# How to Set Up Announcement Banners in Confluence and Jira

May 23, 2026 ·

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7 min read

[NGPilot](https://ngpilot.com)

Announcement banners are the most visible communication channel in Atlassian products. They sit at the top of every page, impossible to miss. When you need to notify your entire organization about a maintenance window, a security alert, a policy change, or an upcoming event, banners guarantee visibility in a way that emails and Slack messages cannot.

Both Confluence and Jira support announcement banners, but their native implementations are limited. This guide covers how to set up banners in both platforms using built-in features and marketplace apps, with practical tips for getting the most out of them.

## Confluence Announcement Banners[​](#confluence-announcement-banners "Direct link to Confluence Announcement Banners")

### Method 1: Native Confluence banner (basic)[​](#method-1-native-confluence-banner-basic "Direct link to Method 1: Native Confluence banner (basic)")

Confluence Cloud does not have a global announcement banner feature comparable to Jira's. Space administrators can add a banner-like element using a few workarounds:

**Option A — Use a page banner macro.** Some Confluence instances include a page banner or notification macro. Add it to the top of key pages to display a prominent message. The downside is that you need to add it to each page individually — there is no global banner that appears across all pages.

**Option B — Use a global page template.** Create a page template that includes a styled information panel at the top. Teams using this template will see the banner content on every new page created from it. This works for new pages but does not affect existing content.

**Option C — Use an app.** Several Confluence apps provide notification or banner functionality. These apps add a macro or panel that can display persistent messages across your Confluence space.

### Method 2: Using macros for prominent notifications[​](#method-2-using-macros-for-prominent-notifications "Direct link to Method 2: Using macros for prominent notifications")

If your goal is to display a notice that stands out from regular page content, Confluence's built-in macros can help even without a dedicated banner feature:

* **Info panel macro** — creates a blue highlighted panel for general information
* **Warning panel macro** — creates a red highlighted panel for urgent notices
* **Note panel macro** — creates a yellow highlighted panel for important reminders

These macros work on individual pages. For organization-wide announcements, you would need to add them to the most-visited pages manually.

### Best practices for Confluence banners[​](#best-practices-for-confluence-banners "Direct link to Best practices for Confluence banners")

* **Create a dedicated "Announcements" page** in each space and link to it from the space sidebar. Pin important announcements at the top.
* **Use page restrictions** to control who can edit announcement pages, preventing accidental changes.
* **Include dates** in every announcement so readers know whether the information is current.
* **Archive old announcements** to a separate page to keep the active announcement page clean.

## Jira Announcement Banners[​](#jira-announcement-banners "Direct link to Jira Announcement Banners")

### Method 1: Native Jira banner[​](#method-1-native-jira-banner "Direct link to Method 1: Native Jira banner")

Jira has a built-in announcement banner that appears at the top of every Jira page. Here is how to set it up:

**For Jira Cloud:**

1. Go to **Settings** (gear icon) > **System**
2. Navigate to **User management** > **Announcement banner**
3. Enter your banner text in the message field
4. Choose visibility: **Public** (all users) or **Private** (logged-in users only)
5. Click **Set Banner** to activate

The native banner supports plain text only. You cannot add formatting, links, images, or colors.

**For Jira Data Center:**

1. Go to **Administration** > **System**
2. Select **Announcement Banner** from the left sidebar
3. Enter the announcement text
4. Choose the visibility level
5. Click **Update** to save

### Limitations of the native Jira banner[​](#limitations-of-the-native-jira-banner "Direct link to Limitations of the native Jira banner")

The native Jira announcement banner has several constraints that make it difficult to manage for teams with frequent announcements:

* **Plain text only** — no rich text formatting, no links, no images
* **One banner at a time** — you can only have a single active announcement
* **No scheduling** — banners must be manually enabled and disabled
* **No dismissal** — users cannot dismiss a banner they have already seen
* **No saved templates** — every new banner requires retyping the message
* **Global only** — the same banner appears to every user on the instance

### Method 2: Modern Announcement Banner for Jira (recommended)[​](#method-2-modern-announcement-banner-for-jira-recommended "Direct link to Method 2: Modern Announcement Banner for Jira (recommended)")

[Modern Announcement Banner for Jira](/docs/Modern-Announcement-Banner-for-Jira/user-docs.md) extends Jira's native banner with features that make it practical for ongoing use. Here is how to set it up:

**Step 1 — Install the app**

Go to the [Atlassian Marketplace](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/) and search for **Modern Announcement Banner for Jira**. Click **Get App** and follow the installation prompts. The app supports Jira Cloud.

**Step 2 — Create your first announcement**

After installation, go to the app configuration in your Jira administration panel. Click **Add Announcement** and enter:

* **Message text** — the announcement content (plain text with emoji support)
* **Visibility** — Public (all users) or Private (follows Jira privacy settings)
* **Dismissible** — whether users can dismiss the banner after reading it

**Step 3 — Enable the banner**

Click **Enable** to activate the announcement. It appears at the top of every Jira page for all users (or restricted users, depending on your visibility setting).

