Announcements overview
How What’s new carousel cards work on the dashboard home—rotate, open CTAs, and dismiss for your account.
Announcements are the quiet “What’s new” carousel on the dashboard home (DashboardAnnouncements). Pointerly ships a curated set of product highlights (Reports, Bio templates, WhatsApp, Automations, Content Studio, QR Codes, and similar). Cards rotate every few seconds, pause on hover/focus, respect reduced motion, and can be dismissed for your user until the announcements version bumps.
Feature-specific banners (for example Bio templates in the editor) use the same dismiss preference system with their own ids.
What you'll do
- Find the What’s new strip on the dashboard home
- Open a feature via the card CTA
- Move between slides or dismiss the set
- Know when dismissed cards return (version bump)
Before you start
- Signed in with a team context (carousel loads after dismissed-modals preferences resolve)
- Dashboard home visible (not a nested module-only layout without the strip)
Concepts
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Announcement slide | Eyebrow, title, description, CTA href, accent, icon |
| Version key | e.g. home-announcements-v2 — dismissing stores this id |
| Dismiss preferences | Per-user list from getDismissedHelpModals / dismissHelpModal |
| Auto-rotate | ~9s interval; paused on hover/focus; off when reduced motion |
| Feature banner | Module-scoped announcement (e.g. Bio templates) with its own dismiss id |
Use the home carousel
- Open Dashboard home.
- Locate the bordered What’s new card (accent color changes per slide).
- Read the eyebrow + title (description shows from
mdbreakpoints up). - Click the primary CTA (e.g. Open Reports, Try the new editor) to jump into the module.
- Use previous/next controls to browse other slides without waiting for rotation.
- Click dismiss (X) to hide the whole set for your account until Pointerly publishes a new announcements version.
Scheduled announcements (sidebar, top bar, banner, marketing tab)
Besides the built-in What’s new set, Pointerly staff schedule announcements for four places. Each has its own dates, priority (higher shows first) and optional plan audience, and can promote a reward program (for example the referral program or a challenge). The button then usually opens Dashboard → Rewards (/dashboard/rewards), or on the marketing site the referral section (/#referrals) or sign-up.
| Placement | Where it shows | Rotation and dismiss |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar card | The first card of the sidebar footer deck (hover, focus or tap the deck to fan it out). In the top bar layout, or when the sidebar is collapsed to icons, it moves into the What’s new & more (sparkle) panel, which shows a dot while something new is unseen | Several live cards rotate as one card (~9s), pausing on hover/focus. × in the opened card hides it for your account |
| Top-bar ticker | The one-line pill in the middle of the top bar (top bar layout, wide screens), mixed with the What’s new set | Rotates (~7s) with a progress ring. No dismiss. While you are in a challenge, the challenge pill takes this spot when space is tight |
| Dashboard banner | The banner strip at the top of the dashboard | Only the highest-priority one shows. × hides it for your account |
| Marketing tab | A tab hanging from the marketing site’s navbar (not on phones or on /join/ invite pages). Expanded with a supporting line at the top of the page, folded to one line once you scroll | Up to four rotate, pausing on hover/focus. × is remembered in that browser. With none scheduled, it can show the running referral program instead (Invite a creator) |
Dashboard dismissals are saved per user, so they hold on every device. Announcements marked not dismissible show no ×. Dismissing an announcement never affects the reward program itself: it stays on the Rewards page. See Rewards overview.
Feature banners inside modules
- Some modules show a one-time banner (example: New themes and templates for your Bio).
- Use the banner CTA to try the feature, or Not now to dismiss that banner id.
- Dismissals are per user (and sometimes scoped with team id in the banner id).
- Home carousel dismiss does not automatically hide every module banner—and vice versa.
Tips
- Dismiss only when you have sampled the CTAs—you will not see the same version again.
- Prefer the CTA over hunting the sidebar when learning a new module.
- If you need lasting alerts (billing, invites), use Notifications—announcements are marketing/product education, not operational alerts.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| No carousel | Already dismissed current version | Wait for next version; check another account |
| Cannot dismiss | Preference save failed | Retry; check connectivity; toast explains failure |
| Carousel never moves | Reduced motion / hover pause / single slide | Use arrows; move pointer away |
| Banner returns unexpectedly | Different banner id or version bump | Dismiss again; expected after product updates |