How can we send notifications to the people picker in next-gen?

Question

We are having difficulties finding a way to send notifications to the user picker field in next-gen.  This is easily automated in our classic projects when we utilize a field called "Team Members" on our epics.

We have a next-gen project that we would like to send notifications to the team members selected on epics as well.  It doesn't seem to be an available field for automations when we try to build a rule.

Is there a way to do this through automation rules?  What are potential workarounds?

John Funk · Answer

I don't think Automation for Jira can use that field at all. You would need to use a text field - or use a classic software project instead.  :-)

Logan Hood · Answer

Thanks John.  I did see this article and was curious if there were any other options.  This has been a nice feature in the classic projects to notify all team members at once when they have been assigned to an epic.  Are there other options?  Could an alternative trigger be set up to add a comment at the users in that field or make them all watchers?

The current workaround has been for the reporter to just add a comment in the section manually but an automation would take out the risk of them forgetting.

John Funk · Answer

Hi Logan,

Take a look at this document - about halfway done -

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-desk-cloud/docs/available-custom-fields-for-next-gen-service-desks/

But you can't send an Automation to a user in those fields. They suggest you create a short text field and use that for the name. Which I think would be the person's email address.