Sharing — Items, Documents, Folders & Groups

Your context is more useful when the right people can see it. Share a receipt with your accountant, a packing list with your family, or a whole folder with a group — and keep control of it the entire time.

#What It Does

Sharing lets you give another person — or a whole group — access to your items, documents, folders, and Q&A answers. You share by email address. If your recipient already has an ambientChat account, they get live access: the shared thing appears in their app under Shared with me, and they always see your latest version. If they don't have an account yet, they get an invitation email, and the moment they sign up the share activates automatically.

You decide whether each share is read-only (they can look, not touch) or read-write (they can help you keep it current). You can see everything you've shared, and you can revoke any share at any time — access disappears immediately. Nothing you share ever leaves your control.

Sharing the viewing side — how shared content shows up in your own library, the scope pill, and removing things others shared with you — is covered in the Inventory guide. This guide is about the act of sharing.

#How to Use It

#iOS App

Open any item, document, folder, or Q&A answer
Tap the share symbol (the arrow-out-of-a-box icon) — it opens the manage-sharing control for that thing
Enter a person's email address, or pick a group you belong to
Choose the access level: Can view (read-only) or Can edit (read-write)
Add an optional note, then tap Share

Can edit on a note, text file or spreadsheet (markdown, text, CSV, TSV) means the words themselves, not just the title: the recipient taps the pencil and gets the same editor you do, and their save changes your copy. If you're both editing at once, the second person is told who has it open rather than overwriting — and if the text changed since they opened it, their save is refused and kept as a draft instead of wiping your changes.

Every text change is credited. When someone other than you last changed a document's words, the page says Last edited by name and when, above the text. It shows up whether you're the owner reading a recipient's edit or the recipient reading the owner's. And if you use Undo on a change someone else made, the menu says Undo name's change, so you never throw away their work without knowing whose it was.

The recipient gets access right away (or an invitation if they're new). The share symbol doubles as a status light: once something is shared, it carries a share badge so you can tell at a glance what's out in the world.

You can also reach the same control by long-pressing a card in a list and choosing Share.

One answer or the whole discussion. When a question got answers from more than one AI (a panel of experts), the share sheet shows This Q&A | Whole thread at the top. It opens on This Q&A, the answer you tapped Share on, so you can send it to a person or group. Tap Whole thread to share every answer together; a whole thread goes out as a public link.

If the whole thread already has a public link, that link shows every answer in it — so on This Q&A the Public link choice shows the thread's link and says the answer is already public through it, rather than offering to make a second one. To make the answers private again, tap Stop the whole-thread link — that stops the link for every answer in the thread.

#Choosing who can see it

The sharing control opens with a row of audience choices, and a line underneath spelling out what the selected one actually does:

Choice	Who that is
Person	One email address. They sign in to see it, and you can change or remove their access any time.
Group	Everyone currently in a group you belong to — including members added later.
Everyone	Every ambientChat account. Not the public web.
Public link	A page on the open internet. No sign-in, and anyone can forward it.

Everyone and Public link sound similar and are not: one stays inside ambientChat, the other is the open web. Read the line under the row before you commit — it changes with your choice.

Choosing an audience never shares anything on its own. Nothing leaves your account until you press Share (for a person or group) or Create link (for a public link). Backing out of the sheet leaves no trace.

Choose Public link in the sharing control for a public, view-only URL you can drop into Instagram, a text, Slack, an email, anywhere. Unlike a person-invite, a link needs no recipient and anyone who has it can view (they don't need an account to look — a sign-up prompt appears on the page).

Choose Public link, read what it says, then tap Create link — the link does not exist until you do
Tap Copy to put the URL on your clipboard, or Share to hand it straight to Messages, Mail, or a social app via your phone's share sheet
Paste it wherever you like — it unfurls as a rich preview card in most apps

The link is permanent — it keeps working so an old post never dead-links. You stay in control:

Reset link issues a fresh URL and kills the old one (use it if you posted somewhere you regret).
Stop sharing switches the public link off entirely — the URL then shows "no longer shared."

Your name on the page and in the emails is the one you set in your profile — the same name people see beside your shares in the app. If you haven't set one, share and invitation emails show your email address instead (the recipient knows you by it); a public link never does, because anyone can open it — it says An ambientChat member until you add a name.

