Celebrations are Matter's automatic birthday and work anniversary messages: give Matter the dates, and on the day it posts a celebration in your Slack or Microsoft Teams channel, with coins if you want them, so nobody's milestone is missed.
Who can use this: Celebrations are included on the Basic plan and above, and during the free trial. Workspace Owners and Admins set them up; every member can manage their own dates and how they want to be celebrated.
Celebrations video guides
A short walkthrough of adding dates, the message, coins, and settings. Pick your platform.
Slack
Microsoft Teams
What are Celebrations?
A celebration is a message Matter posts on someone's birthday or work anniversary. It carries an image (Matter's template with the person's profile photo, your own branded image, or a random pick from image URLs you provide), a message you can write with the person's name and years of service filled in, and optionally coins. Teammates can pile on with their own coins.
Why Celebrations with Matter
The dates collect themselves: Matter can ask each person for their birthday and anniversary, you can upload a spreadsheet, or sync them from your HRIS.
Never missed, never awkward: weekend dates post on the previous Friday by default, and Admins and managers can get a reminder before the day.
Coins that scale with tenure: a fixed amount for birthdays, and a different amount for each year of service.
People stay in control: each person chooses to be celebrated publicly, privately, or not at all.
For Admins: setting up Celebrations
1. Get the dates in
Under Settings, then Celebrations in the web app: have Matter ask members for their dates (once, or automatically for every new member), upload the Excel template, add dates one by one on the Members tab, or sync from your HRIS. Members can also add their own dates under Account Settings. The settings page shows who is still missing a date.
➡️ Learn more: Adding in birthdays or work anniversary dates, Uploading celebration dates via Excel template, Seeing who is missing a birthday or work anniversary, Removing a birthday or work anniversary date, Overview of Matter's HRIS integration
2. Design the message
Choose the image (Matter template, your own upload, or up to ten image URLs picked at random) and write the text, with tags for the person's name and anniversary year. Your own upload and image URLs can be animated GIFs, as long as each is under 2MB.
3. Add coins
Set a coin amount for birthdays and, for work anniversaries, a different amount per year of service. Coins need Rewards (Pro plan and above).
➡️ Learn more: Customizing the coin amount per work anniversary year, Rewards Guide
4. Choose when it posts
Celebrations go out at 9 am in your workspace time zone. Weekend dates move to the previous Friday unless you choose to post on the weekend. Admins and managers can get a heads up before upcoming celebrations.
5. Keep it running
Turn birthdays or anniversaries on and off separately, send a celebration by hand when a date was added late, and decide whether members may change their own dates.
➡️ Learn more: Disabling and enabling celebrations, Manually send a birthday or work anniversary, Restrict members from changing their celebration dates
For members: your own celebrations
You can add or change your birthday and work anniversary under Account Settings, then Celebrations in the web app (unless your Admin has locked dates), and choose how each one is handled: celebrate publicly in the channel, celebrate privately by direct message, or do not celebrate. Coins come with public and private celebrations, not with the do not celebrate option.
Terms to know
Celebration date: a birthday or a work anniversary (start date). Each member can have one of each.
Visibility: a member's choice of public, private, or no celebration, set separately for birthdays and anniversaries.
Message tags: placeholders in the celebration text, such as the person's name and anniversary year, that Matter fills in.
Celebration reminders: notifications to Admins or managers ahead of an upcoming date, set under Advanced Settings.
FAQs
What if a birthday falls on a weekend?
By default it posts on the previous Friday. Admins can switch to posting on the actual day. Adjusting the delivery time for celebrations
Can a celebration image be an animated GIF?
Yes. A custom upload or any of your image URLs can be an animated GIF, as long as it is under 2MB. Customizing the celebration image
Someone added their date after their birthday. Can we still celebrate?
Yes. Open the member in Settings, then Members, and click Send Manually next to the celebration. Manually send a birthday or work anniversary
Can someone opt out?
Yes. Each person can set either celebration to private or to do not celebrate. Adjusting celebration visibility
Can we give more coins for a ten year anniversary than a first?
Yes. Set a coin amount for each year of service. Customizing the coin amount per work anniversary year
Can we celebrate anniversaries but not birthdays?
Yes. Each type has its own on and off switch. Disabling and enabling celebrations
Which plans include Celebrations?
Basic, Pro, and Enterprise, and every workspace during the free trial. Coins with celebrations need Pro or above.
Why didn't my birthday or work anniversary post?
In order of likelihood: the date is missing or was added after the day (Matter only looks at today, so add it and use Send Manually); you or an admin set that celebration to Do Not Celebrate, or to private, which sends a DM instead of a channel post; Birthdays or Anniversaries are turned off under Settings, Celebrations; the day fell on a weekend or an exclusion date, so it posted on the previous business day; the workspace time zone under Settings, General is wrong, so it posted at 9 am somewhere else; you are not an accepted member of the Matter channel; or the workspace is on the Free plan. A work anniversary never posts in the year you were hired. Manually send a birthday or work anniversary, Adjusting celebration visibility
Still stuck? Email support@matterapp.com.