The external share feature in Vani lets teammates securely share Spaces with people outside their team. This enables easy collaboration with clients, partners, or other stakeholders, without adding them to the team or compromising privacy.

How external sharing works  

When you share a Space externally, you control how much access external users get. You can also protect the link with additional settings for privacy and security.

External users:

• Do not become part of your team

• Can only access the shared Space

• Are limited to the permissions you define

Access controls  

Choose the level of access for your external link:

• View only – External users can view the Space

• Comment only – External users can view the Space and leave comments

• Edit – External users can view, comment, and make edits

Even if someone has access to a Space, they won’t automatically see all Zones. You can restrict access to specific Zones and hide the rest.

This is useful when you want to:

• Share only relevant parts of a Space

• Keep internal or sensitive content hidden

• Collaborate externally without duplicating work

Privacy and security  

You can make external sharing more secure by:

• Setting a password for access

• Adding an expiration date for the link

These options help ensure that access is limited to the intended audience and timeframe.

To create a link for external sharing:

1. Click Share at the top-right corner of the Space.

2. Click Change under Who can access.

3. Select Anyone with the link to enable external sharing.

Set permissions under Access control:

• Choose Can view, Can comment, or Can edit.

Set access under Zone access:

• By default, all Zones are shared.

• To restrict access, click Manage.

• Switch to Specific Zones, then set each Zone to Allow or Restrict.

Add extra security (optional):

• Turn on Set password to protect the link.

• Turn on Set expiration date to automatically disable the link.

4. Click Apply.

5. Copy the link and share it with your collaborators.

• The external share link is different from your regular Space link

• External users must use this link to access the Space

Turning off external sharing  

You can disable the external link at any time:

1. Open the Share panel.

2. Change access from Anyone with the link to Only Spacemates.

This immediately removes access for all external users.

External sharing permissions for the team  

External sharing is controlled by Admins or Super Admins at the team level.

To manage external sharing permissions:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner.

2. Select Settings.

3. Go to Team settings → Policy.

From here, you can control:

• Whether Spaces can be shared outside your team

• Whether people in your team can download content from Spaces

• Whether external users can download content from shared Spaces

• Whether people can request to join the team

• Whether your team can use Vani AI

If external sharing is turned off, the option to share Spaces externally will not be available.

External sharing in the Business plan  

If your team is on the Business plan, external sharing can be managed at both the organization level and the team level. This provides greater control over how data is shared across multiple teams.

Organization-level external sharing policy  

Admins can define a global external sharing policy for the entire organization.

This allows you to:

• Enable or disable external sharing across all teams

• Enforce consistent sharing rules across the organization

• Prevent teams from enabling external sharing independently when restricted

If external sharing is disabled at the organization level, users across all teams will not be able to generate external share links.

Organization-level download permissions  

You can also control download permissions at the organization level.

These settings allow you to define:

• Whether users in your organization can download or export content from Spaces

• Whether external users can download content from shared Spaces

This ensures that sensitive data is not downloaded or distributed without proper control.

Team-level overrides and controls  

In addition to organization-level policies, admins can configure sharing and download permissions for individual teams.

Using the Manage option in policy settings, you can:

• Configure download permissions for specific teams

• Configure external sharing permissions for individual teams

• Apply different rules for different teams based on their needs

This is useful when some teams require stricter controls, while others need flexibility for external collaboration.

How these settings work together  

External sharing in the Business plan follows a structured hierarchy:

• Organization-level policies define the default rules

• Team-level settings refine or override these rules (if allowed)

• Space-level sharing follows the configured policies

Important notes  

• External users only have access to the content that is shared with them

• Disabling external sharing removes access immediately

• External users do not become part of your team

• Only Admins and Super Admins can configure sharing settings

• Organization-level settings override team-level configurations

Best practices  

• Share Spaces externally only when necessary

• Use view or comment access when working with external stakeholders

• Add passwords and expiration dates for sensitive content

• Restrict download permissions when working with confidential data

• Review and disable unused external links regularly