Summary: This guide explains how to use the Appearance settings to customize your network with corporate logos, colors, and backgrounds. It covers creating multiple themes for different brands or markets, what each theme tab does, and the rules for assigning themes to Business Units (BUs) or the network as a whole.
1. Understanding themes and branding
Speakap lets administrators customize the platform's branding to create a familiar, trusted environment for employees.
If your company operates multiple brands or serves different markets, a single network-wide design may not be enough. To solve this, you can create multiple themes and assign them to specific Business Units (BUs), so employees see the branding most relevant to them.
2. Accessing the Branding settings
To manage your network's visual appearance:
- Go to Network settings.
- Select the Appearance section.
- From this menu you can search, edit, delete, or create new themes.
3. Creating and configuring a new theme
To build a new theme, click the New theme button in the Branding settings. This opens a configuration window divided into several tabs. Click Save at any time to keep your progress.
For all image sizes, formats, and pixel specifications, see Branding assets for desktop.
Tab: General
- Theme name: The unique identifier for the theme in the Branding menu. This field is mandatory.
- Network avatar: The primary logo displayed on the login screen and within the network interface.
- Favicon: The small icon displayed in web browser tabs and bookmarks.
- Network logo: The logo shown at the top left in the main banner.
Tab: Colors
- Primary color: The color of all actionable buttons (for example buttons and borders).
- Secondary color: The color of the top navigation bar.
- Tertiary color: The text color for hyperlinks inside updates, news items, events, comments, and private messages, as well as mentions.
- Reset to system defaults: A button that reverts all custom colors back to the standard Speakap palette. (Tip: scroll down to see it.)
Tab: Background and Banners
- Timeline banner (Feed banner): Upload a custom image for the top of the Feed. After uploading you can crop the correct area.
- News banner: Upload a custom image for the top of the News page. After uploading you can crop the correct area.
- Reset to system defaults: Removes the custom image and restores the default gray background. (Tip: scroll down to see it.)
Tab: Login
- Login backgrounds: Upload up to four custom backgrounds for the login page; they rotate for users. If you upload only one, there is no rotation.
- Important login constraint: Because the platform cannot know which Business Unit a user belongs to before they log in, the login page always shows the Default Network Theme, regardless of custom BU assignments. In custom themes the Login tab is not available, only in the Default theme.
Tab: Covers
- Default cover image: A custom fallback image used for groups, user profiles, news items, or events that don't have their own cover uploaded. This gives you a good fallback if the creator of content does not add a cover image.
4. Rules for assigning themes
The Assign theme tab lets you link a completed theme to a specific audience: one or multiple Business Units.
Basic assignment restrictions:
- Allowed levels: Themes can only be assigned to the Network as a whole (as the default theme) or to specific Business Units (BUs).
- Restricted levels: Themes cannot be assigned to Local Departments (LDs) or any other organizational sub-groups.
- One theme per BU: A single Business Unit cannot have multiple themes. Assigning a new theme to a BU overwrites the existing one.
User view logic and conflict resolution:
Because a user can belong to multiple Business Units, Speakap uses strict logic to determine which theme they see.
| Condition | Resulting theme displayed to user |
| User is in only one BU, AND that BU has a Custom Theme. | The Custom Theme. |
| User is in multiple BUs, AND only one BU has a Custom Theme (the rest use the default). | That single Custom Theme. |
| User is in multiple BUs, AND two or more BUs have different Custom Themes. | The Default Network Theme. |
| User is in one or more BUs, AND none of the BUs have a Custom Theme. | The Default Network Theme. |
Understanding conflicts
A visual "conflict" only occurs when a user is a member of multiple Business Units and more than one of those BUs has a different custom theme assigned. In that scenario the system cannot decide which custom theme takes priority, so it automatically falls back to the Default Network Theme.
- Conflict example: User is in BU A (Theme X) and BU B (Theme Y). The user sees the Default Network Theme.
- No conflict example: User is in BU A (Theme X) and BU B (Default Theme). The user sees Theme X.
5. Preview
The Preview tab lets you see the design you created in a quick preview before enabling the theme for users.
6. Managing existing themes
Administrators with Branding access can perform the following actions on existing themes:
- Duplicate theme: Creates an exact copy of a theme's visual settings (colors, logos, backgrounds). It does not copy the assigned Business Units. The duplicated theme must get a unique name.
- Edit theme: Change properties on an active theme. Once saved, changes are immediately visible to all users assigned to that theme.
- Delete theme: Permanently removes a theme. If the deleted theme is assigned to active Business Units, you must reassign those BUs to a new theme or let them fall back to the default.
Still stuck?
Email us at support@speakap.com with your network name and a screenshot of your theme settings, and we'll help you out.