Announcements and the day-of timeline

Two Event Day tools keep the room in the loop without a microphone: announcements you send in the moment, and the What's happening timeline you plan ahead of time.

Announcements: talk to the room

Open your event's Event Day tab. The Announce to the room box is on both the Setup and Live sides, so it's under your thumb whichever one you're standing in. Type a note — "Dinner is served in the garden!" — and tap Send. The note appears:

• On the kiosk, as a slim "just in" ticker across the welcome screen showing your latest note.
• On every guest's companion page, in a feed that refreshes itself about every half a minute, newest first.

A few practical details:

• Each announcement can be up to 200 characters — a sentence or two, made for glancing.
• Your 50 most recent notes are kept; older ones fall away on their own.
• You can delete any note from the same box (there's no edit — delete and resend to reword).

Writing them ahead of time

The announcement box also supports preparing notes ahead of time:

• Schedule for later. Pick a time and the note waits, then shows itself when that time arrives. Perfect for "Cake at 9" written while you still have both hands free. Scheduled notes are listed in your history with a Scheduled badge and the time they'll appear, and you can delete one before it lands.
• Saved lines. Keep the notes you know you'll want — "Shuttle leaving in ten minutes", "Please find your seats" — and drop one into the box with a tap instead of typing it at the bar. You can keep up to twenty.

One thing to be clear-eyed about: announcements live on the day-of screens only. They are not emailed, texted, or pushed to anyone — a guest sees them on the kiosk or with the companion page open. For something every guest must see wherever they are (a venue change the night before, say), send a real message instead: see Messaging your guests.

The timeline: What's happening

The What's happening tile shows your run of show — ceremony at 4, toasts at 6, cake at 8 — and highlights the moment that's happening right now against the clock, so a glance answers "what's next?" without anyone asking you.

• You author the timeline in your event's Timeline module: each moment is a time, a title and, if you like, a short note under the title (up to 200 characters — "Garden terrace", "Bring your jacket"). A moment with a time but no title is a draft — you'll see "Needs a title" on your side, and it stays off the kiosk, guests' phones and the PDF until you name it.
• The tile appears on the kiosk (and the section on the companion page) only when the timeline is switched on and has at least one titled moment — an empty plan never shows a dead tile.
• Times read the way you chose under Timeline → Settings → Time format (7:30 PM or 19:30), on the kiosk, on guests' phones, on your Event Day tab and in the PDF.
• Now is the clock at your event. If you've set your event's time zone in Settings, a guest on the other side of the world still sees what's on at the party. "Now" only lights on the day of the event (and the small hours after it): the day before, nothing is running yet, and the morning after nothing reads "Now".
• Something after midnight — the last dance at 12:30 AM — is still part of your night. Tap Next day beside its time in the Timeline module and it sorts after your evening moments and reads "12:30 AM +1" (the PDF explains the +1). "Now" follows it through the small hours.
• Guests see the same plan on their own phones, so the schedule travels with them to their seats.

Timeline is the planned schedule; announcements are the live voice. They pair well: the timeline says dinner is at 7, and your announcement says the buffet is actually open.

Driving the schedule on the day

On the Live side of the Event Day tab, your whole day is laid out in order, with the current moment marked NOW and the next one waiting underneath. It's the same schedule — this is just the steering wheel.

• Advance moves the room on to the next moment; Prev steps back. Tap any row to jump straight to it.
• Auto follows the clock by itself — the sensible default when the night is running to plan.
• Manual pins the room to the moment you chose, and holds it there. This is the one you want when dinner runs twenty minutes late and you'd rather the screens didn't get ahead of you. Switch back to Auto and the clock takes over again.
• ＋ Add moment opens a small form right there — a time and a label — and writes it into the same Timeline module. No leaving the page, and the kiosk and every guest's phone pick it up too.

Every step is recorded, so the audit log tells you exactly when the toasts actually started.

Where each shows up

Common questions

Do announcements send a text or email to my guests? No. They appear only on the Event Day screens — the kiosk and guests' companion pages. To reach guests by email or text, use Messaging your guests.

How fast do guests see a new announcement? Instantly on the kiosk ticker, and within about half a minute on companion pages, which refresh themselves.

Can I edit an announcement after sending? Not directly — delete it and send the corrected version. Both take one tap from the Announce to the room box.

How many moments can the timeline hold? Up to 100 — plenty for a full day's programme. Add each moment with a time and title in the Timeline module (or with ＋ Add moment on the Live side), and they all show in order.

I changed the schedule — how fast does the kiosk catch up? Within a few seconds. Added, renamed, re-timed and deleted moments — and the Advance, Previous and Auto/Manual controls — reach screens that are already open on their next refresh, with nothing to reload. If a screen has lost its connection it catches up as soon as it is back online.

Why doesn't the What's happening tile appear? The Timeline module is off, or none of its moments has a title yet. Add at least one titled moment and the tile appears on the kiosk and companion page.

Can I edit the timeline after the event? No. Once the event has wrapped it's in keepsake mode: the Timeline stays readable (and the PDF stays downloadable) but can't be changed.

Can a co-host send announcements? Yes. The Announce to the room box sits on the Event Day tab, and accepted co-hosts share that dashboard — so whoever is on desk duty can send the note.

I scheduled a note — do I need to keep the page open? No. A scheduled note is stored on your event and appears on its own when its time comes, whether or not your dashboard is open.

Can I add a moment to the schedule during the party? Yes — ＋ Add moment on the Live side. It goes into the real Timeline, so the kiosk and guests' phones pick it up within a few seconds.

Related articles

• Event Day mode — your welcome desk on a tablet
• The Event Day tab — set it up, then run the day from it
• The guest view of Event Day
• Messaging your guests
• What guests receive