Request a banner on Transit's home screen

Transit's in-app banners communicate directly with your riders to inform them about major system changes, system-wide disruptions, or solicit feedback for occasional surveys.

Banners display at the top of the main screen when a rider opens Transit within a specific geographic area, or when riders are frequent riders for a specific route. Riders can tap on the banner to either open a web page or launch a specific feature in the app for more information.

Banners work well in these situations:

Service changes that will affect multiple lines and/or all riders
System-wide disruptions (for example, due to extreme weather or strikes)
Major planned disruptions (for example, maintenance work)
Inviting riders to take a survey or attend an open house

Banners aren't suitable in every case. For example, when you want to communicate about a situation that is:

Specific to one or two lines/routes,
Intended for a specific audience, or
Urgent,

We suggest using Service Alerts, which are targeted to individual lines and sent immediately. Riders can choose to subscribe to Service Alerts for specific lines and receive them as push notifications.

Banners must be set up by staff at Transit, unlike Service Alerts, which can be sent immediately by partner agencies with access to the Transit Dashboard.

Request a Banner

Here's what we'll need from you so we can set up your banner — don't worry, it's not that complicated!

Please fill out the banner request form at least 1 week in advance of the start date.

These items are necessary:

Topic of the banner;
URL to open when users tap the banner, if there is one. The web page must be mobile-enabled. The URL is not counted the character limit stated below
Start date
End date

These items are optional:

Suggested first line (max. 60 characters) and second line (max. 70 characters) of text. Please see template copy examples below.
Translations of this text in additional languages, if applicable (same character restrictions apply) -- or tell us what languages you need so we can handle translation in-house.
Approximate geographical area for banner to appear in app (a single contiguous circular area)

Once we have received the form request, we'll follow up and get the word out!

Surprise outage? Unexpected storm? If your request is urgent, please email partners@transit.app and include "URGENT" in the subject line. We'll do our best to help out in a pinch, but we might not be able to assist immediately over nights and weekends.

Template copy

Some announcements pop up frequently enough in the app that we've compiled a list of topics for which we have template copy (available in English, French, and Spanish).

If your banner falls into one of these categories, don't worry about reinventing the wheel — we've got your copy ready for you!

Announcement Type	First Line	Second Line
Survey	[AGENCY] wants to hear from you!	Tap to fill out a quick survey
Planned service changes	[AGENCY] service changes take effect [DAY, DATE]	Tap for more information
Fare free (general)	[AGENCY] is free today for [DAY]	Tap for more information
Fare-free (holiday)	It’s [HOLIDAY]! Ride [AGENCY] for free.	[Holiday/Saturday/Sunday] service in effect. Tap your line to see the complete schedule.
Service alerts	NEW ⚠️ Service alerts for [AGENCY]	Stop closed? Trip rerouted? Be the first to know! Tap to see how.
Snowstorm message	Service may be delayed due to winter conditions ❄️	Allow for extra travel time. Tap for more info.
Operator hiring	The best seat on the bus is up for grabs	[AGENCY] is hiring! Tap to learn more.

Banner colours

New banners are given a default dark blue colour, but this can change based on the type of message your banner contains. We reserve yellow #FFA900 for major service alerts (real-time outage, major service changes) and red #E51304 for emergency situations (hurricane, flooding, blizzard conditions).

Want your agency colour to shine? Don't hesitate to ask us to set up the banner with a custom hex code.