> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.clearfeed.ai/clearfeed-help-center/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.clearfeed.ai/clearfeed-help-center/clearfeed-helpdesk/announcements.md).
# Announcements
Easily broadcast your message across multiple Slack channels with ClearFeed
Announcements are broadcast messages that you can send across multiple Slack channels at once. The following are common use cases for sending announcements:
* Sending release notes to multiple customer channels at once.
* Downtime notices for all or a particular subset of customers.
* General updates to your customers or employees.
{% hint style="info" %}
Only registered ClearFeed users with an **Admin** or **Manager** role can create announcements.
{% endhint %}
## Create and send announcements
You can create an announcement in the ClearFeed web app or start from an existing Slack message.
### Create an announcement in the web app
1. Go to [Announcements](https://web.clearfeed.app/announcements).
2. Click **Create announcement**.
3. Enter a name and compose the message in the rich-text editor.
4. Optional: Attach up to 10 files. Each file can be up to 100 MB.
5. Select the recipient channels or Collections.
6. Configure link previews and choose who sends the announcement. All accounts can select **ClearFeed** or **User**. Accounts with Customer Centric Inbox can select **Customer Owner**; other accounts can select **Channel Owner**.
7. Choose an action:
* Click **Create draft** to save the announcement without sending it.
* Select **Send Now** and click **Send Now** to deliver it immediately.
* Select **Schedule for later**, choose a date and time, and click **Schedule Announcement**.
An announcement must contain message text, at least one attachment, or both.
### Create an announcement from Slack
Before you start, create a dedicated public or private Slack channel for drafting announcements. Add the ClearFeed bot with `/invite @clearfeed`. Do not configure this channel as a Request or Triage Channel.
1. Go to the channel where you draft announcements.
2. Prepare and send the message that you want to broadcast.
* Attach any necessary files to the Slack message. See [Announcement Delivery Behavior](#announcement-delivery-behavior) for attachment behavior.
* If the message contains URLs, you can configure link and media previews later in the web app.
3. Open the message's three-dot menu.
4. Select **ClearFeed Actions**. If the option is not visible, click **More message shortcuts**, then select **ClearFeed Actions**.
5. Click **Create an Announcement**.
6. Enter a title. The title is visible in ClearFeed but not in Slack.
7. Click **Save as Draft**, then click the **Click here** link.
8. ClearFeed opens the draft in the web app, where you can configure and send it.
Preparing the announcement from Slack
### Configure recipients and delivery
Open a draft or scheduled announcement from the [Announcements](https://web.clearfeed.app/announcements) page, then configure these options:
1. **Preview Web Links:** Enable to show previews for standard web links such as articles, documentation, or websites.
2. **Preview Media Links:** Enable to show rich previews for media content such as videos and music.
* If the announcement includes attachments, disable both preview options when sending as **ClearFeed** or as an authorized **User**. ClearFeed rejects these attachment and link-preview combinations.
3. **Select Recipients**
You can choose announcement recipients using either or both of these methods:
**By Collections or Channels**
* Choose **Slack channels** or entire **Collections** to send the announcement. Announcements cannot be sent to unmonitored or inactive channels.
* Use the search bar to quickly locate them.
* You can select one or multiple recipients.
* **Channel selection behavior:** When you select all channels in a collection, the selection auto-collapses to show the parent collection instead. You can then expand the collection and exclude specific individual channels if needed.
**By Customer Filters**
* Filter by **Customer Owner** or **Custom Fields** to target specific customer segments. Selecting a set of customers shows all the Slack channels linked to those customers.
* Supported custom field types: **Select**, **Multi-Select**, **Date**, **Number**, **Text**, and **User Select**.
* **Filter operators:** Choose between:
* **Is / Is Not** — for select, multi-select, date, number, and user select fields
* **Contains / Not Contains** — for text fields (supports partial matching)
* You can apply multiple filters to broaden your selection. Each new filter adds matching customers to your list (results are combined, not narrowed):
1. Apply a filter (e.g., Customer Owner = "John Doe")
2. Select some or all customers matching the filter
3. Apply another filter (e.g., "Plan Type" = "Enterprise")
4. Select additional customers from the new results
You can schedule the announcement when ready, or clear your selections to start over.
Filtering recipients by custom fields
4. Optionally, test the announcement on a Slack channel to preview how it looks.
5. Choose the sender:
* **Channel Owner**: Available when Customer Centric Inbox is disabled. The announcement appears as sent by the Slack user listed as the channel owner.
* You can check each channel's owners in **Collection Settings**.
* If the channel owner is deactivated, ClearFeed sends the message as **ClearFeed**.
* **Customer Owner:** Available when Customer Centric Inbox is enabled. Announcements are displayed as sent by the Slack user set as the Customer Owner. Ensure a Customer Owner is assigned to the Customer record. Learn more about [Customer Centric Inbox](/clearfeed-help-center/clearfeed-helpdesk/collections/customer-collections.md).
