Home → Admin Manual → In-depth: Admin Settings → Announcements

14.17. Announcements

Updated: 5 Oct 2026, 04:21 PM EDT

The Announcements feature allows administrators to send in-app notifications to staff members. These notifications appear as a prominent banner at the top of the HelpSpot workspace, making them ideal for communicating critical information such as system outages, changes in hours, or urgent action items.

Video Tutorial

 

Creating an Announcement

To create a new announcement, navigate to Admin > System > Announcements. As you fill out the fields, a live preview at the bottom of the screen will show you exactly how the banner will appear to your staff.

• Title. The main header of the announcement. This should be short and descriptive (e.g., "VPN Down").

• Message. The body text of the notification where you provide full details.

• URL. An optional link where staff can find more information.

• Link Text. The text displayed on the action button. If left blank, this defaults to "Learn more."

• Severity. Controls the visual style and color of the banner to convey urgency:

  • Info: Standard blue styling for general updates.

  • Warning: Orange styling for cautionary alerts.

  • Error: Red styling for critical issues or outages.

  • Success: Green styling for positive confirmations (e.g., "System Restored").

• Admins only. If checked, the announcement will be visible only to users with Administrator permissions.

The banner shows when the announcement was posted (HelpSpot 5.8.7 and later), but not who posted it. If staff need to know who sent it, include your name in the message.

If your HelpSpot is self-hosted, announcements may also be created with the HelpSpot command line tool. See the hs:announcement command.

 

Staff View

Once Send Announcement is clicked, the notification is immediately pushed to the Workspace of all targeted staff members.

• Banner Display. The announcement appears at the very top of the page, ensuring high visibility.

• Posted time. As of HelpSpot 5.8.7, the banner shows the date and time the announcement was posted, so staff can tell whether it's still current. It uses the date format and time zone set in Admin > Settings > Date and Time.

• Action. Staff can click the button (e.g., "VPN Status") to visit the linked URL.

• Dismissal. Staff can click Dismiss on the right side of the banner to remove it from their view once they have read the message.