Sharing a Q&A answer as a public link asks you to Preview the page first — because an answer can mention your location, inventory, or names, you see exactly what a stranger will before you hand out the link. (Receipts are never shown on a public page.)

#Emailing it to someone (they read it in the email)

Under the link is a field that says Email it to friends. Type one or more addresses, tap the mail button, and ambientChat sends a branded email from you — with the thing itself inside it. Your recipient doesn't have to click anything, and they don't need an account.

What travels depends on what you shared:

What you shared	What lands in their inbox
A note, a report, any text or markdown document	The whole document, formatted — headings, lists and tables intact
A Q&A answer or a Panel-of-Experts thread	Every answer, each labelled with the model that wrote it
A spreadsheet (CSV)	A readable table, plus the original file attached
An Excel workbook, a PowerPoint deck, a Word file	The original file attached — those formats can't be shown in an email
A PDF	The first few pages as pictures, plus the PDF attached
A photo or a scan	The picture itself, plus the original attached
A folder	Its contents, with a link to browse the rest

A very long document is cut with a "read the rest" link rather than being silently chopped by the mail app. A file bigger than 10 MB isn't attached — the email says so and links to it instead.

The Open button is still there at the bottom, and it still leads to the full page where they can sign up if they want to ask follow-up questions. It's an invitation now, not a toll gate.

The same is true of a person-share: when you share with someone by email from the Person tab, the invitation they receive carries the same content.

Share a folder and you share everything in it — and, because folder shares cascade to sub-folders, sharing Music also shares Music/Vinyl and everything beneath it. New things you add to the folder later are covered too.

Long-press a folder (or open it and tap the share symbol)
Choose Share, pick your recipient or group, and set the access level
Everyone you shared with sees the folder — and its contents — under their Shared with me

#Seeing and Revoking What You've Shared

The share badge on any card tells you it's shared. Tap into the sharing control to see who it's shared with.
To stop sharing, open the sharing control and tap Revoke next to a recipient (or Stop sharing to revoke everyone). Access is removed immediately — the item vanishes from their Shared with me.
Changing what someone can do, or how long they have. Each recipient's row shows their access level and when it runs out. Tapping either opens a list of choices — it does not change anything by itself, so you can open one just to look. The durations name the date they land on ("90 days — until 19 Nov 2026"), and the row you are already on is offered too, so leaving things alone is a choice you can make rather than something you achieve by backing out.
Every change can be taken back. After you pick one, the row says what changed and offers Undo for as long as the sheet is open. A change that gives someone more — longer access, or the right to edit — says Widened just now, because that is the one worth a second look.

Sharing (from the Context tab on the phone, or in the web sidebar) lists everything you have shared, with Expiring soon at the top so the shares about to lapse are the first thing you see.

Renew gives everyone on that item whose access is running out another 30 days. It only tops people up — a recipient who already has longer than that is left exactly as they are, and Renew doesn't appear at all when nobody on the item needs it. After you press it the row says how many shares were renewed and offers Undo.

Renew covers emailed shares too, not just people you invited in the app. Anything you sent by email carries its own 30-day clock, and Renew puts more time on it — the link in that original email keeps working, so you never have to re-send the thing itself. (A Public link is different: it has no expiry at all, so there is nothing to renew and Renew leaves it alone.)

To change one person rather than all of them, open the item's sharing control instead and use that recipient's own row.

Asking the assistant works the same way. "Renew Ann's access" or "give them longer" only ever adds time — if Ann already has longer, the assistant leaves her share alone and tells you the date it already runs to. To set a shorter length on purpose, say so ("make Ann's access end in 30 days"); the assistant tells you the new end date, and can put it back if you change your mind.

#Groups

Groups let you share with several people at once — a household, a project team, a set of neighbours — without re-typing addresses every time.