* **ClearFeed**: Posts as the ClearFeed Bot in one message with attachments.
* Bot name and icon cannot be changed even if you have done [Bot whitelisting](/clearfeed-help-center/how-it-works/creating-requests/from-slack-channels.md#bot-whitelisting)
* **User**: Posts on behalf of a selected user.
* Choosing yourself requires Slack authentication.
* Choosing another user sends via ClearFeed Bot but displays their name and profile picture.
6. Send or schedule:
* **Send Now**: Delivers immediately.
* **Schedule for Later**: Pick a date and time for delivery. The scheduled time uses the timezone configured for your account (visible under your **Default Schedule** in [Business Schedule](https://web.clearfeed.app/business-schedules)).
Sending the announcement
### Announcement Delivery Behavior
How an announcement is delivered depends on:
* Who it is configured to be sent as
* Whether the user has connected Slack
* Whether the user is a member of the target channel
#### How Announcements Are Posted
| Sender Selected | Slack Connected? | In Channel? | How Message Appears in Slack | Collapse Supported? | Attachments |
| -------------------- | ---------------- | ----------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | ----------- |
| **ClearFeed Bot** | N/A | N/A | Posted as ClearFeed bot | ✅ Yes | Inline\*\* |
| **Specific User** | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | Posted as that user | ❌ No | Inline |
| **Specific User** | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Posted by ClearFeed, shown as that user | ✅ Yes | Reply |
| **Specific User** | ❌ No | N/A | Posted by ClearFeed, shown as that user | ✅ Yes | Reply |
| **Customer Owner**\* | N/A | N/A | Posted by ClearFeed, shown as customer owner | ✅ Yes | Reply |
\* *Customer Owner option is available only if Customer Inbox is enabled for your account.*
\*\* *Reply instead, if the account is* [*white-labeled*](/clearfeed-help-center/account-setup/whitelabel-clearfeed.md) *without a Custom App. See* [*How Attachments Are Posted*](#how-attachments-are-posted) *below.*
{% hint style="info" %}
### Important Notes
* To post directly as a user, the user must:
* Connect Slack (provide authorization), and
* Be a member of the target Slack channel.
* If either condition is not met, the announcement is posted by ClearFeed but displayed as the selected user.
{% endhint %}
#### How Attachments Are Posted
Whether an attachment lands inline in the announcement or as a reply depends on whether ClearFeed is posting with a real Slack identity or has to assume one:
* **Inline, in the announcement message:** ClearFeed posts as its own bot (not white-labeled) or as a Custom App, or as the actual Slack user (connected and a member of the channel).
* **As a reply to the announcement:** ClearFeed has to assume an identity to post the message — a [white-labeled](/clearfeed-help-center/account-setup/whitelabel-clearfeed.md) bot without a Custom App, an unconnected user, a connected user who isn't in the target channel, or the Customer Owner.
This is a Slack API limitation: ClearFeed can't post inline attachments while overriding the sender identity. See [white-labeling](/clearfeed-help-center/account-setup/whitelabel-clearfeed.md) for details.
### Do Announcements Create Requests or Tickets?
**Announcement messages themselves do NOT create requests or tickets.** Announcements are one-way broadcast messages that are delivered to Slack channels without generating a ClearFeed request or ticket.
However, **customer replies to announcements may create requests**:
* When customers respond to an announcement in a Slack channel thread, those responses are captured as ClearFeed requests
* These requests can then be converted into tickets based on the collection's settings
* A toggle control (**Create requests from responder threads**) allows you to manage whether announcement replies should generate requests
{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** Simple reactions like "cool," "that's great," or similar low-effort responses are filtered by AI as **ignorable messages** and do not create requests. Only meaningful customer engagement triggers request creation. Learn more about [how replies and ignorable messages work](/clearfeed-help-center/how-it-works/creating-requests/from-slack-channels.md#how-replies-work).
{% endhint %}
## Expand/Collapse Behavior of Announcements
When an announcement is posted as a ClearFeed bot, an Collapse/Expand option maybe provided on the announcement message. The details of the behavior are as follows:
* **Collapsible Announcements:** Only announcements posted as the **ClearFeed bot** support the collapse/expand feature. Messages posted as a regular user do not have this capability in Slack.
* **Automatic Collapsing**: ClearFeed also automatically collapses such announcement messages (that are posted as the ClearFeed bot) after 2 days to reduce the amount of visual noise on the channels. There is no option to turn this behavior off.
* **Channel-Wide State:** The expand/collapse state is shared across the channel. When any user clicks the expand or collapse button, or the announcement is collapsed by ClearFeed automatically - the change is reflected for all members of that channel.
* **Manual Control:** Users can manually collapse or expand announcements posted by the ClearFeed bot at any time.
Note that when announcement are posted as a user, some channels may still see posts by the ClearFeed bot, in case the user posting the announcement is not a member of all those channels. So the Expand/Collapse behavior may differ across channels in such cases.
