Shared conversations and private business comments

One conversation, separate businesses

Open Shared conversations in the app. Choose a shared wedding that your workspace already participates in, then name the conversation around a concrete decision: “Ceremony access and portraits” is more useful than “General.” Creating the thread adds your named account. Other operators in your business do not automatically become participants.

The shared wedding connects the planner, couple, photographer and vendors. Their client records, invoices, inboxes and private project data remain with each business. Existing private lead conversations continue at Conversations; creating a shared thread does not move or combine that history.

Review named access before sharing a link

An organizer selects a connected workspace or a thread-only guest, enters the person's verified account email and chooses read, post and, where available, file-sharing permissions. Set the first visible message explicitly. The default starts at the next message; choosing message 1 shares the saved history.

Review the access, approve the invitation and copy its link. The raw link is displayed once and is not retained in mutation receipts. Share it privately with the intended person. The recipient signs in with the matching verified email and accepts the exact access. A business participant also needs current membership and current participation in this shared wedding. A limited member must have this wedding assigned.

Thread-only guests receive no business membership and no automatic paid seat. They can read and optionally post until the reviewed expiration, up to 30 days. They cannot upload business files, browse private records, assign an inbox or approve email notices. Business invitation links expire too, but a claimed business grant remains subject to membership, wedding participation and organizer revocation.

Rotate an unclaimed link if it was misplaced. Rotation invalidates the old link without extending its original deadline. Revoke and review a new invitation when a longer claim window is needed. Revoking a participant immediately denies new message and file requests; a file link already issued can remain valid for at most 60 seconds.

Work through a concrete decision

Suppose Avery, the planner, posts message 1: “Portraits begin at 3:00 pm.” Cedar Photography joins with history from message 1. Juniper Florals joins with history from message 2, because an earlier planning discussion should remain outside its grant.

Avery writes message 2: “Please leave the west entrance clear from 2:30 to 3:00.” In the editor, use paragraph or list blocks, styled text segments and complete links. Select a saved template if useful, edit its wording, and optionally append your own signature. Only the supported fields {{wedding.title}}, {{wedding.date}}, {{sender.name}} and {{business.name}} expand. Missing values hold the review.

Choose any files and optional email recipients, then select Review message and access. Check the complete rendered message, file names and notification names. Approve and post message saves one immutable message. A participant, template, signature or file change after review requires a fresh review. Retrying the same approved request does not append a second message. Later template edits do not rewrite the saved conversation.

Juniper can read message 2 but not message 1. Each person's Mark this page read control advances only that person's cursor. Messages and private comments have separate pagination. Refresh the page to retrieve new activity; this view does not claim instant chat delivery or typing indicators.

Internal comments and assignments

The Private to your business panel is visible only to full operators in your business who have a named thread grant. Record an internal comment, choose another current participating operator from your business, and set your own inbox status. These changes do not alter another business's assignment or expose a comment to the organizer, couple or guests.

For example, Avery can privately record “Confirm our staffing before agreeing.” Cedar cannot see that note. Cedar can maintain its own comment and assignment in the same shared conversation. Closing your business's inbox status does not close the group or remove other participants.

Share a file deliberately

Permitted full operators can upload a PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, plain text or CSV file up to 9 MB, or select an eligible private file already in their business. A message can share at most 10 files totaling 10 MB. Choosing a file and approving the message creates explicit shared access; knowing an asset ID does not grant access.

Downloads check the current participant, visible message history and retained file metadata before issuing a short-lived private link. The original business remains the file owner. That business can revoke its shared attachment access while retaining the saved message and file metadata. Document cleanup refuses to delete a file while an active shared attachment references it. Revoke each shared reference before deleting its bytes.

Uploads verify the saved byte count and checksum, and reuse the same storage intent after a lost response. Storage activation and a real private-download rehearsal remain launch requirements.

Understand email notice status

Posting to the portal and sending email are separate actions. Email notices are optional, approved by a full business operator and addressed to explicitly checked, joined participants. They contain a minimal update and an authenticated conversation link. They do not contain the full shared message or its attachments. Replies belong in the portal; this feature does not provide email reply-all, SMS, voice notes or transcription.

A configured sender, verified provider callbacks, worker and the Shared conversation notices activation control are required before dispatch. A held notice created without a usable sender needs a fresh review after setup. That review can replace only an unattempted notice with a new immutable delivery generation. It does not post the portal message again.

The worker rechecks current author and recipient access before an attempt. Queued, sending, sent, delivered, failed and provider-outcome-unconfirmed states are distinct. An uncertain send retains its original provider key and transport account fingerprint. The safe retry window is deliberately shorter than the provider's idempotency window. After it expires, or after a provider account changes, the original outcome needs reconciliation; the app does not create a fresh send identity to guess at the outcome. Signed callbacks can recover an accepted send, and a later failure cannot be erased by an older delivered callback.

No provider setup or production delivery is implied by the local rehearsal. External email costs and provider policies must be checked during the coordinated activation stage. This module does not introduce a new customer usage charge.

API and current boundaries

Named account sessions can list and read their shared threads through /api/v1/shared-conversations, then review and approve messages, add their own business comments, assign their business inbox and advance personal read cursors. Workspace API keys are rejected because they cannot stand in for a named participant. Thread-only sessions do not need a workspace header; business sessions select their existing workspace.

Native and Chrome group-conversation screens, SMS, inbound group email, voice transcription, presence, participant self-departure and organizer handoff are separate work. Use the current web conversation and explicit revocation controls rather than assuming those features are present.