In general we really like how Asana handles viewing comments when there are lots of them in a task. We think it’s great that it initially hides most of them and makes you click the “x more comments” link because it keeps the initial view short and sweet. But there’s two improvements I’d like to see for when tasks have lots of comments:
We could use an “expand all” option. After I click the “x more” link, it’s often the case that many of the comments are themselves truncated. And I have to click the “see more” link on each one if I really want to see the full conversation. This can sometimes take a while. Please give us a way to expand all the comments with one click.
The app should remember my settings for a particular task, at least for a while. It’s happened to me several times that I take the time/toil to expand every comment in a long convo. Then I have to click over to another task for just a minute to check something. When I come back all the comments are truncated again, gotta start over. [insert Homer Simpson emoji] I would love it if it would remember which comments I had expanded, so I can navigate without fear. Even if this expired after a day or two and reverted back to the default, it would be a big improvement. Mostly this is an issue that bites me within a short period of time.
I’d really like this feature. I don’t necessarily need it to remember the expand all state, but I’d like a button for it badly. Just being able to know everything is expand it and be able to do it again if I leave the task and come back would help me.
We have detailed notes in comments, some that go on for pages. My use case is that I often want to find the particular comment where a topic is discussed so I just do a search in my browser for the word or phrase I’m looking for. For this to be effective I have to expand old comments, and then I have to expand individual comments. This is troublesome and time consuming and if I miss one I either think I have the wrong task of spend time searching for “see more” (this is actually my process now when I begin doing this: search for see more and then click them all until the search results go to zero).
I desperately need the ability to have all comments expanded by default. The number of tasks, and comments I have to sort through on a daily basis, at such a high rate, is overwhelming. There are many times I think something is pending, or not answered, only to find out it is 9 comments prior, and the comments have collapsed on their own. I would love the ability to save task view settings - expanded comments on would save me a huge headache. I’m not sure if what you are asking is exactly what I am, but I bumped your vote and hope the Asana team checks this out. It’s actually a very important feature UX wise for super users / admins.
Often my colleagues miss the “See More” link in comments / replies, because the button is too shy, need be more explicit or highlighted. My suggestion is a auto load, always show full comments to not miss a thing for lack of attention of user.
There is a workaround for an “expand all” option. You can print the task to a PDF file. My browser can print to PDF on a Windows 10 computer and a MAC likely can do that too. Every comment will be expanded in the PDF file, and it’s searchable too.
I would still like this to be an Asana feature but at least there is an alternative.
@Raphael_Lamour, Awhile ago I took to doing a search with my browser for “see more” on the page and then next-ing through them all and clicking the found links. It’s still painful, but far better than searching for the words visually. I love your example, I’ve had the “see more” tacked onto the end of a link many times and it always feels like a special form of impishness.
Hi there. I commonly use Asana as a designer. A team assigns me a task and I look to the ticket to read the information.
I experience friction with the interface when I have to select “see more” on every comment thread. Having to take an action to access the information in the ticket feels like a hurdle. My expectation would be that all comments would be open by default.
If your user testing has shown that people prefer a collapsed view, I wonder if it can be a preference setting in a user profile.
Is this something that already exists or is being explored in the Product development pipeline?
Very good question, we actually have a thread on this topic so I’ve merged your post with this main topic. You will find the answer to your question in this reply: Expand All Comments by default Let me know if I can help with anything else Have a great day!
If this thread influences future product changes, my preference would be for the “expand all” to be a preference or perhaps be the default.
Some of the others above have suggested great solutions as well. For myself, I almost never want to collapse anything. It creates a cognitive load to remember what was said behind the hidden collapsed comments.
Thanks so much for sharing this incredible feedback, @nica! It is very important for us and our Product team to know how this feature could help you and why it is important for you. I hope we can built this feature in the future Let me know if you have any other questions, I’d be happy to help
I find it difficult to believe this conversation (and similar?) has been going on for more than a year. The “see more” expando pingpong prowess needed to have a conversation with a task of any substance is sustained only by the energy of illegal workplace profanity.
What where those number Sarah mentioned yesterday?
let me see what’s behind door number 1. No… door 2. no… door 3… no… door 4…
Joey mentioned x last week, can we do that?
I don’t know I’ll get back to you in an year after I’ve clicked this button 3.14 billion times.
Let’s circle back to that idea Darla had last month
never happens. Darla’s idea is lost to the aether. Darla may be as well, we can’t find her.
Why does your ux team hate everyone?
And no, this doesn’t improve the conversation in any way, but I’ve gone mad clicking that button.
I hope Asana will consider implementing this feature request soon. As it stands now, I find it frustrating to have the comments hidden.
In addition, these visual cues are far too small
x more comments
See more
I would prefer to have a global option to have all comments expanded by default. If that’s not possible, a second option would be a single button that expands all comments in a task.
Current behavior annoying me from the beginning.
It’s the ambiguous decision to hide part of information by default without any choice.
Seriously, it’s required 2 years to develop requested feature?
I desperately need the ability to have all comments expanded by default. The number of tasks, and comments I have to sort through on a daily basis, at such a high rate, is overwhelming. There are many times I think something is pending, or not answered, only to find out it is 9 comments prior, and the comments have collapsed on their own. I would love the ability to save task view settings - expanded comments on would save me a huge headache. I’m not sure if what you are asking is exactly what I am, but I bumped your vote and hope the Asana team checks this out. It’s actually a very important feature UX wise for super users / admins. 
Have a great day!