Announcr speaks through this device. Controls live in the sidebar on desktop and in the top bar on mobile.

Turn audio on or off

• When audio is locked, click Enable audio (sidebar) or the audio off pill (mobile).
• Once unlocked, click the control to mute — you pick how long:
  • Until I unmute — stays muted until you turn audio back on
  • Presets — 5 / 15 / 30 minutes, 1 / 2 / 4 hours
  • Until a clock time — local time (tomorrow if that time already passed today)
• While muted, the pill shows time remaining (e.g. muted · 14m left). Click again to unmute early. Auto-unmute when the timer ends.
• Muted and locked messages still arrive in history unread; they do not play live, and turning audio back on does not speak them. Play each one from Messages if you want to hear it.
• Reloading the page locks browser audio again (one click to re-enable). A timed mute is remembered for the browser tab session. The desktop app stays unlocked for audio.

Isolate

Isolate is a temporary allowlist of what may speak — on every device signed into your account.

• Open it from the isolate control next to the audio pill.
• Turn on the types you want to hear (Webhooks, Channels, Gmail, and so on). Personal Reminder starts selected so a reminder you scheduled is not silenced by accident; you can turn it off.
• Pick how long, or leave it on until you end it.
• Other types stay in Messages unread. Ending Isolate does not replay them.
• Interrupt priority does not break Isolate. Mute on one device still silences that speaker only.

Volume and speed

Open Playback preferences (the ⚙ gear on the audio control):

• Volume — 0% to 100%
• Speed — 0.75× to 1.5×

These preferences are saved in this browser.

Spotlight

Some announcements (token broadcasts, welcome clips, and other highlighted signals) can open as a full-screen Spotlight card with motion and effects. The effect is chosen by the platform for that signal type.

The card stays up until the announcement audio finishes, then remains fully visible for about two more seconds so you can hit Reply, open a link, or use another available action — then it fades out in about one second. A 30-second cap dismisses the card earlier if the audio is still going. Click the card or ✕ to dismiss early (and stop remaining audio).

Replay delay (wait after you click ✦ before Spotlight starts) is in Playback preferences (the ⚙ gear). Max card time is under Settings → Message display.

On personal messages (from a contact), Spotlight may show a Reply button that opens the composer to that person immediately.

Spotlight prefs are saved to your account (and cached in this browser).

React preview

Messages you send that allow emoji reactions show a short React preview card in a screen corner, with any reactions floating up live and named. It uses the normal message-display card (not a toast). Timing and which corner it uses are set under Settings → React preview. See Emoji reactions.

Important (opt-in ambient highlights)

Important is an optional fill lane: after you have been quiet for a while, Announcr may speak a high-signal public highlight you do not already follow. It is off by default.

Turn it on

1. Open Settings → Important.
2. Enable Important.
3. Optionally set interrupt level for these plays (default whisper — soft ambient; interrupt can play during quiet hours).

You will also see your plan's daily allowance and today's usage on that Settings card and under Premium (Important resets each UTC day; other meters reset with your billing period).

What you may hear

Sources can include:

Source	When it can enter Important
Public Announcr channels	A public channel posts (organic fill; free for the channel)
X (catalog)	An admin-marked Important source account posts and the importance judge clears the bar
Telegram (catalog)	An admin-marked Important source channel posts and the importance judge clears the bar

You only get a play if you opted in, still have daily allowance, are past the silence window, and are not already a member/follower/subscriber of that source (no double audio for the same post).

Labels (Spotlight / toast)

Label	Meaning
Important	Ambient fill play
Featured	Top score band among recent Important candidates — unpaid quality band (badge; not a paid boost)
Sponsored	Paid promotion by a Creator channel — spoken + visual (see below)

Daily caps (UTC day)

Plan	Important plays / day
Free	5
Personal	15
Power	40
Creator	100

Listening to Important does not spend send allowances. Organic Important is never charged to the source.

Silence pacing

Important waits for a silence window (about 20 minutes by default with no ambient speech; platform-configurable).

The silence clock uses a hybrid:

• When a spoken message is marked played (the same listen receipt as the green Read checkmark in Messages), the clock resets from when you actually heard it.
• A live push also starts the clock, so if audio is locked or the tab is closed you are not flooded with Important when you come back.

Channel and group room broadcasts still play as a single room emit, but each listener gets a thin listen receipt. When the client marks the post played (via the broadcast id), the silence clock advances the same way as for personal messages.

Featured vs Sponsored

• Featured — unpaid quality band inside Important (badge; not a paid boost).
• Sponsored — paid by the source (Creator plan + credits); see next section.

