People in a Canvas

A Canvas is better with company. This page covers who is in a Canvas, how to bring someone in, and how Rally behaves when the room gets busy.

Who is here now#

When other people have a Canvas open, their faces appear at the top right of the window, beside Share. Rest your pointer on a face to see the name. The same people show in the sidebar, under the Canvas's name, with a green dot: Maya and Theo are here. On the Canvases home page, their faces appear at the top left of the Canvas's card.

So if you ask a question in a Canvas with three faces at the top, someone may answer before Rally does. If nobody is there, the sidebar row says who last changed it instead, such as Edited by Priya.

Presence is about who has the Canvas open, not who is typing or where they are looking. When you are offline, other people's faces are hidden rather than frozen in place.

Who can open it#

Click Share at the top right to see who can open the Canvas. The Share Canvas window says which of three settings applies (Only you, Specific people or Everyone in the Organization) and lists the people chosen, with their email addresses and a Guest badge for anyone from outside the Organization. Who can see what explains the three settings.

Adding and removing people#

The Canvas's creator and the Organization's owners and administrators choose who can open it; for a Canvas a Sidekick made, so do the Sidekick's managers. Anyone else sees the same window read-only, with a note saying who can change it, as Who can see what explains.

1. Click Share at the top right of the Canvas.
2. Choose Specific people.
3. Tick the people who should be able to open it. Search people narrows the list by name or email.
4. Click Save.

The people you ticked can open the Canvas straight away, it appears in their Canvases list under Shared with me. To take someone out, untick them and click Save. Specific people needs at least one person ticked; with nobody, it says Choose at least one person. and Save stays greyed out.

A few rules:

• Opening a Canvas because it is open to everyone in the Organization does not make you a participant. Being chosen does.
• The person who created the Canvas can always open it, and is not in the list to untick.
• Only people whose membership in the Organization is active appear in the list. To bring in someone from outside your Organization, such as a client, see Sharing with people outside your Organization.
• Someone who cannot open the Canvas can ask to. Their request appears at the top of the Share Canvas window under Requests, with Approve and Deny, and in your Activity. See Who can see what.

Mentioning someone who is not here yet#

If you @-mention someone who cannot open the Canvas, Rally stops before sending and asks: Add participant? (or Add participants? for several people). The message explains that the person cannot currently open the Canvas, and that if you do not add them, they will not be able to see the mention.

• Add and mention (or Add all and mention) adds them and sends your message. You can only add people if you are allowed to change who can open the Canvas; otherwise ask its creator to add them first.
• Cancel sends nothing, so you can think again.

Does Rally answer every message?#

No, and you would not want it to. When several people are talking in a Canvas, not every message is a request for Rally. "Can you check the numbers in row four, Priya?" is for Priya.

Rally reads each new message and decides whether it is meant for Rally, for the humans, or both:

• A clear request for work gets an answer.
• A message that mentions @Rally gets an answer.
• A message with a file attached, or with a comment on what Rally made, always gets an answer.
• People chatting among themselves, or telling a mentioned teammate something, are usually left alone.
• If Rally cannot tell, it replies only when it is already in the middle of some work in the Canvas.

Rally makes this call by looking at the last ten or so messages, and it does not show you its decision. When you want to be sure, mention @Rally.

Messages Rally did not answer are not ignored. Rally still reads them the next time it works in the Canvas, so a decision your team made in passing becomes part of what it knows.

Who said what, and when#

Every message carries a short line saying who wrote it and when.

• Your messages sit on the right, with your name on the outside edge, a small coloured dot (your personal colour) and the time.
• Everyone else's, Rally's included, sit on the left, with the name first and then the time. Rally's replies are signed Rally.

On a finished answer from Rally, the line may also show how long the work took.

Times that keep themselves current#

Times on messages read like just now, 7 minutes ago or 3 hours ago, and they update by themselves while you watch. Leave Rally open all afternoon and "7 minutes ago" will not still be claiming to be 7 minutes ago at teatime.

• Under a minute reads just now. Then it counts minutes, then hours, then days.
• After seven days it switches to a fixed date and time, such as Sep 10, 2026, 3:42 PM, written the way your Mac's language and region settings like.
• Labels move on about every ten seconds, so one can lag behind by a few seconds.
• When Rally's window is hidden or minimised the labels rest, and catch up the moment you bring the window back.

Rest your pointer on any of these times for a moment and a small tip shows the exact date and time, in your own time zone. That is handy when "3 days ago" is not precise enough for a deadline. The tip appears for the mouse or trackpad only; you cannot reach it with the keyboard.

Next: Who can see what, before you share anything sensitive.