle alone shows the column.

Assigned to: who a task is for

A list that keeps both a status and a due date gains an Assigned to property at its first share too, shown: a person column for who each task is for, empty until someone sets it. The share assigns nobody, and a new item gets no assignee of its own. It is an ordinary column: you or anyone in the list renames it, hides it from the view's Properties or deletes it from Edit list, and once deleted it does not come back on a later share. A list that already has a person property of its own gets none.

In the browser and in the Mac app, picking a person offers the people on the list, with their photos and full names, the chosen ones first, and a search field from nine people on. The item's ⋯ menu carries a Set row for it like every property, and the detail's pill opens the same picker. The last row of the picker, Invite people, is the one door for someone who is not on the list: it opens the list's share dialog, for the owner and Full access alone. Nothing a cell does adds a person to the list.

A person reads as a capsule with their photo and short name, "Noor K.", on the row, the board card, the grid cell and the detail. A filter on the property offers Me as its first choice, so a shared list's "Assigned to is any of Me" shows each person their own tasks. The board groups one column per person. Someone who left the list reads "No longer on this".

Being added tells the person once, in Updates: "Mara L. added you" over the task, with the property's name under it, and several on the same list within ten minutes fold into one row, "Mara L. added you to 7 items". Their phone buzzes if Assignments is on in Settings → Notifications. Naming yourself tells nobody.

Mentioning people

In the shared conversation and in a shared body, @ offers the people on the list first, then the operator (in the conversation), then your recent things. Everyone on the list can be mentioned, whether or not they have opened the item. A mention tells the person once, "Mara L. mentioned you" over the item, in Updates, under the Mentions switch.

The list's shared conversation

A shared list has one conversation everyone in it sees. In the browser and in the Mac app the rail reads Thread beside Global, and on the iPhone the chat sheet opens on Shared chat. It opens by saying what is shared, who is here and how the operator joins, and the operator stays out until someone writes @operator. Every message carries its author's short name and face, and your own rows read You. You can edit your own messages after sending them, from their ⋯ menu, and everyone sees the new words with an Edited mark. Comments on a passage, highlighted passages and reactions are shared. Every item inside has a shared conversation of its own, which is where members talk about one thing.

Faces, and who is on it

In the browser and in the Mac app a shared list shows the faces of the people who have opened it at the left of the header controls. Hovering a face opens the member card: the full name, "Owner" or their level when you are someone who may invite, their address, and one line about their presence, "Editing now" or "Viewing now" with a green dot while they are on it, otherwise "Viewed 10m ago" or "Hasn't viewed this yet". The same card opens on a name in the conversation, on an @person chip and on a Created by value. The iPhone shows no faces on a list's page.

One view for everyone

A person who joins a list sees it exactly as the person who shared it arranged it: the layout, the sort, the filter, the shown properties, the board's grouping, the rows' shape and the completed rule. Anyone can change any of it, and in the browser and in the Mac app the change is theirs alone until they press Save for everyone, which the page shows under the bar's controls at the right after every change, with a small × beside it. Save writes the view for everyone on the list, the owner included, and drops each person's own arrangement. The × keeps the change yours. On the iPhone a member's change writes the view for everyone at once.

Moving items in and out

Anyone in the list moves their own items into it. The item becomes the owner's, part of their list and shared with everyone in it, and the person who moved it stays on it as a member, named as its creator. The owner can hand it back from the item's ⋯ menu, "Hand back to Mara", asked first, and it is the mover's again, on their Tasks list.

Anyone in the list moves anything out of it, into their own Tasks list or one of their own lists. The item becomes theirs, and everyone in the list loses it, the person who shared the list included. The question says so first: "Move this task out of Reading?" with "Reading is a shared list. Everyone in it will lose access to this task."

Moving something into a shared list asks first too, from every place you can move it: "Move this task into Reading?" with "Reading is a shared list. Anyone with access to it will be able to view and edit this task." Every shared list wears the shared mark wherever it is offered as a destination, so you see where a move would land before you pick it. Both sides see what happened in their Event Log: "Handed over task" on one, "Received task" on the other. The general rules of a move are in move an item to another list.

New items, reminders and leaving

An item added to a shared list starts like any other item: the operator speaks to the person who added it alone, in their own private conversation. Members who follow the list's edits are told about every item added, as one row in Updates per burst, "Mara L. added 7 items", under New items in shared lists. A member's reminder from the due-date picker is their own, and a member never sets the owner's reminders or repeats. A member cannot leave one item of a shared list: they leave the list, and everything inside goes with it, as stop sharing, or leave something shared with you describes.

Questions people ask

Who owns what a member creates in my list?

You do. An item a member adds belongs to the list's owner, with the member's name on its history and in the Created by column, and it is shared with everyone in the list like every other item.

Can a member rename a property or add one?

Yes. Everyone in a shared list edits the list's properties exactly as the owner does: adding, renaming, retyping, reordering and deleting them. Created by is the one column that stays, on every list.

Why does my sort or filter not show for the others?

Because it is yours until you save it. In the browser and in the Mac app a change to the view is your own until you press Save for everyone, which writes it for everyone on the list. On the iPhone a change writes the view for everyone at once.

Can I assign a task to someone who is not in the list?

No. A person on a task is always a person with access to it, so the picker offers the people on the list and nobody else. Invite people, the last row of the picker, opens the list's share dialog for the owner and Full access members.