Communications
Announcements
How to broadcast messages to your community - in the app, with an optional push and email notification. Covers when to notify, when to use a targeted message instead, and how residents control what reaches them.
Last updated October 23, 2026
Announcements are how the board talks to the community. The pool’s closing for repair, the annual meeting is next month, the trash schedule changed for July 4. This article covers the announcement system end-to-end.
Announcements vs. Board Chat. Announcements point outward - the board broadcasting a finished decision to every resident. Board Chat points inward: a private, board-only conversation for working the decision out first. Debate the pool closure in Board Chat, then announce the result here.
Where to send announcements
Everything you send to residents goes through the Town Crier - its own line in the admin sidebar, right under Front Desk (on a phone: Menu > Communicate > Town Crier). It asks What do you want to send? and offers six kinds. Pick An announcement.
The Town Crier walks you through four steps:
- Choose - pick An announcement.
- Write it - Headline, Message, How serious is it? (Good to know, Heads up or Urgent - it sets the color residents see), Shows from and Comes down after. A future Shows from date schedules it.
- Who, and should it buzz - an announcement always shows to every home; this step asks whether phones should buzz too (see below), and lists who would get the buzz before anything goes.
- Check and send - the receipt says exactly what happens when you press Send: where it shows, and how many people get a buzz or an email.
Your announcements are listed in the Front Desk’s Sent lens, under Through Send, with their status.
Posting vs. notifying
Every announcement posts in the app, on every resident’s home page, for the dates you set. That part always happens.
On the Who step you answer Should their phone buzz?:
| Answer | Reaches | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| No, just put it there | Anyone who opens the app | Routine community news, minor updates, low-stakes information (“pool reopens Monday after maintenance”) |
| Yes, the way each person chose | Residents by push, email or text, per their own notification settings | Scheduled events, board updates, policy changes |
| Yes, and make sure they see it | The same, plus one email marked important to anyone their settings would not reach (if they have an email and have not unsubscribed) | Emergencies, anything everyone must see |
Residents who turned off HOA Alerts, or email or push altogether, won’t get that channel on the middle answer.
For a message that should land in every email inbox, send An email blast from the Town Crier. For residents you can’t reach digitally, send A letter - see Physical Mail.
Audience targeting
An announcement always shows to the whole community. When a message doesn’t apply to everyone, send A message, An email blast or A letter instead. Their Who step asks Who is it for? and offers:
- Everyone - community-wide
- Late on dues - homes behind on dues (you can narrow it by how late, or by how much is owed)
- No payment on file - homes with no payments on record
- Pick by hand or One home (and One person on a message or email blast) - a list you build
- Billing contacts - email blasts only: the billing contacts on file (landlords, offsite owners)
Whatever you pick, the Who list shows every home or person it reaches before anything goes, and you can take someone out or Add someone. Sending “Your dues are overdue” to the whole community insults the residents who paid on time.
What residents see
In the app, announcements appear in the From the Board card on every resident’s home page - newest first, with title, body, posted-by, and date. The card is color-coded by type: Info is blue, Warning is amber, Urgent is red. Residents can dismiss an announcement once they have read it, and the board can see how many have. Short nice-to-know notes like “Pool cleaned” are not announcements; see Community Pulse.
Email notifications look like a standard email with the HOA’s name in the from field, the announcement title as the subject, and the message in the email content.
Push notifications appear as standard mobile notifications with the title; tapping one opens the app.
Herald voice line: communities on a plan with Herald Voice get phone delivery too. When a resident calls the Herald line, any active notice they haven’t seen yet is shared with them once, conversationally, and then marked delivered. Delivery state is shared with the app in both directions - a resident who dismissed the notice in the app won’t hear it on the phone, and a resident who heard it on the phone won’t see it in the app again. Editing a live notice resets this for everyone, so the updated version reaches every resident again on every channel.
Editing / taking it down
Open the announcement in the Front Desk’s Sent lens (Through Send):
- Edit - you can update the words and dates where it shows, but notifications already sent are out the door. An edit never buzzes anyone again.
- Take down - it comes off the home page today; emails already sent stay in inboxes.
Announcements posted before the Town Crier are under Sent > Before Send. Open one that is still showing and you can End it today or Change end date.
If you sent an announcement with a major error (wrong date, wrong dollar amount), don’t just delete and re-send. Send a corrective announcement: “Correction: the meeting is at 7 PM, not 6 PM as previously announced.” Residents respect transparency more than silent corrections.
Frequency - how often is too often?
A practical rhythm for most communities:
- Weekly - feels excessive unless your community is highly active. Residents start ignoring.
- 2-3 per month - sweet spot. Routine updates without fatigue.
- Monthly - minimum to stay relevant. Less and residents forget the system exists.
Common situations
”We had an emergency and need to reach everyone now”
Pick Urgent under How serious is it?, answer Yes, and make sure they see it on the Who step, and consider An email blast too. Title with URGENT: prefix. Don’t bury the lead - first sentence should be the actionable info (“Water will be shut off from 2-4 PM today”).
”Some residents are complaining about getting too many announcements”
Direct them to their Profile. Under How to Reach Me they can turn off email, text, or push, and under What to Notify Me About they can turn off HOA Alerts. (They can’t opt out of the in-app post - that’s where it lives.) They can also just click Unsubscribe from announcements in the footer of any email you send - see below.
”Should we use HomeHerald announcements or our existing email blast tool?”
Use HomeHerald. Reasons:
- Targeting by late dues, no payments, or a hand-picked list is built into the Town Crier’s messages, email blasts and letters, and the Who list shows exactly who gets it before it goes
- Every email carries the unsubscribe link and the honest footer described below
- Residents see the same announcement in the app, so non-readers still encounter it
Most communities can decommission their old tool entirely after a few months on HomeHerald.
”We want a newsletter, not just a one-off announcement”
There’s no newsletter builder. Post a longer announcement that buzzes, or send it as An email blast from the Town Crier. For short nice-to-know lines between newsletters, use the Community Pulse.
Unsubscribe and the honest footer
Every announcement email HomeHerald sends carries a footer with a one-line, honest explanation of why that person received it (“You get these because email notifications are on for your account”, or “Your HOA sent this as a direct email to all members” on an email blast), the sending community’s name, the address it went to, and two links: Unsubscribe from announcements and Manage email preferences. The unsubscribe link needs no login - one click and that member stops getting announcement email from your community. The landing page also offers a second button to turn off all email from you. Roster contacts with no account (billing contacts, offsite owners) get the same link, and an email blast skips anyone who used it.
An email blast goes past a member’s notification toggles, but it does not go past an explicit unsubscribe. The receipt on Check and send tells you how many unsubscribed and will be skipped.
Required notices are exempt and always deliver: payment and dues reminders, ticket updates, and board chat. Those carry the honest line “This is a required notice from your HOA” and no unsubscribe link, because unsubscribing does not stop them.
Where to go next
- Unified email inbox - for inbound resident emails
- Physical Mail - for residents you can’t reach digitally
- Community Pulse - one-line nice-to-know notes on the home page
- Publishing to the public board - for sharing resolved requests, separate from announcements