Can I add an internal note and a public reply to a ticket at the same time?

Question

Can I add an internal note and a public reply to a Zendesk ticket at the same time?

Answer 

Natively it is not possible to add both a public reply and an internal note to a ticket at the same time in Zendesk Support. While public replies will automatically be visible to internal followers, it is not possible to add both comments together in a ticket.

The Private Comments app in the Zendesk Marketplace provides this functionality allowing an agent to easily add a private comment to a ticket while also typing a public response or comment.