How to Set Up Announcement Banners in Jira (Rich Text, Scheduling & Targeting)
- Jira admins who need to broadcast maintenance windows, outages, or policy changes
- IT/ops teams that want dismissible vs. persistent banner control
- Anyone frustrated by Jira's plain-text native banner limitations
- How to create a Jira announcement banner with rich text and emojis
- Choosing dismissible vs. persistent banners (and when each fits)
- Managing a library of announcements for quick reuse
- How this compares to Jira's built-in banner and to Confluence banners
The scenario every Jira admin hits: there's a maintenance window Saturday night, a security policy change, or an ongoing incident — and you need every person who opens Jira to see it immediately. Jira has a built-in announcement banner, but it's plain-text only, lives in a buried admin setting, and gives you one banner at a time with no library, no scheduling, and no way to let users dismiss it.
Modern Announcement Banner for Jira fixes this: rich-text banners with emojis and custom colors, a dismissible option, a saved library of announcements you can switch between with one click, and instant enable/disable without deleting. This guide walks through setting it up.
Why Jira's native announcement banner falls short
Jira ships with a built-in announcement banner (under General Configuration → Announcement Banner), but teams outgrow it fast for four reasons:
- Plain text only. No formatting, no emojis, no links, no colors. A critical outage banner looks identical to a casual note.
- One banner at a time. You can't keep a library of announcements. To switch from "maintenance Saturday" to "incident resolved," you copy the current text somewhere, paste the new text, and hope you saved the old one.
- Not dismissible. Every user sees the banner until an admin removes it — even after they've read it a dozen times. There's no "I've seen this, let me close it" option.
- All-or-nothing visibility. The native banner shows to everyone or no one. No per-project targeting.
A dedicated banner app addresses all four: rich text, a saved library, dismissible option, and visibility control.
Step-by-step: set up a Jira announcement banner
1. Install Modern Announcement Banner for Jira
Install Modern Announcement Banner for Jira from the Atlassian Marketplace. It requires Jira administrator permissions to install and is free for up to 10 users.
2. Open the banner manager
Log in to Jira as an administrator. Click the Apps (⚙️) More Actions icon in the top navigation and select Modern Announcement Banner for Jira from the left sidebar. The banner manager opens, showing your announcement library (empty on first use).
3. Create a new announcement
Click New announcement. In the editor:
- Write your message using rich text — bold, italics, links, and emojis. A maintenance banner might be: "⚙️ Scheduled maintenance Saturday 2:00–4:00 AM UTC. Jira may be briefly unavailable."
- Enabled — check this to display the banner immediately on creation.
- Dismissible — check this to let users close the banner once they've read it (good for one-time notices). Leave unchecked to keep it persistent (good for ongoing incidents).
- Visibility — choose Public (all users) or Private (follows Jira's privacy settings).
4. Enable and publish
Click Create. If you checked Enabled, the banner appears immediately at the top of every Jira page. The design is clean and matches Jira's interface — non-intrusive, but unmissable.
5. Manage and switch announcements
This is where the library pays off. Every announcement you create is saved in your history. Common scenarios:
- Maintenance window approaching → enable the maintenance banner
- Window over → disable it (one click, not deleted) or switch to the "maintenance complete" banner
- New incident → switch to the incident banner
- Policy change → enable the persistent (non-dismissible) policy banner
You can switch between saved announcements with one click, and disable any banner instantly without losing it. This turns banner management from a copy-paste chore into a one-click operation.
Dismissible vs. persistent banners: when to use each
The dismissible setting is the most important choice per banner:
| Banner type | When to use | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Dismissible | One-time notices (scheduled maintenance, release notes, survey links) | Users close it after reading; won't see it again in their session |
| Persistent | Ongoing situations (active incidents, policy changes, security alerts) | Stays visible to every user until an admin disables it |
The rule of thumb: if the announcement is something users need to act on repeatedly (an ongoing outage), make it persistent. If it's something they need to see once (maintenance is this Saturday), make it dismissible so it stops cluttering their screen after they've acknowledged it.
How this compares to Confluence announcement banners
This app is for Jira. Confluence has its own native announcement banner (under General Configuration → Announcement Banner in Confluence, not Jira) which is similarly plain-text-only. If you need rich banners in Confluence too, that's a separate need — but the most common request is for Jira, where the whole engineering team sees the banner on every issue and board.
FAQ
Does Jira have a built-in announcement banner?
Yes — Jira has a native announcement banner under General Configuration. But it's plain-text only, gives you one banner at a time with no library, and isn't dismissible. For rich-text banners, a saved announcement library, and dismissible/persistent control, use a Marketplace app like Modern Announcement Banner for Jira.
Can I make a Jira announcement banner dismissible?
Jira's native banner cannot be dismissed by users — it stays until an admin removes it. Modern Announcement Banner for Jira adds a dismissible option per banner, so users can close one-time notices after reading them while persistent banners (for ongoing incidents) remain.
How do I schedule a Jira announcement banner?
Jira's native banner has no scheduling — you must enable and disable it manually at the right times. Modern Announcement Banner for Jira lets you save a library of announcements and switch between them with one click, so you can prepare a maintenance banner in advance and enable it instantly when the window starts.
Can I target a Jira banner to specific projects?
The native banner is all-or-nothing (everyone or no one). Modern Announcement Banner for Jira offers visibility control (public or private, following Jira's privacy settings) for more targeted display.
Is Modern Announcement Banner for Jira free?
Yes — Modern Announcement Banner for Jira is free for up to 10 users. Beyond 10 users, standard Atlassian Marketplace licensing applies.
Related guides
Try Modern Announcement Banner for Jira
Rich-text announcement banners with scheduling and targeting — free for up to 10 users.
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