Summary: The main menu is how your employees find their way around Speakap. As a Network Administrator, you decide which items appear in it and in what order, and you can add custom links to tools like your HR system or jobs portal. This guide covers reordering, adding, editing, and removing menu items, plus how to add a menu item through the Speakap Market when it should only show for a specific audience.
1. How to reorder menu items
The main menu comes with default items, but you can reorder them or add newly installed applications from the Speakap Market.
- Go to your Network settings.
- Select the Appearance section in the left-hand menu.
- Select the Menu tab.
- Drag and drop the menu items into your preferred order.
- Click the green Save button at the bottom right. Your changes only become visible to users once you save.
Note on locked items: You will see a padlock icon next to three menu items: Timeline, Private messages, and News. These three are locked in their original positions at the top of the menu because they are essential elements for your network's success.
[IMAGE: The Menu tab in Network settings, showing the list of menu items with padlock icons next to Timeline, Private messages, and News]
2. How to add custom menu items
Besides the standard features, you can add custom menu items (such as a link to your external jobs portal or HR system) right next to everything else.
- Go to Network settings > Appearance > Menu and click the option to add a menu item at the bottom of the list.
- In the configuration window, fill in the following details:
- Icon: Click the icon box and select an image that shows what your custom link does, so users recognize it at a glance. Note: this is required. You cannot keep the default icon.
- Title (Name): Give your item a descriptive name. The maximum length is 24 characters, so it displays correctly on every device.
- URL: Enter the exact web address that should open when employees click the item. It must start with https://.
- Set the URL behavior: Check the "Open within the platform" box if you want the link to load directly inside the Speakap application.
- Troubleshooting note: For technical or privacy reasons, not every external URL can be loaded inside an iframe. If your link does not show as expected, uncheck this box. The link will then open in a new browser tab (on a PC) or in the device's default browser (on mobile).
- Click Add, then remember to click Save on the main menu page.
[IMAGE: The custom menu item configuration window with fields for icon, title, and URL]
3. Editing and removing custom items
If you need to update a link or remove an obsolete tool:
- To edit: Click the kebab menu icon (the three vertical dots) next to your custom item and press Edit. You can change the icon, name, or URL.
- To remove: Click the kebab menu icon and press Remove to delete the item from the menu entirely.
- Always click Save at the bottom of the page to apply your changes to the live network.
4. Showing a menu item to a specific audience (Speakap Market)
Custom menu items added under Appearance are visible to everyone. If you want to restrict a menu item to a specific audience, you need to install it as an application with a manifest file in the Speakap Market.
For developers: prepare the manifest
The application's manifest.json file specifies the metadata about the application and where it should appear. To make the application show up in the main menu, configure:
- Position: Define an entry with the property set to "position": "main". This places the link in the left-hand navigation menu.
- Icon: A full URL to an image, or (preferably) a Unicode codepoint in the Font Awesome font set (e.g. "\uf073").
- Label: The user-visible label, specified as a dictionary of translations (e.g. "en-US") so the menu item is properly translated for international users.
- URL: The URL the menu item loads when clicked.
For administrators: install and target the application
- Log into your Speakap network.
- Click your avatar at the top right of the page.
- Click Network settings and select Speakap Market in the left menu.
- Click +Application at the top right of the screen.
- Select your desired application from the list, or copy-paste your custom app's manifest.json text.
- Click Add application.
- Click Install in network to install the application.
You do not have to show the new app menu item to everyone. Applications can be targeted to specific audiences, such as Business Units, Departments, or Groups:
- If you only want the application visible to certain members, click Select Groups before finalizing the installation.
- In the Select Groups screen, choose the specific audience for the application.
- Click Select to confirm. The menu item will now only appear in the main menu for users in the selected groups.
Still stuck?
Email us at support@speakap.com with your network name, the menu item you are working on, and a screenshot of what you see, and we'll help you out.