Invite members to a Trello board
10 min
Beginner
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Compare board observers, members, and admins
- Invite someone to a Trello board
- Change a member's permission level
- Remove a member from a board
Explore board users
To collaborate on a Trello board, you’ll need to invite others to join your board. Collaboration in Trello is structured around distinct user types and permission levels that determine what actions users can perform on the board. A board’s users are displayed as avatar icons at the top of the board.
👇 The Q4 Holiday Party board has four members.
If you want users to collaborate on your board, like adding, editing, and moving cards, you can invite them to the board and select one of the following user types:
- Observers have read-only access to a board. They can view a board, download card attachments, and export the board. They can also comment and vote on cards if that setting is enable.
- 👉For example: An observer might be a contractor, intern, or stakeholder who needs to be informed but doesn’t need to change the board’s content.
- Members (or ‘normal’ members) can edit all content on a board, including creating, moving and editing cards, adding details to them, mentioning board members, and commenting.
- A user who has been invited to a board but hasn’t yet accepted is an Invited member (or ‘virtual’ member). Their user icon will appear grayed out until they accept, but you can still add them to cards while their acceptance is pending.
- Admins can do anything on the board, including configure the board’s settings, such as automation, fields, and visibility. They can also add and remove users to and from the board or close a board and change user permissions. Board admins are indicated by a blue and white chevron icon in the bottom corner of their avatar.
- Guests belong to the board but are not members of the Workspace that the board belongs to. A guest can be an observer, member, or admin with all of the permissions associated with those user types, except they can’t see any other boards in the Workspace.
When you create a board, you are the board admin for that board and have full control over the board’s settings and membership.
Invite someone to a board
Adding collaborators to a board starts from the Share button in the top-right corner of the board menu. From here, there are two ways to add people to a Trello board:
- Send an invitation: Search for a user by name, username, or email address to invite them to the board.
- Create a shareable link: Create, copy, and distribute a special link to join the board. You can use this link to invite large groups of people to a board at once instead of adding them one-by-one.
👇 Click Share to add users to your board.
👇 Click the tabs below to see how to invite members using both methods.
To invite someone by email or username:
- Navigate to your board.
- At the top of the board, select Share.
- Enter their email or username, then select if you want to add them as a member or observer. Click Share.
👇 Search users by name or enter an email address, then add them as a member or observer.
Inviting someone to the board who isn't a member of the Workspace will automatically make them a board guest.
Change a user’s permission level
When you invite people to a board, you can select whether you want them to join as a member or an observer. However, you can update permissions any time to change whether someone is a member, observer, or admin.
All boards must have at least one admin, but we recommend more than one to share responsibilities and provide a backup. Only existing board members can be made board admins.
To change a member’s permissions:
- Navigate to your board.
- At the top of the board, select Share.
- Select the dropdown next to the individual’s name and select admin, member, or observer.
👇 Change member permissions from the dropdown next to their name.
Only board admins can make another board member an admin.
Manage board membership requests
The board admin can manage requests from others to join the board from the Join requests tab in the Share menu. When adding these new members to the board, the admin can select a permission level.
👇 Select a permission level when accepting board membership requests.
Remove a user from a board
If a member no longer needs or should not have access to a board for any reason, a board admin can remove them. When a member is removed from a board, they will be removed as a member from all cards on the board. However, their other board activities will remain, such as if they left a comment on a card or checked an item on a checklist.
👉 For example: Board admin Gabriel removes Jamie from a Trello board after she transitioned to a different team. Removing inactive members streamlines Gabriel’s board access to only those actively engaged in the project.
To remove someone from a board:
- Navigate to your board.
- At the top of the board, select Share.
- Select the dropdown next to the individual’s name and select Remove from board.
When a member is removed from a board, automations they have created will also be removed. To help prevent this, the member should add their automations to an Automation Library by adding a tag. Once their library is shared with their Workspace, another board member can import them to the board.
Let's review!
Review these questions and see if you understood the key concepts in this lesson:
- What can a board admin do that regular members can't?
- How could you invite an individual or large group to a board?
- What situations might necessitate changing a member’s permission level? How could you perform those actions?
How was this lesson?
next lesson
Create template boards and cards in Trello
- Save time with templates in Trello
- Create a board template
- Create a card template
- Try it yourself
- Let's review!