Sharing & collaboration
Inviting people by email
Sometimes you don't want an open link floating around — you want these three people to see the design, and nobody else. Email invites do exactly that: access is tied to each person's address and stays private, even when the design is Restricted.
When to invite instead of link
Reach for invites when you want named people rather than an open link. Each invitee gets their own Can view or Can edit access, tied to their email — so you always know who can open the design, and you can change or revoke any one person without affecting the others.
Because invites don't depend on a public link, they keep working while the scope stays on Restricted ("Only you and invited people can open this."). If you'd rather hand out one URL that anyone can open, use an open link instead — see Share by link.
Adding people
Open the Share this design dialog from the Share button, and find the Invite people section.
- Click into the field labelled "Add people by email, comma-separated" and type an address. To invite several people at once, separate the addresses with commas or spaces.
- Set the role pill to Can view or Can edit — this applies to everyone in that batch.
- Click Invite.
Tip: batch people by the access they need. Send all your reviewers in one Can view invite, then invite your co-designer separately with Can edit — it's faster than fixing roles one at a time afterwards.
Confirmation and errors
You'll get immediate feedback:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| "Invitation sent." | The invite went out — the person now appears in the access list. |
| "Enter one or more valid email addresses." | One of the addresses is malformed. Fix the typo and try again. |
| "Couldn't send the invitation. Try again." | The send failed (usually a network hiccup). Retry. |
Seeing who has access
Everyone with access shows up in the Who has access list. Your own row sits at the top, marked Owner and You. Each person you've invited appears below with their email address, an Invited status, and their current role pill.
This list is the single source of truth for a design's access — scan it any time you're not sure who can open something.
Changing or removing access
Access isn't set in stone. From the Who has access list you can adjust anyone at any time:
- Change a role — flip a person's Can view / Can edit pill. The change applies immediately; no re-invite needed. Promote a reviewer to editor, or drop an editor back to view-only, in one click.
- Remove someone — click the Remove (×) control on their row to revoke access entirely. They can no longer open the design.
What the recipient sees
A Can view invitee simply opens the design in read-only Viewer mode — nothing to sign in for, just look and download.
A Can edit invitee who isn't signed in sees a prompt first: "You're invited to edit. Sign in to start editing." Editing requires an account so that every change is attributed to the right person — essential once more than one of you is working on the same design. Signing in switches them straight into the editor. If they're new, creating an account takes under a minute.
Note: AI and other premium tools on a shared design run against the visitor's own account. A free or signed-out invitee can view or edit the design, but the Assistant won't be available to them until they're on a paid plan of their own.
Invites vs. an open link
Both live in the same dialog, and they solve different problems:
| Email invite | Open link | |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets in | Named people, by address | Anyone who has the URL |
| Roles | Set per person | One role for the whole link |
| Privacy | Works under Restricted | Requires Anyone with the link |
| Best for | Clients, teammates, co-editing | Quick, wide sharing |
The other big difference: invited editors edit the same design together, live — which is what makes real-time live collaboration possible. An open Can edit link, by contrast, gives each visitor their own separate copy.
Where to go next
- Want the fastest way to send a design to anyone? See Share by link.
- Editing together at the same time? Live collaboration & presence covers cursors, avatars and how edits merge.