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How to Collaborate on Projects with Messages in iOS 16

I admit that multiple people working on the same project is no fun. Especially when you cannot keep track of what task is assigned to a particular person and their progress. Several third-party collaboration apps serve this purpose. But what if you could manage all those projects through your iPhone?

Well, you can. The iOS 16 update adds a few new features, but not all of them have received enough attention and seem to have been hidden away. Collaboration is one such feature built into iOS apps. You can collaborate with your friends, family, etc. by sending them a link and inviting them to work on a project. Thus, you no longer need to rely on third-party apps to collaborate on projects.

What is Collaboration in iOS 16?

Collaboration is a newly introduced feature that helps you invite your colleagues or friends to work on tasks created in Files, Notes, Reminders, Safari, and more. It also expands support for third-party apps. Thus, we can expect support for several applications that are used daily at school and at work.

You can invite users to any of the above apps via Messages or FaceTime. Once users accept the invitation, everyone can work on the same project at the same time. In addition, all changes can be tracked in the “Show All Activities”tab (more on this later) and at the top of the message thread. This feature is available not only in iOS 16, but also in iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura.

How to Collaborate on Projects in the Messages App in iOS 16

Now that you know what collaboration is and how it works, let’s get started on projects through Messages or FaceTime. Please note that this feature is only supported on iOS 16 or later. On older versions of iOS, users can only view the message as an iCloud link.

Note. During my testing, users of iOS 15 and earlier were able to not only view the file as an iCloud link, but also make changes to it. Changes made are also reflected in the Show Activity tab.

Create an invitation to cooperate

I used the Notes app as an example, but the same steps apply to all supported apps. You just need to navigate to the desired settings. Let’s start.

  1. Open Notes on iPhone.
  2. Select the note you want to share with others, or you can create a new note.
  3. Tap the Share icon (field with an up arrow) in the top right corner.
  4. On the Share page, tap the Copy/Collaborate tab, located just below the title of your note (Example: Quiz).
  5. Make sure you select Collaborate.
    Manage collaboration through apps

    Once you’ve shared a file with all the members added to the message thread, a new icon will appear next to the Share icon in the top right corner. If your group chat has a group photo, it will be an icon, or the standard contact icon with a check mark will be visible.

    This icon is your entry point to track all activity in Notes. Let’s dive in and see what all these settings are.

    • Open the Notes app on your iPhone. Or go to a group in messages and tap a shared note.
    • Select the Collaborate icon located next to the Share icon in the top right corner.
    • To send a message to a group chat, click Message. You can also make an audio or video call.
    • All updates will be visible in the Latest Updates tab.
    • To view the changes made to the file, click Show All Actions. You can now view the exact time the user joined and made changes to the file.
    • Let’s say you want to see the changes made by different users, click “Show Highlights”. The Notes app will highlight changes made by different users by assigning a specific color to users and their changes.
    • In the Manage Shared Note section, you can view all users invited to the note and change permissions for individual users. You can also highlight all changes, hide alerts, change sharing options, copy the invitation link to the collaboration, or stop sharing the collaboration entirely. This gives the file owner more control over the project.
    • To remove access from a user added or invited to collaborate, click Manage Shared Note → click User (username) → scroll down and click Remove Access → Confirm Your Choice.

    Get collaboration updates in Messages on iPhone

    Whenever changes are made to the Collaboration, a notification banner will appear at the top of the message thread. If you want to see the changes you’ve made, click Show. And if you’ve already seen the changes or want to ignore the notification, tap x to close the notification.

    Once you start collaborating in Messages and make it your primary tool, you’ll likely end up working with the same people on multiple projects. In such cases, you won’t be bombarded with notification banners for every edit in every document.

    Rather, the notification banner will display a message that reads “3 people contributed 3 updates to 3 documents.”Tap Show to see changes, or tap x to close the notification. If you click Show, the next page will display all the changes made to different projects by different people. You can click “Show”to view or “Ignore”to dismiss the notification.

    Completion…

    At the time of this article’s publication, the collaboration feature is still in beta testing. We’ll be sure to update the article as soon as this feature appears in the stable build of iOS 16. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments.

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