In my recent session about “How to amplify your comms reach using Microsoft Viva”, I got a good amount of questions from a very engaging audience. First, I'd like to thank everyone who joined the session, for all your questions, and for the discussions that followed. It was impressive for me to see how many people have adopted Viva Connections already and the growing interest in Viva Amplify.
Following the #SharingIsCaring mindset, in this blog post, I share the questions I got during my session and the related answers. I hope this might also be useful for you 😊
For clarity and additional context, I have included a screenshot below to show the new Viva Connections home experience on desktop.
FAQ:
Q1: If I use SharePoint as the default landing experience in Viva Connections on desktop, is Viva Connections just empty on phone? I want to choose SharePoint as the default landing experience for Viva Connections, but I don't like that the mobile version will be empty.
If you don't configure the Viva Connections Dashboard with cards, you will see some default ones initially. The Feed tab in the mobile app will show content since this happens automatically and the Resources tab displays the global navigation of your intranet; according to Microsoft, this should change in the near future. For more details on the Resources tab in the mobile app, see the initial note on the Viva Connections resources section.
For a better Viva Connections experience on mobile devices, I recommend that you explore the available dashboard cards and configure the Viva Connections Dashboard based on the specific needs or preferences of your organization. For details on how to configure the Viva Connections Dashboard, see Create a Viva Connections dashboard and add cards.
Q2: A Microsoft rollout set the new Viva Connections home experience as the default landing experience in Viva Connections. How can I revert this change and display our organization home site (SharePoint home site) as the default landing experience?
You can use the following PowerShell command to set SharePoint as the default landing experience. It’s literally one line of code but requires a SharePoint administrator. Note that this command only changes the default landing experience for Viva Connections on desktop. The Viva Connections experience on mobile app doesn’t change.
- VivaConnectionsDefaultStart = true; Sets the SharePoint home site as the default landing experience in Viva Connections.
- VivaConnectionsDefaultStart = false; Sets the new Viva Connections desktop experience as the default landing experience in Viva Connections.
For more details see, Set-SPOHomeSite.
Q3: Has Microsoft really deprecated the Viva Connections Feed web part?
Yes, according to Microsoft the Viva Connections Feed web part is planned to be deprecated in Q1 2024. For more details, see Components to Viva Connections.
Q4: Can I display Viva Connections Announcements in SharePoint?
Currently, Microsoft doesn’t offer any option to surface Viva Connections Announcements in SharePoint. Announcements will only appear for targeted users in the new Viva Connections home experience (desktop and mobile). For more information, see Use announcements in Viva Connections.
Q5: Does Viva Connections Announcements send push notifications in Teams?
According to Microsoft, “push notifications” (or announcement notifications) are currently only supported on Viva Connections on the Teams mobile experiences. Microsoft plans to support announcement notifications on the desktop experiences via a feature release.
Q6: Considering the new Resources experience in Viva Connections, are navigation links taken from SharePoint global navigation?
The SharePoint global navigation remains as-is, but the new Viva Connections home experience doesn't show the global nav links in the new Resources section anymore. This isn't the case yet for the Viva Connections mobile app; here what Microsoft says about it: "Links that are created via in-app editing via Viva Connections will not appear in mobile for targeted release customers at this time. Updates to mobile are planned for the end of Q2 2024." – For more details, see Viva Connections resources.
Q7: The new Viva Connections home experience removes the global navigation links from the Resources section. Will employees now have to be trained on how to access the global nav links from the SharePoint global navigation available on the sidebar navigation in Microsoft Teams?
Unfortunately, the new Resources section shows curated links and is disconnected from the SharePoint global navigation. As you said, the global nav appears when users select the branded app icon in Teams, and surfaces elements shared with the SharePoint global navigation. I'm afraid that this will be the option to access the global nav from Viva Connections app in the Teams desktop/web client going forward.
Q8: Feedback from an attendee who uses the boosting news feature in SharePoint. In our company, we are boosting news to show in the News card in the Viva Connections dashboard. This requires using organizational news sites and there's a limitation of 100 news channels. It's a much-appreciated feature to promote important news.
Here a few links about organizational news sites and boosting news:
Q9: Can links in the new Resources section be categorized?
No, currently there isn’t a way to categorize the links that appear in the new Resources section.
Q10: Can you control the order how links appear in the Resources section?
Yes, you can control the order how links appear in the new Resources section using drag and drop 🙂
Q11: What’s the minimum amount of licenses required to use Viva Amplify?
According to Microsoft “Anyone with a license for Viva suite or Viva Employee Communications and Communities can create campaigns or receive communications through Viva Amplify. Engagement metrics of those receiving communications through Viva Amplify will be included in analytics.”
I personally find the part about “receive communications through Viva Amplify” difficult to understand. The list price for a Viva Amplify license is $2 PUPM (per user per month). Would I need to buy Viva Amplify licenses for all users in my organization just to receive comms from Viva Amplify!? 🤔 I assume that the licensing requirement for users receiving comms might be related to the engagement metrics part. If this is correct, Viva Amplify would show only analytics related to Viva Amplify-licensed users, but you would still be able to reach all employees via Viva Amplify.
See also
- The Viva Connections overview article is the source for the Viva Connections screenshot available in this blog post.
Thanks for reading,
Jarbas
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