diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-announce.yml b/.github/workflows/release-announce.yml
index 3f040801c..ffd4acf96 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-announce.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-announce.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #
-# Copyright (c) 2019-2022 Red Hat, Inc.
+# Copyright (c) 2019-2023 Red Hat, Inc.
 # This program and the accompanying materials are made
 # available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0
 # which is available at https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ on:
   push:
     tags:
       - '7.*.*'
+  release:
+    types: [published]
   workflow_dispatch:
     inputs:
       version:
@@ -25,17 +27,34 @@ jobs:
   announce:
     runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     steps:
-      - name: Generate tag utilities
-        id: TAG_UTIL
-        run: |
-          if [[ ${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/} =~ 7.*.* ]]; then
-            echo "chectl_version=$(cat VERSION)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "gh_tag=/tag/$(cat VERSION)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "MM_ANNOUNCE=true" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
-          elif [[ ${{ github.event.inputs.version }} =~ 7.*.* ]]; then
-            echo "chectl_version=${{ github.event.inputs.version }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "gh_tag=/tag/${{ github.event.inputs.version }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "MM_ANNOUNCE=true" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
-          else
-            echo "MM_ANNOUNCE=false" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
-          fi
+    - name: Create success message
+      run: |
+        milestone=${{ github.event.inputs.version }}
+        milestone=${milestone%.*}; echo "milestone: ${milestone}"
+        echo "{\"text\":\"Che ${{ github.event.inputs.version }} has been released.\n\n Please resolve or move unresolved issues assigned to this milestone: https://github.com/eclipse/che/milestones/${milestone}\"}"
+        echo "{\"text\":\"Che ${{ github.event.inputs.version }} has been released.\n\n Please resolve or move unresolved issues assigned to this milestone: https://github.com/eclipse/che/milestones/${milestone}\"}" > message.json
+    - name: Create failure message
+      if: ${{ failure() }}
+      run: |
+        echo "{\"text\":\"Che ${{ github.event.inputs.version }} release final checks have failed:\n\n failed: https://github.com/che-incubator/chectl/actions/workflows/release-announce.yml.\"}"
+        echo "{\"text\":\"Che ${{ github.event.inputs.version }} release final checks have failed:\n\n failed: https://github.com/che-incubator/chectl/actions/workflows/release-announce.yml.\"}" > message.json
+
+    # # SLACK_BOT_TOKEN only works if we have an app, webhook, or other slack integration - https://github.com/slackapi/slack-github-action#how-to-send-data-to-slack
+    # - name: Send message
+    #   if: ${{ success() }} || ${{ failure() }}
+    #   uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.24.0
+    #   with:
+    #     channel-id: '@nboldt'
+    #     #channel-id: 'forum-che-release'
+    #     payload-file-path: "./message.json"
+    #   env:
+    #     SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.ECLIPSE_CHE_RELEASE_BOT_TOKEN}}
+    # - name: Ping Productization Team if Failure
+    #   if: ${{ failure() }}
+    #   uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.24.0
+    #   with:
+    #     channel-id: '@nboldt'
+    #     #channel-id: 'forum-che-release,@sdawley,@mkuznets'
+    #     payload-file-path: "./message.json"
+    #   env:
+    #     SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.ECLIPSE_CHE_RELEASE_BOT_TOKEN}}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-build-and-push-to-GH-releases.yml b/.github/workflows/release-build-and-push-to-GH-releases.yml
index 65a6ab8fb..6dbe556a3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-build-and-push-to-GH-releases.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-build-and-push-to-GH-releases.yml
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/setup-node@v3
         with:
           node-version: 18.18.0
-      - name: Generate tag utilities
-        id: TAG_UTIL
+      - name: Compute tags and SHAs
+        id: TAG_SHA
         run: |
           SHORT_SHA1=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
           echo "short_sha1=$SHORT_SHA1" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
@@ -40,13 +40,11 @@ jobs:
             echo "chectl_version=$(cat VERSION)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
             echo "gh_release_name=$(cat VERSION)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
             echo "gh_tag=$(cat VERSION)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "MM_ANNOUNCE=true" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
           elif [[ ${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/} =~ main ]]; then
             CURRENT_DAY=$(date +'%Y%m%d')
             echo "gh_tag=$(date +'%Y%m%d%H%M%S')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
             echo "chectl_version=0.0.$CURRENT_DAY-next.$SHORT_SHA1" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
             echo "gh_release_name=0.0.$CURRENT_DAY-next.$SHORT_SHA1" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "MM_ANNOUNCE=false" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
           fi
       - name: Build chectl
         run: yarn
@@ -56,22 +54,22 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           git config --local user.name ${{ github.actor }}
 
-          sed -i  "0,/\"version\":\ \"\(.*\)\",/s/\"version\":\ \"\(.*\)\",/\"version\":\ \"${{ steps.TAG_UTIL.outputs.chectl_version }}\",/" package.json
+          sed -i  "0,/\"version\":\ \"\(.*\)\",/s/\"version\":\ \"\(.*\)\",/\"version\":\ \"${{ steps.TAG_SHA.outputs.chectl_version }}\",/" package.json
           sed -i "s|INSERT-KEY-HERE|${{ secrets.SEGMENT_WRITE_KEY }}|g" src/hooks/analytics/analytics.ts
-          git tag ${{ steps.TAG_UTIL.outputs.gh_tag }}
+          git tag ${{ steps.TAG_SHA.outputs.gh_tag }}
 
           TARGETS=linux-arm,linux-x64,linux-s390x,linux-ppc64le,darwin-x64,darwin-arm64,win32-x64,win32-x86
           yarn prepack && yarn pack-binaries --targets=$TARGETS
 
           # Rename binaries to remove the sha1 from their names
           for file in ./dist/*; do
-            mv "$file" "${file/-v${{ steps.TAG_UTIL.outputs.chectl_version }}-${{ steps.TAG_UTIL.outputs.short_sha1 }}/}"
+            mv "$file" "${file/-v${{ steps.TAG_SHA.outputs.chectl_version }}-${{ steps.TAG_SHA.outputs.short_sha1 }}/}"
           done
       - name: Create Release and push artifacts
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
         with:
-          name: ${{ steps.TAG_UTIL.outputs.gh_release_name }}
-          tag_name: ${{ steps.TAG_UTIL.outputs.gh_tag }}
+          name: ${{ steps.TAG_SHA.outputs.gh_release_name }}
+          tag_name: ${{ steps.TAG_SHA.outputs.gh_tag }}
           files: "./dist/chectl-*.gz"
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}