**Step 4 — Manage your announcement library**

Unlike the native banner, Modern Announcement Banner lets you save multiple announcements. This is useful for:

* **Maintenance windows** — prepare the announcement in advance, enable it when the window starts
* **Recurring events** — save announcements for standing meetings or scheduled downtimes and reuse them
* **Emergency responses** — keep pre-written security alert templates ready for quick activation

Only one banner can be active at a time, but switching between saved announcements takes one click.

### Key features comparison[​](#key-features-comparison "Direct link to Key features comparison")

| Feature                       | Native Jira Banner   | Modern Announcement Banner                 |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| **Rich text formatting**      | No (plain text only) | No (plain text with emojis)                |
| **Multiple saved banners**    | No (one at a time)   | Yes (library of saved announcements)       |
| **Dismissible by users**      | No                   | Yes                                        |
| **Public/private visibility** | Yes                  | Yes                                        |
| **One-click switching**       | No                   | Yes (switch between saved banners)         |
| **Banner history**            | No                   | Saved in your announcement library         |
| **Setup time**                | 1 minute             | 2 minutes (first time), 1 click after that |
| **Cost**                      | Free (built-in)      | Paid with free trial                       |

## Best Practices for Announcement Banners[​](#best-practices-for-announcement-banners "Direct link to Best Practices for Announcement Banners")

### Keep messages short and actionable[​](#keep-messages-short-and-actionable "Direct link to Keep messages short and actionable")

A banner that contains a wall of text gets ignored. Write banners that answer three questions in under 200 characters:

* **What** is happening?
* **When** is it happening?
* **What** should users do?

Bad: "Please be advised that the engineering team will be performing scheduled maintenance on the Jira and Confluence infrastructure this weekend. During this time, you may experience intermittent connectivity issues. We apologize for any inconvenience."

Good: "Scheduled maintenance: Sat May 24, 2-6 AM UTC. Jira and Confluence may be unavailable. Save your work before 2 AM."

### Disable banners promptly[​](#disable-banners-promptly "Direct link to Disable banners promptly")

An announcement banner that stays live for weeks after the event has passed trains users to ignore banners entirely. Set a calendar reminder to disable the banner when the announcement is no longer relevant.

With [Modern Announcement Banner](/docs/Modern-Announcement-Banner-for-Jira/user-docs.md), you can prepare the "disable" action in advance by saving a blank announcement that you enable when the event passes.

### Use dismissible banners for non-critical notices[​](#use-dismissible-banners-for-non-critical-notices "Direct link to Use dismissible banners for non-critical notices")

If an announcement is important but not critical (for example, "New feature available in the reporting dashboard"), make it dismissible. Users who have already seen it can dismiss it, reducing banner fatigue. Reserve non-dismissible banners for critical events like security incidents or mandatory policy changes.

### Reserve banners for truly important information[​](#reserve-banners-for-truly-important-information "Direct link to Reserve banners for truly important information")

Announcement banners are a high-visibility, limited-use channel. If you use them for every minor update, users start treating them as visual noise. Use banners for:

* Maintenance windows and outages
* Security alerts and policy changes
* Mandatory actions (password resets, compliance training)
* Company-wide events

Use other channels (Slack, email, Confluence pages) for everything else.

### Coordinate across platforms[​](#coordinate-across-platforms "Direct link to Coordinate across platforms")

If you are announcing a maintenance window that affects both Jira and Confluence, post banners in both platforms. A user who only sees the Jira banner might assume Confluence is unaffected.

## Related Resources[​](#related-resources "Direct link to Related Resources")

* [Modern Announcement Banner for Jira](/apps/modern-announcement-banner-for-jira.md) -- user guide with setup instructions, visibility settings, and dismissible banners
* [Jira Announcement Banner FAQ](/blog/faq-jira-announcement-banner-customization.md) -- detailed FAQ about customization, scheduling, and best practices

Try <!-- -->Modern Announcement Banner for Jira

Rich-text announcement banners with scheduling and targeting — free for up to 10 users.

[Get it on the Atlassian Marketplace](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/194301976/modern-announcement-banner-for-jira?utm_source=ngpilot.com\&utm_medium=website\&utm_campaign=modern-announcement-banner-for-jira)

## Related guides

* [How to Create Mermaid Diagrams in Jira](/blog/how-to-create-mermaid-diagrams-jira.md)
* [Export Jira Issues to Excel or CSV](/blog/export-jira-issues-to-excel.md)
* [Bulk Download Jira Attachments](/blog/bulk-download-jira-attachments.md)
* [How to Migrate Confluence Content](/blog/how-to-migrate-confluence-content.md)

Explore NGPILOT[Browse Solutions](/solutions.md)[All Apps](/apps.md)[Atlassian Marketplace →](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/vendors/1226848/?utm_source=ngpilot.com\&utm_medium=blog\&utm_campaign=hub-links)

**Tags:**

* [confluence](/blog/tags/confluence.md)
* [jira](/blog/tags/jira.md)
* [announcement-banner](/blog/tags/announcement-banner.md)
* [how-to](/blog/tags/how-to.md)
* [customization](/blog/tags/customization.md)