How can I collaborate on cases?

Sprout provides several ways for care team members to collaborate directly within a case — from internal comments and real-time activity tracking to AI-powered summaries and team conversations. This article covers each collaboration method and when to use it.

Available on all plans. Mobile not supported for case collaboration features.

Understanding the case layout

Every case in Sprout has two main tabs:

Private messages appear as chat bubbles in Case Activity. Case history updates (assignments, status changes) are center-aligned with a compact footprint. Internal comments are right-aligned and highlighted in yellow.

Internal Comments

Internal Comments are the primary way to collaborate with your team directly on a case. They're visible only to your Sprout team — never to the customer.

How to leave an Internal Comment

1. Open a case from the Cases tab.

2. In the Case Activity tab, find the internal comment composer at the bottom of the activity stream (highlighted in yellow).

3. Type your comment (up to 500 characters).

4. (Optional) Use formatting options:

   • @mention a user: Type @ and select the person from the dropdown

   • @mention a User Team: Type @ and select the team — all team members with notifications enabled will be notified

   • Add emojis: Click the emoji picker or type emoji shortcodes

   • Add links: Paste a URL — it becomes clickable automatically

5. Click Send (or press Enter).

Your comment appears in Case Activity highlighted in yellow to clearly distinguish it from customer-facing replies.

💡 Why yellow? Internal Comments are visually distinct to prevent agents from accidentally sending an internal note to a customer. The compose box AND the comments themselves are both highlighted, giving you a clear "you're writing internally" signal.

How to add an Internal Comment when creating a case

1. When creating a new case (from the Smart Inbox or Cases tab), look for the Internal Comment field in the Create Case modal.

2. Add context for the team (e.g., "VIP customer — prioritize" or "Related to outage from yesterday").

3. Click Create Case.

The comment appears as the first entry in Case Activity.

Editing and deleting Internal Comments

• Hover over your comment in Case Activity to see edit/delete options.

• Edits and deletions are logged in Case Activity (your team can see that a comment was modified).

Internal Comment notifications

When someone @mentions you or responds to a comment thread:

• You receive a notification in the Notifications Drawer (filter by "Cases" to find them quickly).

• Depending on your preferences, you may also receive an email notification.

• You can reply directly to the email — your response appears as a new Internal Comment on the case.

Note: @mentioning Users and User Teams via email reply is not supported — this only works in the Sprout web app.

To configure notification preferences:
Navigate to Account & Settings > Settings > Notifications > Collaboration to enable/disable email and Slack notifications for Internal Comments.

Automated Rule Internal Comments

If you have Automated Rules configured to add Internal Comments (e.g., "This message was auto-routed because it matched keyword: billing"), these also appear highlighted in yellow in Case Activity. They're marked as system-generated so you can distinguish them from human comments.

Real-time Collision Detection

When another agent is viewing or actively replying to the same case you're working on, Sprout displays a collision indicator — showing you who else is on the case in real time.

This prevents:

• Duplicate replies to the same customer

• Agents unknowingly working on the same issue

• Conflicting status changes

No configuration needed — collision detection is always active.

User Availability indicators

When you @mention someone or consider assigning a case, Sprout shows availability indicators throughout the case interface:

• Green dot = Available (can receive case assignments)

• Yellow dot = Unavailable (online but not taking new cases)

• Gray dot = Offline

Hover over a user in Case Activity to see their current status. This helps you know who's actually around to respond to your Internal Comment or pick up an assignment — before you @mention them and wait.

For managers on Advanced plans, the queue agent status panel shows all agents' statuses, time in current status, and open case count. → How do I set my status in Sprout?

Team Conversations (Conversations drawer)

For more in-depth or cross-case discussions, use Team Conversations — a dedicated collaboration drawer accessible from the right navigation toolbar.

When to use Conversations vs. Internal Comments

How to start a Conversation from a case

1. Click the Conversations icon in the right-side toolbar (or click the conversations icon directly on a message in the Smart Inbox).

2. Type your message and @mention the relevant team members.

3. Submit your comment.

Team members receive notifications based on their configured preferences (in-app, email, Slack, or mobile push).

Note: Internal Comments within Cases do not appear in the Conversations drawer — they live only in Case Activity. These are two separate collaboration systems.

Reply Approval Workflows

For cases where brand consistency or compliance is critical, you can require replies to be approved before they're sent to the customer.

When an agent drafts a reply on a case that requires approval:

1. The reply enters a Needs Approval state.

2. The designated approver receives a notification.

3. The approver reviews the reply and either approves or rejects with feedback.

4. If rejected, the agent revises and resubmits.

This creates a built-in collaboration loop between agents and managers/leads without needing to leave the case or use external tools.

Trellis AI: Summarize and draft on cases

Sprout's AI agent, Trellis, can help your team collaborate more efficiently on complex or long-running cases.

Available capabilities:

• Summarize this Case — Get an instant summary of a multi-touch case including all messages, internal comments, and status changes. Useful when picking up a case from another agent.

• Summarize this Thread — Condense a long social conversation into key points.

• Draft a reply — Generate a context-aware draft reply based on the case history, which you can edit before sending.

• What should I do next? — Get a recommendation for the best next action on the case.

How to access:

• Click the Trellis icon in the right toolbar when viewing a case or thread, OR

• Use the in-line Summarize this Case button in Case Activity, OR

• Use the in-line Draft a reply button in the reply editor.

Note: Trellis is available with the Trellis Plus add-on. The Care Agent (Respond Mode) is currently in Early Access.

Case Activity as a collaboration record

Beyond active collaboration, Case Activity serves as a permanent audit trail of everything that happened on a case:

Care managers can use this history to:

• Analyze patterns in how cases are resolved

• Coach agents on collaboration and handoff practices

• Identify common pain points that slow resolution

• Audit compliance with response SLAs

Permissions required

To collaborate on cases, users need the following permissions enabled:

Navigate to Account & Settings > Settings > Members & Roles to view or update case permissions.

Note: Any user can @mention User Teams in Internal Comments regardless of their individual permissions.

Mobile limitations

Case collaboration features (Internal Comments, Case Activity, Conversations on cases) are not available in the Sprout mobile app. Cases was a mobile feature historically (called "Tasks"), but was removed in 2024 during the case management redesign due to the pace of UI changes.

You will receive push notifications for case-related @mentions and Internal Comments on mobile, but you cannot view or respond to them within the app — you'll need to switch to the web app.

FAQ

Can customers see my Internal Comments?
No. Internal Comments are visible only to Sprout users in your account. They are never sent to social networks or displayed to customers.

Is there a character limit for Internal Comments?
Yes — 500 characters maximum, including emojis and links.

Can I attach files to Internal Comments?
No. Internal Comments support text, emojis, clickable links, and @mentions only. To share files with your team, use Team Conversations or link to external storage.

What's the difference between Internal Comments and the Conversation tab?
Internal Comments are private team notes that only your Sprout users can see. The Conversation tab shows the actual social media thread between your brand and the customer.

Can I use Internal Comments on cases created by Automated Rules?
Yes. Automated Rules can also be configured to automatically ADD an Internal Comment when creating a case (e.g., "Routed from VIP keyword rule"). You can add your own comments after.

Why can't I see the Internal Comment compose box?
Check that you have Create Cases or Update Cases permissions enabled. If you can view cases but not interact with them, your permissions may be set to View-only.

Do Internal Comments count toward any SLA metrics?
No. Internal Comments are not counted as customer replies and do not affect response time or resolution time metrics in the Case Management Report.