Open Sharing / Groups from the Context tab
Tap New group, name it, and invite people by email
Invitees get an invitation to accept; once they do, they're members
Share anything with the group and every member gets it. Remove a member and their access to the group's shares ends. If the Share sheet can't load your groups, it says Couldn't load your groups with Try again — it never tells you that you have none, and it hides New group… until they load, so you won't make a second copy of a group you already have. Everyone in the member list goes by the name they set in their profile — the same name the invitation email used. Someone invited who hasn't joined yet shows as their full email address.
Admins run the group. On a member's row, tap the shield to make them an admin — they can then invite, remove and promote too — or tap it again to take that back. A group always keeps at least one admin, so the last one can't be demoted or removed until someone else is made admin. (The group's owner is the one who created it and can delete it; being an admin is about running it.)

#Web

The web interface at app.ambientchat.ai mirrors sharing:

Hover or open any item, document, or folder
Click the share symbol to open the sharing control
Enter an email or choose a group, set view or edit access, and confirm
Manage recipients — and revoke — from the same control. Shared content you receive shows up under the Shared with me scope (see the Inventory guide)
Groups: open a group from the Share Center's Groups list (rows you administer say · admin). On each member's row, the shield makes them an admin or takes that back — the same rule as on the phone: a group always keeps at least one admin.

The audience row, its explanatory line, and the recipient-row choices all work exactly as on iOS — including the rule that choosing an audience publishes nothing until you press Share or Create link, and that changing a recipient's access or duration opens a list rather than changing anything on the spot. Once a link is created: Copy the URL or Share it (your browser's share sheet where supported, otherwise it copies). Reset link and Stop sharing work exactly as on iOS.

#Via Chat

You can share by simply asking:

"Share the olive oil with my wife."
"Send the washing-machine manual to steve@example.com."
"Share my Recipes folder with the family group, read-only."
"Who have I shared the Warranties folder with?"
"Stop sharing that receipt with the repair shop."

The assistant uses the sharing tools on your behalf and tells you what it did — no confirmation taps, and an undo path if you change your mind.

One exception worth knowing: emailing an answer sends immediately. Ask the assistant to email a Q&A answer to a named address — "send that urn valuation to mat@example.com" — and the email goes out on the spot, with the whole answer formatted in it. There's no draft to review first and no unsend, so if you're not sure the assistant has picked the right answer, say which one before you ask it to send. (Asking it to share an item, document or folder by email still opens a draft in your mail app for you to send yourself.)

#Via Claude Desktop (MCP)

Through the MCP connection these tools are available:

share_with_email — Grant a person live access to an item, document, folder, or conversation by email
share_with_group — Share something with an entire group
share_item / share_document / share_view / share_conversation — Share a specific kind of thing
renew_share_grant — Give someone more time on a share; never shortens it
update_share_grant — Change someone's access (view ↔ edit) or set an exact length, which can be shorter
revoke_share_grant — Remove a share (access ends immediately)
list_my_shares — See everything you've shared and with whom
list_shared_with_me — See what others have shared with you
create_group / invite_to_group / accept_group_invitation / get_group_members / set_group_member_role / remove_group_member / delete_group — Full group lifecycle. Admins run a group (invite, remove, make others admin); a group always keeps at least one admin
resend_invitation — Re-send a pending invitation

See the MCP Tools reference for the complete list.

#Tips & Tricks

Share the folder, not the files. If you'll share a whole set of things — every receipt for a trip, every manual for the kitchen — put them in a folder and share that once. New additions are covered automatically, and sub-folders come along for the ride.
Read-only by default is the safe choice. Give Can view unless the other person genuinely needs to edit. You can always upgrade a share to Can edit later.
Revoking is instant and total. The moment you revoke, the other person loses access and the item leaves their Shared with me. There's no lingering copy.
A share that has run out says so. If you open something shared with you just as its time runs out, you'll see This share expired on [date] — ask [owner] to renew it rather than a loading error. Renewing is the owner's tap; once they do, it opens again.
Groups save typing. For anyone you share with repeatedly — family, a work team — make a group once and share to the group forever after.

