Add Comments to SharePoint List Item (Modern Experience)

In many real-world SharePoint applications, comments are a simple but powerful way to keep all discussions tied to a specific list item—whether it’s a task, or a support ticket. Instead of chasing long email threads, you can let your team discuss everything right inside the SharePoint list item itself.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn step-by-step how to:

• Add comments to a SharePoint list item
• Use @mention to tag people and collect feedback
• View and reply to existing comments
• Delete unwanted comments
• Disable comments for a list if you don’t want users to use this feature

By the end, you’ll be able to confidently manage comments in any modern SharePoint list.

What are comments in a SharePoint list?

Comments in a SharePoint list let users have a conversation about a specific item. These are not regular columns like “Title” or “Status” and you won’t see them in SharePoint list views or exports.

A few important points about SharePoint list item comments:

• Comments are attached to the individual item, not to the whole list.
• Each comment shows who added it and when it was added.
• You can use @mention to notify a specific user.
• Comments are only available in the modern experience for SharePoint lists.

Imagine you have a list called “Furniture Types” where users request desks, chairs, and storage cabinets. For each request, the admin and team can use the comments pane to discuss availability, clarify specifications, or update delivery status. Everything stays with the item, so no one has to dig through email to understand what happened.

Add Comments to a SharePoint List Item

Let’s start with the basic action—adding a comment to an item in a modern SharePoint list.

Follow these steps:

1. Open your SharePoint list
   • Go to the SharePoint site where your list is located.
   • Open the list (for example, a list named “Furniture Types”).
   • Make sure you are using the modern list experience (most SharePoint Online lists are modern by default). Here is a screenshot how the SharePoint list looks like.

2. Select the item you want to comment on
   • Click on the row (item) where you want to add a comment.
   • You can either click directly on the item’s Title or select the checkbox and then click on the item to open the details pane.
3. Open the Comments panel

You have two common ways to access the comments:

• From the command bar at the top, click on the “Comment” icon (speech bubble icon) like the screenshot below:

• In the item’s details pane, look for the Comments section on the right side and click it if it is collapsed.

Once you do this, a Comments panel will appear on the right side of the screen.

4. Type your comment
   • In the text box inside the Comments panel, type your message.
   • This could be something like: “Confirmed that this storage cabinet is available in black and white finishes.”

5. Post the comment
   • Click the Arrow (Send) icon to submit your comment for the SharePoint list item.
   • Your comment will immediately appear in the Comments section under the item, along with your name and the timestamp.

You can repeat this process to add multiple comments to the same item. This is very handy when you want to keep an ongoing conversation on a request or task.

Check out Create and Use Lookup Column in SharePoint Online

Use @mention in List Comments to Tag People

One of the most useful features of list comments in SharePoint is the ability to tag people using @mention. This is great when you want someone specific to review a request or provide input.

Here’s how to use @mention in a comment:

1. Open the item and the Comments panel
   • As before, open the SharePoint list item and show the Comments panel on the right.
2. Type @ and start entering the user’s name
   • In the comment text box, type @, followed by the first few letters of the person’s name or email ID.
   • A people picker dropdown will appear with matching users from your organization.
3. Select the user to mention
   • Click the correct person from the suggestions list.
   • Their name will be highlighted in the comment box.
4. Write your message and submit
   • Complete your message (for example: “@John Doe Can you confirm if this chair is available in blue?”).
   • Click the Arrow (Send) icon to post the comment.

Here is a screenshot for your reference.

You can see the screenshot below, how the SharePoint list item comments looks like:

What happens when you @mention someone:

• The mentioned user will see the comment in the item’s Comments panel.
• In most cases, they will also receive an email notification from SharePoint, letting them know they were mentioned, with a link back to the item.
• This helps you pull the right people into the conversation without manually sending emails.

Read How to Use Content Types in SharePoint Online Lists

View and Reply to Comments on a SharePoint List Item

Once comments start coming in on a SharePoint list item, you’ll want to quickly see what has been discussed and reply where needed.

