Display a Global Announcement Banner on Your Homepage

🎯 Who this article is for: Admins.

💼 Package requirements: Global Announcements are available to Starter, Growth, and Enterprise.

🔒 Permissions: Configuring the Global Announcement Banner requires admin access.

1. Overview

Some updates can't wait for someone to open the right channel or page. The Global Announcement Banner places a short message in a full-width strip at the top of your intranet's homepage (My Stream and My News), above the main navigation, so everyone in your organization sees it the moment they arrive.

Admins write the message, choose the colors, and can set an end date and time from Admin Settings. When that time passes, the banner stops showing on its own (if you set an expiration date). The result is one official, unmissable spot for the update that matters most right now, without anyone having to remember to take it down.

2. Use cases

• Get urgent operational updates seen first: A system outage, an office closure, a change to today's schedule. The banner puts the essential facts in front of every employee as soon as they open the intranet, with a link to the full details, so fewer people need to ask what's going on.
• Keep a deadline visible until it closes: For open enrollment, a survey window, or a submission period, the banner reminds everyone each time they land on Home. Set the scheduled termination to match the deadline, and the reminder disappears exactly when the window closes.
• Point everyone to what's new: When a new handbook, policy, or hub goes live, a one-line banner with a link sends everyone to the right page from day one.

3. Before you begin

• You must be an admin to configure the banner.
• The banner is visible to everyone in your organization. It cannot be targeted to specific groups, departments, or locations.
• The settings hold one message at a time. Saving a new message replaces the one currently showing.
• Messages are limited to 140 characters. A live counter below the message field shows how many you've used.

4. How to set up the banner

1. Click your avatar at the top of your intranet's main navigation.
2. Go to Admin Settings → Notifications.
3. Select the Global Announcement tab.
4. Turn on the Show banner on Home toggle.
5. In the Message field, type your announcement. Use the toolbar to add bold, italic, or underlined text, a link, or an emoji.
6. Under Banner color, enter a hex code for the background color (for example #7B2FF7).
7. Under Font color, enter a hex code for the text color (for example #FFFFFF).
8. Optional: Under Scheduled termination, select a date, then set a Time in 24-hour format (for example 13:00).
9. Click Save.

A Saved confirmation appears, and the banner displays at the top of Home immediately.

🗒️ Note: With a scheduled termination set, the banner stops showing automatically after that date and time, even if the Show banner on Home toggle is still on.

5. How to edit or turn off the banner

1. Go to Admin Settings → Notifications → Global Announcement.
2. To edit, update the message, colors, or scheduled termination.
   • If you want to remove the scheduled termination, click Cancel on the right.
3. To remove the banner from Home, turn off the Show banner on Home toggle.
4. Click Save.

Turning the toggle off keeps your message and colors saved, so you can switch the banner back on later without starting over.

6. Best practices

The banner sits above everything else on your intranet’s navigation bar in the homepage, which is exactly what makes it powerful. A few habits keep it that way.

• Save the banner for what everyone needs to know: The banner only carries weight if people trust that it matters when it appears. Reserve it for organization-wide, time-sensitive updates, and use channel posts for everything else.
• Let the banner lead to the full story: 140 characters is enough for a headline. Link to the page or announcement post that holds the complete information, so the banner directs people to one official source rather than trying to replace it.
• Choose a color pair that reads at a glance: Pick a banner and font color with strong contrast, such as a dark background with white text. Check your homepage after saving to confirm the message is easy to read.
• Keep the message current as things change: For evolving situations like an outage, update the banner when there's news, for example once services are restored. A banner that reflects the latest status reinforces Home as the place to check first.

7. Frequently asked questions

8. Troubleshooting