#Options

Setting	What It Does	Default
Access level	Whether a recipient can view or also edit	Can view (read-only)
Recipient	A single email address or a group you belong to	—
Folder cascade	Sub-folders and their contents inherit the parent folder's shares	On (automatic)

#Known Limitations

Person-shares are live; public links are view-only snapshots. Sharing with a person gives them live, always-current access once they have an account. A public link (Anyone with the link) is a read-only page anyone can open without an account — it can't be edited by viewers. Choose the person-invite for collaboration, the public link for reach.
Revoke removes access, not memory. If someone had Can edit and made changes while they had access, those edits remain — revoking stops future access, it doesn't roll back history.
Groups are for sharing, not chat. A group is a named set of people you share content with; it isn't a group-messaging thread.
An emailed copy can't be revoked. When you email a share, the content travels into someone's inbox. Stop sharing kills the link and any live access — it cannot reach the email they already have, the same way it can't unsend a screenshot. If that matters for a particular document, set its link to summary only before you email it, and the email carries the summary rather than the full text.
Invitations wait for signup. Share with someone who has no account and the grant stays pending until they sign up with that email — then it activates automatically. Use resend invitation if they've lost the email.

#Version History

Version	Date	What Changed
1	2026-07-05	Initial guide — in-app live sharing of items, documents, folders & Q&A; groups; folder-share cascade; revoke (v0.13.2)
2	2026-07-06	Public "Anyone with the link" sharing — permanent view-only URLs with Copy/Share, Reset & Stop; preview-before-publish for Q&A (AMB-455)
3	2026-08-21	Share emails now carry the content itself — documents, Q&A threads and tables render in the inbox; Office files and PDFs arrive as attachments; no account needed to read
4	2026-08-23	Emailing a Q&A answer to a named address now sends from ambientChat with the full answer, instead of opening a truncated draft in your mail app
16	2026-10-06	The no-account invitation link now follows the share itself. Renew an in-app share and the link in the invitation email opens again; give a share 90 days or never and the link lasts that long too; shorten, end or stop a share and the link closes at the same moment — before, it kept its own 30-day clock either way (AMB-1539)
15	2026-10-05	Renew now works on emailed shares as well as in-app ones — anything you sent by email lapses after 30 days, and Renew puts more time on it so the original link keeps working rather than making you re-send it. Undo puts it back to exactly what it was (AMB-1516)
16	2026-10-06	Opening a share that has expired now says when it expired and who can renew it — on the phone, on the web and in chat — instead of "Couldn't load this list" (AMB-1774)
14	2026-10-05	Whole thread now appears for every answer of a multi-AI discussion — including when you share from a search, from far down your Q&A list, or from an older discussion — instead of only when its other answers happened to be on screen (AMB-1742)
13	2026-10-03	One answer from a multi-AI discussion whose whole thread has a public link now shows that link under Public link, says the answer is already public through it, and offers Stop the whole-thread link — instead of saying the answer has no link (AMB-1731)
12	2026-10-03	The public share page, share emails and group invitations now name you exactly as the app does — your profile name, never "Someone" or your AI nickname; a public link never shows your email address. A connected AI asked who is editing a shared document can now say who (AMB-1701, AMB-1702)
11	2026-10-02	Sharing one answer from a multi-AI discussion now opens on This Q&A with person and group sharing, and choosing This Q&A no longer jumps back to Whole thread on iPhone (AMB-1729)
10	2026-10-02	Asking the assistant to renew someone's access now only ever extends it — a share that already has longer is left alone, just like the Renew button. Setting a shorter length is a separate, explicit request, and the assistant reports the new end date and can undo it (AMB-1540, AMB-1497)
8	2026-09-28	When the Share sheet can't load your groups it says so and offers Try again, instead of "No groups yet — tap New group…", which led people to create a duplicate of a group they already had. The Me tab does the same for your interests instead of saying "Nothing here yet". On iOS and the web (AMB-1526)
7	2026-09-27	Renew on the Sharing screen now only extends access — a recipient who already has longer is left alone, it is hidden when nobody needs it, it says how many shares it renewed, and it offers Undo (AMB-1496)
6	2026-09-27	Choosing an audience no longer shares anything on its own — "Anyone" is now Public link, each choice says what it does, and a link is created only when you press Create link. Changing a recipient's access or duration now opens a list of choices instead of changing on the spot, and every change offers Undo while the sheet is open (AMB-1478)
5	2026-09-18	Group admins: make a member an admin (or take it back) from the member row on the phone and on web, or ask the assistant; a group always keeps at least one admin (AMB-826, AMB-1235)