Guest mode: collaboration with no accounts, no friction

Guest mode: collaboration with no accounts, no friction

Think of the person whose input you most need and least often get: the client who looks at the project twice a month, the architect who’s loosely involved, the visiting consultant who’s on site for an hour. They have real, useful things to say — and they will never create an account in your software to say them. So their feedback arrives the messy way, or it doesn’t arrive at all.

This is a deep dive on the feature built for exactly that person: guest mode, where someone joins with a name and nothing else, and contributes directly on the plan. It’s small, it’s deliberate, and it removes the single biggest barrier to collaboration — the sign-up.

The barrier was never the feedback — it was the account

People aren’t short of opinions about a project; they’re short of patience for onboarding. Ask an occasional collaborator to “create an account, verify your email, install the app,” and each step is a place where the feedback quietly dies. The information existed; it just never cleared the setup. Guest collaboration exists to delete that entire wall.

Join with a name, nothing else

In guest mode, a guest opens a shared link and joins with a name only — no email, no password, no install. The name is there so you know who said what; that’s the whole identity step. For a client, this is the difference between “I’ll get to it” and “done, right now, on my phone.” Sharing a plan without an account is what turns intended feedback into actual feedback.

They pin feedback where they mean it

The point isn’t just that a guest can comment — it’s how they comment. Instead of describing a location in words, a guest taps the exact spot on the plan and leaves a voice or text note there, or marks a zone with an area pin if it covers a region. You stop getting “the thing near the entrance, you know the one” and start getting a pin, on the plan, at the point they mean — in their own words, auto-transcribed if it’s voice.

No-login feedback that lands in one place

Guest contributions aren’t a separate inbox to reconcile. They appear as pins on the same plan your team already works from, so no-login feedback sits right next to your site notes and trade assignments. One shared picture, instead of comments scattered across email, chat and phone calls — and the client’s note is already in the right place, in the right format.

Turn a guest’s pin into action

Because a guest’s note is a normal pin, your team can act on it like any other: @mention the right colleague, assign it, and watch it land on the Kanban board that fills itself from your pins — see the Kanban board that fills itself. When it’s handled, mark it resolved and it dims on the plan. The guest’s comment doesn’t just get heard; it gets tracked to done. It’s the same flow we describe in letting your client comment on a plan without installing anything.

Where guest mode is the right trade-off

Guest mode is built for clients, visitors and occasional reviewers — the people for whom any friction means no participation. It’s perfect for getting located feedback fast from someone outside your core team, with zero setup on their side. When you need exactly that — a quick, located comment from someone who’ll never install anything — it’s the right tool.

Be honest: it’s light collaboration, not access control

Here’s the boundary, stated plainly. Guest mode is light collaboration, not an identity or access-control system. A guest identifies with a name, not a verified login, so it’s the right trade-off where frictionless input matters more than formal identity — and the wrong one where you genuinely need controlled access, audited permissions or a signed approval. Knowing which situation you’re in is the point: use guest mode for openness, not for governance.

FAQ

Can someone give feedback without creating an account? Yes — that’s the whole purpose of guest mode. They open a shared link, enter a name, and pin comments directly on the plan. No email, no password, no install.

How do guests leave feedback? By tapping the exact spot on the plan and leaving a voice or text note, or marking a zone with an area pin. The comment lands as a pin in your team’s plan, located and (for voice) auto-transcribed.

Is guest mode a secure access-control system? No. It’s light collaboration — a guest identifies with a name, not a verified login. Use it where frictionless input matters; use proper access controls where you need audited, governed permissions.

What PinMy is NOT

Guest mode is not an identity provider or an access-control system — a guest joins with a name, not a verified, permissioned login, so it’s for openness, not governance. PinMy isn’t a contracts or approvals platform either, and it won’t replace a signed sign-off. With 3D models, a pin marks a point in space — a dated snapshot — not a model element, and it doesn’t read element data. The web PDF report is useful but still maturing. What PinMy does well is let anyone — including people who’ll never install anything — comment exactly where they mean.

Invite a guest to your next plan

Share one plan in guest mode and see the feedback come back located, not described.

• See how it works: pinmy.co
• Book a 15-minute demo: tidycal.com/pinmy