Today at Microsoft"s annual Inspire event, it announced a new app as a part of Microsoft Viva, called Viva Engage. It"s an app that sits within Microsoft Viva as a social platform to enable remote and hybrid workers to stay better connected.
It"s been designed with a Facebook style interface that builds on the current Communities app within Teams and Microsoft 365. Viva Engage links in to the existing Microsoft Viva suite, which adds data to Viva Connections and Viva Topics, and will eventually extend further into Viva.
It allows leaders to share relevant company news and communicate with employees, and can then host virtual events, and add pinned conversations and announcements with notifications within Teams, Outlook and Viva Connections.
For employees, it allows them to build communities and professional networks, so not just work related topics can be discussed, allowing for communities within the work teams to form.
Each user has a Storyline, which can have topics shared to it through Posts and Stories. Posts can include links, files, photos, and videos, and these reach followers and colleagues within Viva Connections, Outlook, Teams, and Yammer and when browsing to the Storylines tab it will show you a feed of posts from recommended colleagues.
Users can also share stories in the usual way, with photos and videos being able to be uploaded. Stories support comments, too.
Stories will show up at the top of the storyline and will also show up across Outlook, Teams and Yammer.
It will be available across the mobile, web and desktop apps, and will be available to all current Microsoft 365 commercial customers at no additional charge, however, users must have a Yammer license to be able to use it. In August, the Communities app for Teams will be rebranded as Viva Engage and no actions from admins will be required, and storyline will begin its public preview in late August.