Using the Announcement post in Teams

I’ve been waiting for this feature to show up in our Office 365 tenant, and now we have it… Announcement posts in Microsoft Teams! This is a great way to garner more attention to a post in a Microsoft Teams Channel. Here’s how it works…

Here’s a normal entry to start a new conversation in a Teams Channel. To get to the Announcement format, click the Format icon in the lower left corner:

In the upper left corner, click on the dropdown arrow next to New Conversation, select Announcement, and hit Enter:

Here is the blank Announcement post format. It allows you to add a Headline (with different background colors or a background graphic), add a subheading, and then your content with all the text formatting options in the Format toolbar:

In order to change the Headline banner, click on the color control (left) or the image control (right). For this sample, I’ll add a background image:

Click on Upload An Image to add your background. It’s recommended that you choose something that’s at least 918 pixels wide by 120 pixels high:

When the image is loaded, you can move it up or down to change the focus of the picture, as well as changing the magnification of what is shown. Once finished, click Done:

Now you have your background image, and you can add your subheader and the text of the Announcement. When finished, click the Send icon in the lower right corner:

And there you have your new Announcement showing up in your Teams Channel:

Just remember… if this is overused, then people will learn to visually filter it out when they’re reading a channel. You should only use this for things that truly warrant it.