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 September 25, 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
Announcements in the admin sidebar, under Communicate.
Click Create Announcement and you’ll see a composer with:
- Type - Info, Warning, or Urgent (sets the color residents see)
- Title - short, descriptive
- Message - the actual message
- Start Date and End Date - when it shows on the home page; a future start date schedules it
- Send notification to residents - optional; see below
- Preview - what residents will see
Your announcements are listed under Active & Scheduled Announcements, 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.
Tick Send notification to residents and each resident is also notified by push and email, according to their own notification preferences. Residents who turned off HOA Alerts, or email or push altogether, won’t get that channel.
| Option | Reaches | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Post only | Anyone who opens the app | Routine community news, minor updates, low-stakes information (“pool reopens Monday after maintenance”) |
| Post + notification | Residents by push and email, per their preferences | Scheduled events, board updates, policy changes, emergencies |
For a message that must reach every inbox regardless of preferences, use Email Blast in the sidebar. For residents you can’t reach digitally, use Formal Letters - see Physical Mail.
Audience targeting
An announcement always goes to the whole community. When a message doesn’t apply to everyone, use In-App Message, Email Blast, or Formal Letters instead. Each has a Recipients list with quick picks:
- All Residents - community-wide
- Late Dues - residents with overdue dues
- No Payments - residents with no payments on file
- Search and tick individual residents for a custom list
Email Blast also has a quick pick for billing contacts. 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.
Deleting / editing
After sending:
- Edit - you can update the in-app version, but notifications already sent are out the door. Editing brings the announcement back for residents who had dismissed it.
- Delete - removes it from the home page; emails already sent stay in inboxes
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 the Urgent type, tick Send notification to residents, 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 In-App Message, Email Blast, and Formal Letters
- 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 with the notification ticked, or send it as an Email Blast. 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 Email Blast skips anyone who used it - their row shows an OPTED OUT badge in the recipient list.
Email Blast bypasses a member’s notification toggles, but it does not bypass an explicit unsubscribe. The send confirmation tells you how many selected recipients 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