## Edit announcements
The available editing options depend on the announcement source and status.
### Edit a draft or scheduled web announcement
If an announcement is scheduled using a selected user's Slack authorization, only that user can send or reschedule it. Other Admins and Managers can still save message-content changes.
1. Open the **Draft** or **Scheduled** tab on the [Announcements](https://web.clearfeed.app/announcements) page.
2. Click **Edit** for the announcement.
3. Change the name, message, attachments, recipients, sender, link preview settings, or delivery time.
4. Click **Save content** to save content changes without sending. To deliver the announcement, click **Send Now** or **Schedule Announcement**.
### Edit and resync a sent web announcement
After an announcement is sent, you can edit only its message text. The recipients, sender, name, and delivery settings are fixed. Attachments are also locked because Slack cannot replace files that are already posted.
Attachments on sent web announcements remain available until the account's data retention period expires. Attachments on draft and scheduled announcements are retained while you continue authoring them.
1. Open the **Sent** tab on the [Announcements](https://web.clearfeed.app/announcements) page.
2. Click **Edit & resync** for the announcement.
3. Edit the message text.
4. Click **Save and resync**.
ClearFeed updates each delivered copy in place. It does not repost the announcement or send a correction message.
### Edit and resync a Slack-sourced announcement
1. Open the source Slack message from the sent announcement.
2. Edit the source message in Slack.
3. Return to the [Announcements](https://web.clearfeed.app/announcements) page.
4. Click **Resync** for the announcement.
ClearFeed updates the message text in the delivered copies. Attachments cannot be changed after delivery.
## Managing Announcements
You can view saved drafts and view sent announcements from the ClearFeed App.
* Navigate to [Announcements](https://web.clearfeed.app/announcements) on the ClearFeed web app
* Here, you'll find the following tabs:
* **All**: Provides a list of all announcements irrespective of their state.
* **Draft**: Lists all drafted announcements that are yet to be sent or scheduled.
* **Scheduled**: Displays announcements scheduled for future broadcasts.
* **Sent**: Lists all successfully broadcasted announcements.
* Sent web announcements provide **Edit & resync**. Sent Slack-sourced announcements provide **Resync**.
* You can also `Delete` an announcement completely.
Announcements dashboard on ClearFeed
## **Interaction Metrics**
You can view the Interaction Metrics of an Announcement by going to the Announcements page and clicking on the Anoouncement sent.
### Top Level Metrics
* **Channels Reached:** Number of channels the announcement reached.
* **Reactions:** Emoji reactions from customers.
* **Replies:** Number of customer replies to the announcement. Click the link to open the corresponding Slack thread and view the conversation.
You can also view the number of reactions from each channel where the announcement was sent, along with the top reactions and the users who reacted. You can sort channels by reactions or replies, making it easy to identify which channels are engaging with the announcement.
## FAQs
1. **Can we edit an announcement after it has been sent?**\
**Answer:** Yes. The editing workflow depends on whether the announcement was created in ClearFeed or Slack. See [Edit announcements](#edit-announcements).
2. **Why can't I see the option to send an announcement from a Slack Channel?**\
**Answer:** There could be multiple reasons why you cannot see the option to send announcements:
* ClearFeed bot might not be present in the channel where you're trying to create an announcement.
* Even if the ClearFeed bot is present, if the channel is a Triage or Request Channel (often indicated by the channel name or settings), the announcement feature will be disabled. You need to use a separate, regular channel for announcements.
3. **How can I set up a channel to create announcements using ClearFeed?**\
**Answer:** A dedicated channel is required only for Slack-sourced announcements. Create a Slack channel that is not a Request or Triage Channel, add the ClearFeed bot with `/invite @ClearFeed`, then follow [Create an announcement from Slack](#create-an-announcement-from-slack).
4. **How can I select a specific set of customers to send an announcement to?**\
**Answer:** You can target specific customers using either or both methods:
* **By Collections or Channels:** Select entire Collections or individual Slack channels
* **By Filtering on Customer Fields:** Filter by Customer Owner or Custom Fields (like plan type, region, or lifecycle stage). Selecting customers shows all linked Slack channels.
5. **Why are my attachments posted as a reply instead of inline?**\
**Answer:** This happens whenever ClearFeed has to assume another identity to post the message, such as a white-labeled bot without a Custom App, or a user who hasn't connected or isn't in the target channel. See [How Attachments Are Posted](#how-attachments-are-posted) for the full breakdown.
6. **I get a permissions error when creating an announcement from the Slack menu. Why?**\
**Answer:** Only registered ClearFeed users with a **Manager** or **Admin** role can create announcements. If you see this error, confirm that the email associated with your Slack profile has the required role on the ClearFeed account. Note that an invited email alone isn't enough — the user must log in at least once and join the account before they're considered registered. See [Managing Users](/clearfeed-help-center/account-setup/manage-users.md) for more on roles and the invite/join process.
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