Microsoft recently introduced a new feature of commenting in SharePoint Online lists and Microsoft lists. Using this feature users will be able to add and delete comments on list items. Users can view all comments on a list item and filter between views that show comments or activity related to an item in details pane.
Microsoft has started rolling out this feature to all SharePoint Online tenants in December 2020 release, see Roadmap.
Where can you find Comments options?
Comments options are currently located at below three places in SharePoint Online/Microsoft lists:
List view
Users can see which list items have comments when they access the SharePoint Online list view or Microsoft list home page. Comments option will be shown on command bar when you select a list item as well as at the right hand side of Title column. When you hover over on comments icon it will show you the count of comments added to the list item.
Display/Edit form
By default, users will see a new comments pane alongside the list item form when they access a list. Users can toggle the comment pane visibility by clicking the comments icon. When you hide comments, the pane does not collapse. The comments pane will be closed by default for lists customized by Power Apps.
Details Pane
Users can see the Comments and All activity related to list item on details pane. Users can filter views that show comments or activity by using the dropdown under “More details” section.
Permission Considerations
Comments follow the permission settings inherent in SharePoint Online and Microsoft Lists.
- Users with read-only permission can only view comments.
- Those with list edit permission can make comments as well as delete comments; editing comments is currently not possible.
Where the Comments will be stored?
Comments are stored in the schema for each list, which is based on the SharePoint storage platform.
Working with SharePoint REST APIs
As comments are stored within the list schema itself and not with list items, it is not possible to fetch comments using $select with /items endpoint. However, you can get the list item comments using below endpoint:
https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site>/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('<list-name>')/GetItemById(<item-id>)/Comments()
//OR
https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site>/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('<list-name>')/items(<item-id>)/Comments()For more information on working with comments using SharePoint REST APIs, check:
- GET SharePoint list item comments using REST API
- Add Comments on list item using SharePoint REST API
- Delete Comments from list item using SharePoint REST API
- @mention people in list comments using SharePoint REST API
Working with JSON Formatting
Currently it is not possible to get the actual list item comments value using JSON formatting. But, you can get the count of comments added to list item using [$_CommentCount].
Check how you can get comments count and show it in SharePoint list view at: Working with SharePoint Online/Microsoft List Comments using JSON Formatting.
Current Limitations
- Editing comments is currently not possible.
- Any user can delete the list item comments. Currently there is no way to disable deletion of comments.
- Maximum characters limit in list comments: 2000 characters
- Classic lists that are not yet built to show up in modern user interfaces, like Task lists, will not have this commenting feature.
- Commenting on lists in Teams is not available with this release.
- Comments are not indexed by Search.
Enable/Disable Comments
Currently it is not possible to disable commenting at the site or list level. Microsoft is working on the new feature which will allow users to enable/disable the comments for individual SharePoint lists. However, Admins can enable/disable this feature at the organization level by changing the CommentsOnListItemsDisabled parameter in the Set-SPOTenant PowerShell cmdlet:
Read more about how to enable/disable the commenting in SharePoint Online/Microsoft Lists at: How to Enable/Disable the commenting in SharePoint Online/Microsoft Lists.
What’s Next?
- Currently it is not possible to disable commenting at the site or list level. Microsoft is currently working on this feature update, more information at: Enable/Disable the comments for a SharePoint Online/Microsoft List.
- @mentions in comments:
- Get a colleague’s attention to an item in a list by @mentioning them within list comments. That person will receive a notification and a link that takes them directly back to the item, to review the comment and take the requested action.
I hope you liked this blog. Give your valuable feedback & suggestions in the comments section below and share this blog with others.
Ganesh Sanap Blogs 
cool blog. Thanks for showing us.
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Thank you Dominic!
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Really good blog,thank so much for your effort in writing the posts.
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Thank you for reading my blog Ludivina!
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cool blog. Cheers for showing us.
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Thank you Jose!
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Great Blog. Thank you for sharing it. You mentioned comments are not indexed by search. Is Comment Count? I noticed several crawled properties tied to Comments including 2 that mention count. I know it was possible for old SharePoint Blog sites, which we are trying to replicate
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Great article, thank you!
I was looking for a way to disable comments on list level and just have found a third part solution on youtube today! Wonderful!
I like to share the link to the video here so other visitors can also take advantage of this solution.
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/rk-s2DLg8QE
If you like, you also can implement this on your article?
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Thank you for reading my blog Stan!
