Today, Microsoft has announced that Yammer, its workplace organization, and communication platform, will be rebranded under the Viva umbrella, taking on the name Viva Engage, starting from March 2023. The Communities app for Outlook, as well as the Yammer mobile app for iOS and Android will receive an update to complete the branding change, and there will be no other changes to the features and capabilities of the platform.
Microsoft has also announced that it will be developing new capabilities for the platform, which were first announced in September 2022.
The first of these features is the Leadership Corner, which provides an area of the platform for leaders to connect with their employees and showcase resource groups and improve workplace culture. It will also introduce a new event style called Ask Me Anything (AMA) events, which work similarly to the Reddit threads it takes its namesake from, including similar features such as upvoting and Q&A.
The second feature discussed in Microsoft"s update post is the campaigns feature, allowing for business leaders and communicators to drive initiatives, such as charity drives.
Thirdly, Answers in Microsoft Viva will be rolling out to customers of the Viva suite and Viva Topics as a new tab. This aims to improve communication when employees seek advice and guidance from their colleagues when in a remote setting. Answers can be upvoted and when searched it can show related questions and top solutions along with recommendations.
The last feature that has been discussed today is Advanced Analytics, allowing for full drill down into dashboards and metrics, which offer customizable date ranges and gives further information on reach and engagement within Viva Engage. The analytics are on by default; however Global Admins can disable them if desired.
These new experiences will begin rolling out today within Microsoft Viva, with no changes to existing features and it does not impact the current pricing of capabilities available to current Microsoft 365 customers, and Yammer will continue as Viva Engage.