Not the same as catalog “Important only”: when you follow an X account, Important only filters that subscription. The Settings → Important lane is ambient fill from sources you do not already follow.

Sponsored (Creator channels)

Coming soon — Sponsored is built and will switch on once the Important listener pool is large enough to be worth paying for. Until then the composer shows it as Coming soon and no credits are charged.

Owners/publishers on the Creator plan can mark a single public native channel broadcast as Sponsored when sending.

• Promotes that post into the Important lane for eligible opted-in listeners (non-members).
• Spoken "Sponsored" lead-in (or intro clip for voice posts) plus a Sponsored badge.
• Credits prepaid at send: 100 + 2×live, where live is the estimate of Important reach (opted-in non-members currently online). Offline listeners are not charged — they will not auto-hear the post.
• Quote appears in the broadcast composer before you send.

Organic channel posts and social Important sources are free for the source; only Sponsored spends credits.

Quiet hours (do not disturb)

In Settings, set quiet hours as a start and end clock time. Those times use your device's local timezone (Announcr saves your IANA timezone with the preference, so quiet hours stay correct even if the server is in another region).

What quiet hours do

Quiet hours affect live speech, not whether Announcr keeps a record of the message:

	During quiet hours
Messages stored	Yes — they still land in history / receipts
Live spoken announcement	Only if priority is interrupt (see below)
Whisper / normal / urgent	No live speech — they stay unread in Messages for you to play later
After quiet hours	Live speech resumes; missed items are not auto-played

So quiet hours are not "delete everything" — they are "don't speak unless it is explicitly allowed to interrupt."

What can interrupt quiet hours

Only the priority level named Interrupt can play live during quiet hours.

Priority ladder:

Level	During quiet hours
Whisper	Waits (soft ambient)
Normal	Waits
Urgent	Waits — higher queue priority, but does not break quiet hours
Interrupt	Can play live through quiet hours

Urgent ≠ interrupt. A price alert or other signal marked urgent still respects quiet hours unless you (or the platform) set that delivery to interrupt.

How something becomes interrupt

Source	Default	Can it break quiet hours?
Contact messages you receive	Normal	No (unless product changes that)
Catalog signals you follow	Category default (often normal; price alerts are typically urgent)	Only if you set that signal to Interrupt under Signals → Edit
Important ambient lane	Whisper (under Settings → Important)	Only if you set Important interrupt level to Interrupt
Channel / group / token room posts	Usually normal	Only if that post's priority is interrupt
One-time welcome Spotlight	Interrupt (platform)	Yes — so new users can hear the welcome even if quiet hours are set

In short: you choose what may wake you, via interrupt level on each signal (and on Important). The platform does not treat normal or urgent traffic as free to break quiet hours.

Quiet hours vs mute vs locked audio

These are separate controls:

Control	Where	Effect
Quiet hours	Settings	Server holds live speech except interrupt
Isolate	Audio pill	Account-wide allowlist — only the types you pick speak live; everything else stays unread
Ambient mute (timed or until unmute)	Audio pill / playback UI	Client does not play anything live (including interrupt) while muted; history still updates unread
Enable audio (browser lock)	First unlock	Nothing plays until you allow sound; enabling audio is live-only

Mute and locked audio still silence interrupt. Quiet hours alone do not.

Interrupt level (per signal and Important)

Each catalog category has a default priority (whisper · normal · urgent · interrupt). On Signals → Edit, use the interrupt slider to override for that subscription.

For the Important ambient lane, set interrupt level under Settings → Important (default whisper).

Use interrupt only for things you truly want during sleep/focus blocks (for example a critical price alert you opted into at that level).

Missed messages

Ambient audio is live only. Enabling audio, unmuting, or coming back online never auto-plays a backlog.

Anything that arrived while audio was off, muted, in quiet hours (except interrupt), or while you were offline stays in Messages as unread. Play items one by one from there if you want to hear them. A green checkmark means the message is read on your account — hearing or dismissing it on any phone or laptop counts everywhere.

Music beds play on live delivery and on history / Spotlight replay up to the bed's max plays per listener (set per track). Price and wallet activity signals default to Latest only while audio is on (newest relevant live fire spoken; older ones in that burst count as read). In Messages, each price or wallet subscription shows only its most recent fire as a single row — not a full tick history — so you can replay or open it without flooding the feed. Social signals (X, Telegram, …) default Latest only off so distinct live posts can still play — manage per signal under Signals.