When it comes to resolving requests, there might come situations where external involvement might be needed. This can mean informing someone about the progress or actively needing feedback, and can include both colleagues from other teams not using Back, as well as external collaborators from different service providers. For such scenarios, Back has the functionality of external collaboration.

In replies and internal notes you can specify additional people that should receive your message by using  +  and then specifying their e-mail address.

The people that are mentioned this way will be notified via e-mail, and will receive not only the text of the reply or internal note, but also the original title and description of the request itself.

They can also respond to your message by simply replying to the e-mail - their response will be added as an internal note to the request and will NOT be shared with the requester.

By default, the person that you involve only receives the title and the description of the request and your message.

In case you want to forward the full context of the request (all past replies), you can change the behavior by clicking on Include full message history. The recipient will then receive the complete history of the request (all replies) via e-mail.

No, no Back account is needed. It can be anyone, as long as you have their e-mail address.

If you involve them in a reply then yes.
If you involve them in an internal note then no.

Yes, they can simply respond to the e-mail, and their response will be added as an internal note in the request.