diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e4d562659993a..f39e805bdc163 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Standard library changes
   * `range` can accept the stop value as a positional argument, e.g. `range(1,10,step=2)` ([#28708]).
   * `edit` can now be called on a module to edit the file that defines it ([#29636]).
   * `diff` now supports arrays of arbitrary dimensionality and can operate over any dimension ([#29827]).
-  * `sprandn` now supports result types like `ComplexF64` or `Float32` ([#30083]).
+  * `sprandn` now supports specifying the output element type ([#30083]).
   * All compiler-reflection tools (i.e. the `code_` class of functions and macros) now print accurate
     line number and inlining information in a common style, and take an optional parameter (debuginfo=:default)
     to control the verbosity of the metadata shown ([#29893]).
diff --git a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl
index 572b6daa2eeef..c4b335701400d 100644
--- a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl
+++ b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl
@@ -1478,6 +1478,9 @@ with the specified (independent) probability `p` of any entry being nonzero,
 where nonzero values are sampled from the normal distribution. The optional `rng`
 argument specifies a random number generator, see [Random Numbers](@ref).
 
+!!! compat "Julia 1.1"
+    Specifying the output element type `Type` requires at least Julia 1.1.
+
 # Examples
 ```jldoctest; setup = :(using Random; Random.seed!(0))
 julia> sprandn(2, 2, 0.75)