You can create and manage announcement bars by asking Sidekick, the AI assistant built into your Shopify admin, in plain language. Sidekick opens this app’s bar form already filled in – the message, the name, the colors, the background style and the link – so you can adjust anything you like and save when you’re happy. There is nothing to switch on: the connection ships with the app. Settings > AI creation in the app lists what you can ask.
Asking Sidekick
Open Sidekick from anywhere in your Shopify admin – look for the assistant icon – and describe what you want to announce. The more specific you are, the closer the result will be.
Examples that work well:
“Create an announcement bar with a red background saying free shipping over $50”
“Put up a Black Friday bar, 50% off everything, animated background”
“Which of my announcement bars are running right now?”
“How did my bars perform last week?”
“Turn off the Black Friday bar”
Useful details to include:
What you’re announcing – sale, free shipping, new product, event
Key details – discount amount, threshold dollar value
How it should look – a color, or words like animated, gradient, plain
Where it should appear – top or bottom of the page, all pages or just the home page
What Sidekick Fills In
Message – what shoppers read, up to 64 characters
Name – admin-only, so you can find the bar in your list later
Bar type – simple, rotating, running line, typed or countdown
Background style and colors – solid, gradient, radial, striped, split, animated gradient or pulse, in a color you name. Text color is picked automatically for contrast unless you ask for one
Link – the call-to-action wording and where it points
Placement – top or bottom, alignment, sticky on scroll, and whether shoppers can dismiss it
Visibility – all pages, or just the home, product, collection, cart or blog pages
Scheduling, countdown timers, translations, regional variants and A/B tests are not set this way. Add those yourself on the form, or in the bar’s settings after saving.
Reviewing and Saving
Sidekick fills the form in – it does not save anything. Nothing is on your storefront until you click Save, and a saved bar still needs activating before shoppers see it. Every field stays editable, so treat what Sidekick writes as a first draft.
While the form is open you can keep talking to Sidekick to reword the message, and it will rewrite it in place rather than starting over.
Managing Bars You Already Have
Sidekick can also work with your existing bars:
Find a bar – ask which bars exist, which one is showing right now, or search by name. Each result comes with a link straight to the bar
Check performance – ask how your bars are doing and Sidekick reports views, clicks and click-through rate, over the last seven days unless you name a different period. Analytics are a paid feature, so on the free plan Sidekick will tell you they are not available rather than report numbers
Switch a bar on or off – “pause the Black Friday bar” takes it down without deleting it; the bar and its content are kept and you can put it back live at any time
Two things it will refuse, and tell you why: activating a bar whose countdown has already run out (give it a new end date first), and activating a regional or A/B variant whose parent bar is switched off. Deleting a bar is something you do yourself in the app.
Related
Using Templates – 40+ pre-designed bars if you’d rather start from a design
Understanding Analytics – the views and clicks Sidekick reports