Also, no need to use the 3rd party solutions to enable/disable comments at list level as it will soon be available from SharePoint list settings itself. More details at: https://ganeshsanapblogs.wordpress.com/2021/05/23/enable-disable-the-comments-for-a-sharepoint-online-microsoft-list/
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Hi, and thank you for share that with us.
Just i have a question, can i able to other user to add a comments but disable him/her to delete someone else comments on list?
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Hi Kamila, This is the current limitation of the commenting feature >> Any user (with list edit permission) can delete the list item comments. Currently there is no way to disable deletion of comments.
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Hi, it seems like the email button “Go to comment” has an incorrect URL. It opens the root sitecollection OLD News feed instead of the specific site collection list in which the comment was added… The URL:https://xxx.sharepoint.com/SitePages/Startsida.aspx?ID=1&commentId=1&e=bM1bDrcaYU%2DaV30DR0nw6Q&at=15&CT=1632903431322&OR=OWA%2DNT&CID=1c47f71a%2Df055%2D139d%2De61f%2D13bb9aad8439.
Any idea on why this is happening?
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Hi,
Did you figure out how to fix that issue (Go To Comment) opening in classic view instead of modern view?
Thanks
Mike
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“Go to comment” link is working fine for me now. Is it working for you as well?
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I would like to know how to make comments required when publishing? So changes are more transparent.
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Unfortunately you cannot make these comments mandatory while adding new list items.
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Hi,
When the comments are disabled on display/edit forms, is there a way to hide the button? Currently, it will open the comments area with a message that it is turned off. My staff would like that button gone.
BTW – really great article!!
Thanks,
Monty
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Thank you very much Monty. Unfortunately, we cannot hide this button using SharePoint OOTB features. You can hide it by injecting custom CSS on a page using SPFx application customizer (Not recommended by Microsoft).
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Hello Ganesh,
Great information. Is there a OOTB option to display these comments in list view form?? The current comments icon is not visible unless we hover the mouse on item.
Thank You…!!!
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Hi Amar, we cannot display the comments in list view but we can display the comments icon & count using JSON formatting. Check this article for more information: https://ganeshsanapblogs.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/working-with-sharepoint-online-microsoft-list-comments-using-json-formatting/
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Hello again,
Is there a way to restrict deletion of comments with contribute or edit permissions???
Thank You…
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Any user with edit permissions can delete the list item comments. Currently there is no way to disable deletion of comments.
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Hi Ganesh,
very good article for lists. How to apply REST API for site pages comments? If I get the url
https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/site_name/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('SitePages‘)/items(368)/Comments()
then I get the following response:
List ‘SitePages’ does not exist at site with URL ‘https://tenant.sharepoint.com/site_name/company’
but this site exists.
If you could also describe this, that would be very nice.
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Use ‘Site Pages’ instead of ‘SitePages’. Try using: https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/site_name/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('Site Pages’)/items(368)/Comments()
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Hi there. the Go To Comment link in the email notification for comments takes the user to the classic view of an item. Anyone else seeing the same thing?
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Do you know if there is way to receive email notifications if a comment or change is made to the list when the person does not @ me in the comment? I am the creator of the list
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In the classic SP I used a comments field in the list that showed text comments and it added date and time. Is this function gone in the new SP Modern experience? The new comment style looks more like a social media comment feature (including avatar). I added a comment field (multiple lines of text) to my new list, but it does not update with date and time. Having the old style of comment feature for was great for tracking work done on each list item. Thanks
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You can still use Multiple line of text column with “Append to existing text” setting enabled in modern experience to capture the comments. Try enabling this setting for your multiple lines of text column.
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Modern experience comments feature also captures the date of comment and shows it against each comment in comments pane in SharePoint list. Check the response for more clarification: https://ganeshsanapblogs.wordpress.com/2021/02/14/get-sharepoint-list-item-comments-using-rest-api/
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How to delete/hide permanently any feature(under ManageFeatures.aspx) from classic site?
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You can deactivate the site feature from site settings and then grant only necessary permissions (like Edit/Contribute) to other users so that they cannot activate the site feature again.
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Hi, I’d like to be able to allow team members to comment on a List item, but not edit the List items or the List details. It appears as of this article and the latest comments that is not possible. Might that feature be on the horizon some day?
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Yes, this is not possible as user should have edit permission on list item in order to comment on it. Also, no news from Microsoft about changing this functionality in near future. You may want to add idea/feedback on SharePoint feedback portal for this: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/06735c62-321c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472
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