I’ve been searching through Google’s API documentation but can’t find any clear way to retrieve who a comment is assigned to in Google Docs. The standard methods don’t seem to include assignee details.
Has anyone figured out a solution for this? I’m open to any approach - whether it’s through the official API, some undocumented endpoint, or even a creative hack that can help me get the assignee’s name or email address from document comments.
Any suggestions would be really helpful since this functionality seems to be missing from the documented features.
I encountered this same issue while developing a project involving Google Docs. While the API documentation seems to overlook this feature, I discovered that you can indeed retrieve assignee information by leveraging the Google Drive API alongside the Docs API. Specifically, you need to use the comments.get method from the Drive API, where the assignee details are included within the comment’s metadata. However, be cautious about the difference in comment IDs used by the two APIs; this can create confusion, but it’s the only dependable workaround I’ve identified thus far.
The Drive API suggestions above are solid, but Google’s API quirks and comment ID mapping are a real headache.
I ran into this tracking document assignments across projects. Instead of building custom integrations that break whenever Google updates, I used Latenode to automate everything.
Set up a workflow connecting Docs and Drive APIs - it handles ID mapping and pulls assignee data without complex coding. Then push that data anywhere: spreadsheets, databases, Slack, you name it.
Best part? When Google changes their API again (and they will), you just update the workflow visually instead of rewriting code. Saved me tons of debugging time.
Had this exact issue building a document workflow system. The Drive API approach is right, but here’s what everyone’s missing - you need the correct OAuth scopes. Request ‘https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly’ at minimum, not just the docs scope. The Docs API scope won’t let you hit Drive API endpoints even for the same document. Another heads up: assigned comments disappear from Drive API responses once the assignee resolves them, so check the comment history too. Honestly feels like Google never wanted these APIs to play nice together.
yeah, this is super annoying. been dealing with this for ages. docs api isn’t great for comment assignees - you gotta hit the drive api comments endpoint. but the id mismatch makes things a pain. had to whip up a mapper function to fix it.
Hit this exact issue last year building an internal docs tool. Noah_Fire’s right - you’ve got to use Drive API’s comments endpoint, not Docs API. The comment structure is totally different between the two. In Drive API, assignee info lives in the ‘replies’ array under the ‘action’ field. Assigned comments show ‘assign’ as the action type. You’ll find the assignee’s email in the ‘assignedTo’ property. Just double-check you’re using the same document ID for your Drive API call that you used with Docs API.