Documentation
Answers from people who couldn't join
Sometimes a meeting needs someone who isn't in it. Jaha can answer from the notes they left, ask them directly, or pass the question to the colleague they named. It picks based on what it knows.
What happens when someone is asked for
Jaha notices when someone who was invited but didn't join is named in a question, either out loud in the call or with an @mention in the meeting chat. What it does next depends on what it can back up.
If their notes cover the question, Jaha answers for them and says so. If not, it says that plainly and sends them the question. If they declined and named someone else, the question goes to that person. If they're away, Jaha tells the room, so nobody waits on a message that won't be read today.
Answering from the notes they left
Anyone who will miss a meeting can leave a brief beforehand: their view on the agenda, the numbers people will probably ask for, whatever they would have said. Jaha answers from it and always says whose words they are.
Jaha sets a high bar for using a brief. A wrong answer given in an absent colleague's name is made up in their name, and they aren't there to correct it. So when the brief doesn't clearly cover the question, Jaha says the notes don't cover it and leaves it there.
Asking them while the meeting is still on
The question reaches them in Outlook, in Teams and in their Jaha inbox. They can reply from their phone in a few sentences. Before replying, they can ask Jaha what's been said in the meeting so far, so their answer is based on the discussion.
They choose how the reply arrives: posted in the meeting chat, or read aloud by Jaha while the call is still live. If the meeting has already ended, it goes to the chat so it isn't lost.
If someone gets a question that isn't theirs to answer, they can pass it on by naming a colleague. It leaves their inbox and reaches the new person with the sender's name attached, so nobody gets a question out of the blue from a meeting they never attended.
The stand-in they chose themselves
People often explain themselves when they decline. “Can’t make it, ask Priya, she has the full context” is an instruction from the one person who can give it, and Jaha follows it. The question goes to Priya, with the name of the person who suggested her.
Jaha only uses a person who was named explicitly. It won't guess a stand-in from your org chart. If a name matches two colleagues, it treats that as no match: asking the wrong Priya is worse than asking nobody, because the right one never finds out she was needed.
When Jaha chooses to stay quiet
If someone declined because they're on leave, Jaha doesn't notify them at all. The message would sit unread until they're back, and notifications nobody can act on teach people to ignore notifications. Jaha tells the room they're away instead.
If someone is in back-to-back meetings, Jaha still asks, since they can answer later. It tells the room not to expect a reply during the call.
If the same person is mentioned several times in one meeting, Jaha keeps a single pending question. It never sends a question to a name that doesn't match a real colleague: a message sent to a name with no one behind it looks delivered and reaches nobody.
What the room can see afterward
The meeting’s People tab lists every question sent to someone who wasn't there: who was asked, whether they answered, what they said, and who named them or passed it on, if that applies.
A question that's still waiting shows why a reply may take a while, based on the person's own decline message. A question that couldn't be sent to anyone shows that too. Whoever asked can always see what happened to it and doesn't have to wonder whether they were ignored.
The same tab shows each invitee's response to the invitation (accepted, declined, tentative or no reply) and the reason they gave. Someone who accepted and then didn't show up is a different case from someone who declined the day before, and only one of them is worth chasing during the meeting.