To view and reply to comments:

1. Open the list item
   • Go to your SharePoint list and click the item you’re interested in.
2. Open the Comments panel
   • If the Comments pane is not already visible, click the Comment icon from the command bar or from the details pane.
   • You’ll see all previous comments listed in chronological order.
3. Review the conversation
   • Scroll through the Comments panel to read the history of the discussion for that item.
   • Each comment shows who posted it and when, so you can easily follow the conversation.
4. Reply or add new comments
   • To continue the discussion, type a new comment at the bottom of the Comments panel.
   • You can also @mention other users if you need their input.
   • Click the Arrow icon to post your reply.

Comments are especially useful in scenarios like:

• Approving or rejecting furniture requests based on stock availability.
• Clarifying dimensions or colors for a requested item.
• Tracking delivery or installation updates.

The next time you open the item, all previous comments will still be there in the panel, giving you a complete history of the discussion.

Read SharePoint List Conditional Formatting

Delete Comments From a SharePoint List Item

Sometimes a comment might be added by mistake or might no longer be relevant (for example, duplicate messages or internal notes that should be removed). In such cases, you can delete comments from the SharePoint list item.

Important: In most environments, users can only delete their own comments. Admins may have broader permissions, depending on the tenant configuration.

To delete a comment:

• Open the list and select the item
  • Go to your SharePoint list and open the specific item whose comment you want to remove.
• Open the Comments panel
  • Click on the Comment icon (from the command bar or from the item’s details pane) to open the Comments panel on the right. You can see the screenshot below:

• Hover over the comment you want to delete
  • Move your mouse pointer over the comment.
  • When you hover over a comment that you are allowed to delete, a Delete (trash) icon will appear next to it.

• Delete the comment
  • Click the Delete icon.
  • A confirmation prompt will appear, asking something like “Delete comment?”.
  • Click Delete to confirm. Below is a screenshot for your reference.

The comment will be removed from the Comments panel. Other comments will remain unchanged, and the conversation history will still be intact for the remaining messages.

Use this option carefully. Once deleted, the comment is not visible to users, and it is not meant to be restored from the UI.

Check out Filter SharePoint List Items in Power Apps

Disable comments in a SharePoint list

In some scenarios, you may not want users to add comments at all. For example:

• The list is used purely for logging system events.
• You only want data entry and do not want discussions attached to items.
• You are using custom solutions (like Power Apps or Power Automate) and want to avoid confusion with native comments.

In such cases, you can disable comments at the list level. When you turn off this setting, users can no longer add new comments to any item in that list.

Here’s how to disable comments for a SharePoint list:

1. Open the list settings
   • Go to your SharePoint site and open the list where you want to turn off comments.
   • Click the Gear icon (Settings) in the top-right corner.
   • From the menu, select List settings.
2. Go to Advanced settings
   • In the List Settings page, scroll down to the General Settings section.
   • Click on Advanced settings.
3. Turn off comments
   • In the Advanced settings page, scroll until you see the Comments section.
   • You will see an option to enable or disable comments for the list.
   • Select No (or equivalent option that disables comments).
   • Click OK to save your changes.

What happens after you disable comments:

• Users will not see the option to add new comments for items in that SharePoint list.
• Existing comments are not deleted; they can still be visible in many cases, but users won’t be able to add more comments.
• This setting applies to the entire list, not just specific items.

If you later decide you want to use comments again for the SharePoint list, you can come back to Advanced settings and turn comments back on.

Conclusion

Using comments in a SharePoint list item is a simple way to keep your communication organized and item-specific. You can:

• Add comments directly from the modern list experience
• Use @mention to bring the right people into the conversation
• Read and reply to previous comments to maintain context
• Delete unnecessary comments when needed
• Disable comments entirely when they are not required for that list

If you’re already using SharePoint lists to track requests, tasks, or inventory, enabling and using comments can significantly reduce back-and-forth emails and make it easier for your team to see the full story behind each item.

You may also like some more SharePoint tutorials:

• SharePoint List Calculated Column Concatenate() Function
• SharePoint List View Formatting by JSON Using Lookup Value
• SharePoint List Calculated Column IF Statement
• Calculate Average Value in SharePoint List

Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.