For: District Admin and School Admin
Platform: Web + Mobile Applications (No SMS)
📱 Delivered only in TalkingPoints applications (web or mobile) | ❌ No SMS | 💬 One-way only
What Are Staff Announcements?
Staff Announcements are one-way messages sent by school or district admins, and sometimes co-teachers, to keep educators informed about key updates. These announcements help make sure nothing important gets lost in your inbox.
🔔 How You’ll Know You Have a New Announcement
Web App:
Click into Messages, and then view the From other admins tab.
Number badge appears on From other admins tab on the right-hand side of the top tab menu.
Badges disappear after you open and view the message.
Mobile App:
Number badge on the Announcements tab in the bottom menu
Badge + NEW tag on your Home page if there's an unread message
Within the announcement list, unread messages show a badge until opened
⚙️ Controlling Badges & Notifications
This feature cannot be configured in the TalkingPoints web product. Please follow the instructions below to manage your settings on mobile.
On Mobile:
Go to Settings > Notifications & Auto-Reply, then:
Turn push notifications on/off
Turn announcement badges on/off
These are separate from family messages
📣 Admin Announcement Options
Admins can choose to send announcements to:
Families
Students
Staff
Any combination (e.g., Families + Staff, or Staff only)
If student messaging is not enabled, only Families and Staff will appear as recipient options.
❗ Admins cannot send announcements with polls to Staff only. To send a poll, the message must include Families and/or Students.
🧑🏫 Staff as Senders: What Happens
If you’re an admin sending an announcement:
You won’t get a badge or notification for your own message
You will still see it in TalkingPoints Web and Mobile
If you send a message to families/students only, staff won’t see it—unless they’re also an admin. However, you (and other admins) will see it in Teacher Product.
🧭 Where Admins See Staff Announcements
In District Product (DP):
You’ll see messages sent to all schools when staff are included in the SP or TP. You won’t see messages sent only to a specific school or group unless you are:
In SP or TP
Are listed as a recipient on the message.
Messages will not be "delivered" in DP to a user's From other admins inbox.
In School Product (SP):
You’ll see messages:
From District sent to your school (with staff included)
From School admins sent to all classes (with staff included)
Messages sent to a class/group only appear in Teacher Product for rostered users.
🗂 Admin Inbox: From Other Admins Tab
All users will see this tab, even if they do not have permissions to view messages. If users have permissions to view all message, they will only see the From Other Admins tab.
Here, you can:
Filter by time frame
Toggle to see only messages sent to staff
View sender/recipient details
Click to preview message (read receipts are not included)
Unread messages appear bold until a few seconds after the page loads. A green banner appears the first time this tab is accessed.
✅ Quick Recap
What You Can Do | Details |
🔔 Get alerts | Badge + optional push notification |
📥 View announcements | In the From Other Admins inbox tab |
🧭 Customize alerts | Control badge and push settings on Mobile only |
📣 Send to staff | Admins can include/exclude staff from any message |
🚫 No SMS or replies | Staff announcements are app-only and one-way |
📊 Can’t respond to polls | Staff can view poll announcements but not vote |