Announcements allow you to communicate important information to visitors of your status page. Unlike incidents, which are tied to specific monitors, announcements are general messages that appear prominently at the top of your status page.
When to Use Announcements
Announcements are ideal for:
- Planned maintenance – Notify users about upcoming scheduled maintenance windows
- Service updates – Communicate new features, changes, or deprecations
- Active incident summaries – Provide high-level updates during ongoing issues
- Post-incident reports – Share root cause analysis after resolving major incidents
- General communications – Any message you want status page visitors to see
Creating an Announcement
To add an announcement to your status page:
- Navigate to Status Pages in the sidebar
- Click on the status page name to view its details
- In the Announcements section, click Add Announcement
- Fill in the announcement details
- Click Create to publish
Announcement Fields
When creating an announcement, you can configure:
Title
A short, descriptive title that appears prominently. Examples:
- “Scheduled Maintenance – January 15”
- “Investigating Connectivity Issues”
- “New API Version Available”
Message
The main content of your announcement. Be clear and concise. Include:
- What is happening or what users need to know
- Expected impact on services
- Timeline if applicable
- Any actions users should take
Severity
Choose a severity level to indicate the importance of the announcement:
- Info – General information, no service impact expected
- Warning – Potential issues or upcoming changes that may affect users
- Critical – Urgent information about significant service issues
The severity affects the visual styling of the announcement on your status page, with critical announcements being more prominent.
Status
Set the announcement status:
- Active – The announcement is visible on your status page
- Resolved – The announcement is no longer active (may still be visible in history)
How Announcements Display
Active announcements appear in a dedicated section near the top of your status page, below the overall status indicator. Visitors see:
- The announcement title
- The message content
- The severity indicator
- When the announcement was posted
Multiple active announcements are displayed in chronological order, with the most recent at the top.
Editing Announcements
To edit an existing announcement:
- Go to your status page details
- Find the announcement in the Announcements section
- Click the edit icon
- Make your changes and save
Changes take effect immediately on your public status page.
Deleting Announcements
To remove an announcement:
- Go to your status page details
- Find the announcement in the Announcements section
- Click the delete icon
- Confirm the deletion
Deleted announcements are permanently removed and cannot be recovered.
Best Practices
- Keep it brief – Users scan status pages quickly. Get to the point.
- Update regularly – During active incidents, provide periodic updates even if there is no new information
- Use appropriate severity – Do not mark routine announcements as critical
- Clean up old announcements – Remove or resolve announcements that are no longer relevant
- Be transparent – Honest communication builds trust with your users
Announcements vs. Incidents
Understanding when to use each:
- Incidents – Created automatically or manually for specific monitor issues. Have a detailed timeline with updates. Tied to affected services.
- Announcements – Manual, general communications. Good for planned events, summaries, or information not tied to a specific outage.
You can use both together. For example, during a major outage, you might have an incident tracking the technical details while also posting an announcement with a high-level summary for non-technical users.