Description

• The Share dialog in Confluence Cloud handles two opposite actions without telling you which one you're performing:
  • Share — notifies someone with a link; page access is unchanged
  • Restrict — changes who can view or edit the page
• Which action occurs depends on how you enter a person's name. Typing an email address sends a notification.
  • Selecting someone from the directory surfaces a role picker, and clicking "Share" applies a restriction.
  • There is no indication in the dialog that the action has changed.

Problems

1. No signal when the action switches. The dialog moves silently between Share and Restrict based on input type. Users are not told which action they are about to confirm.
2. "Restrict" never appears in the dialog. The control that applies page restrictions does not use the word anywhere.
3. "Share" labels a Restrict action. On an unrestricted page, adding the first person to a view restriction removes access for all other space members — and the button that does this is labelled Share.
4. The dialog implies you can grant access through Restrict — you cannot. Restrictions only reduce access; they cannot give access to someone who lacks space permission. This mismatch is the direct cause of "I shared the page but they still can't see it" support contacts.
5. Current restriction state is not visible. The dialog does not show whether the page is already restricted or who it is restricted to.
6. Impact: The current design produces two recurring failures: users accidentally Restricting pages when intending to Share, and users believing they have granted access when space permissions still block it. Accurate labelling and visible restriction state resolves both without any structural change to the dialog.

Suggested Changes

1. Explicit intent. When a directory user or group is added, the user chooses between Share (notify only) and Restrict (change access) as a deliberate step — not inferred from input type.
2. Accurate button label. The primary button reflects the action — e.g. "Share" for notifications, "Apply restriction" for restriction changes. "Share" should never trigger a Restrict action.
3. Restrict vocabulary in copy. The Restrict function states what it does in one line, including that restrictions can only reduce access and cannot override space permissions.
4. Visible restriction state. The page's current restriction status is always shown in the dialog, with the full restriction list accessible without leaving it.
5. Suggested Mockups:
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Note

• This is a parity regression from Data Center, where Share and Restrict were separate dialogs with distinct purposes. We are not requesting they be separated again — only that the merged dialog accurately represents both functions.