Is there any way you can @ (at) any customer in a comment?

[Jason Freeman]

In a comment, I know that you can @ (at) users who are either (a) agents or (b) customers who have previously commented on the issue.

Is there a way to @ customers who have not previously commented on the issue?  Even if you add customers to an issue via Request participants, you cannot @ them.

Ideally, we could @ any customer, and doing so would automatically give the customer access to see and comment on the issue.

[Adam Black]

I think this may be a licensing issue.

If it was working the way you state, you could buy minimum agent licenses and have unlimited 'collaborators'  where currently collaborators are licensed under other Jira Product users.

Source (and better explained): https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedesk025/managing-collaborators-754977407.html

How agents and collaborators can work together

Application support example

Diane, an application support team member (agent), loops in Tony, a developer (collaborator) using @mention to ask him for advice on an exception in a log file. Tony takes a look at the issue in JIRA, views the attached log file and posts an internal comment for Diane with his analysis. After that, Diane, as the assigned agent, conveys the findings to the customer to resolve the issue.

[Jason Freeman]

Adam, we can already add an unlimited number of users to an issue and even @ them if they make a comment on the issue, without any of the users being licensed at all.

All I'm trying to figure out is a way to @ them without them having to make at least one comment first.

[Adam Black]

Jason,

that goes on to my point that you want to @ people who aren't on the ticket. This is a capability reserved for licensed collaborators.

Else, you could just use @ and get unlimited collaborators for free. 

[Jason Freeman]

Adam, through the Request Participants feature, I can already add literally anyone to an issue, and they will be notified that they've been added to the issue. They get an email letting them know.

Example: we have about 200 users, and only 10 are licensed. I can add all 200 to an issue, and all 200 can freely collaborate on an issue -- without any license. They can add comments and attachments without a license.

Once they make at least one comment, I can @ them.

So the capability already exists. I'm pretty sure I could make an automation rule to add everyone to every issue so that I could @ them, but I don't see why that should be necessary.

I guess what I am saying is that if this is a licensing issue, it's not a very powerful one when the capability is already in place and can be this easily worked around.