Viva Engage is Microsoft's enterprise social networking app, built inside Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. It's where employees join communities, ask questions, share knowledge, and hear directly from leaders, giving hybrid and frontline teams one place to connect. Formerly Yammer, it's now part of the Microsoft Viva employee experience suite and includes Microsoft 365 Copilot for catch-ups, trending themes, and writing help.
This post explores what Viva Engage does, its key features, and the benefits it offers for your workplace. Download our Ultimate Viva Engage Guide to learn more about best practices and use cases.
If your last real look at Viva Engage was a couple of years ago, a few things are worth knowing.
Yammer is gone for good. Microsoft completed the rebrand to Viva Engage in 2023 and fully retired the Yammer brand. It's the same network and history under a new name, with new experiences layered on top.
Copilot is built in. Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Engage is now generally available. Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license get one-click catch-up, trending themes, contextual search, and writing help directly inside Engage.
Viva Topics is retired. Microsoft retired Viva Topics on February 22, 2025. Inside Viva Engage, topics moved back to a simpler public topics model, and the AI topic cards that came from Viva Topics are no longer there.
Live events are moving. Viva Engage retired live events powered by Teams Live Events on April 15, 2026, with existing scheduled events supported through February 28, 2027. New broadcasts should use events powered by Teams town hall instead.
Think of Viva Engage as Facebook or LinkedIn, but strictly for your company. It’s a space where employees across all locations and roles can connect with teammates, leaders, and communities. Whether you’re an M365 admin, IT leader, or Teams user, Viva Engage offers opportunities to build and strengthen workplace relationships.
Here’s how organizations use Viva Engage to foster a culture of collaboration and community:
Sound familiar? That’s because Viva Engage grew out of Yammer. Microsoft finished rebranding Yammer to Viva Engage in 2023 and has since retired the Yammer name entirely, so if you're still thinking "Yammer," this is where it went. Learn more about Viva Engage vs Yammer.
Microsoft Viva Engage is packed with powerful features that make it more than just a social networking platform. Here’s an overview of what you can expect:
Viva Engage is built for connection. Employees can join or create communities to engage with colleagues who share their interests or work in a similar domain. Whether it’s a product design group or an informal “coffee chat” club, these spaces make virtual workplaces feel just a little more human.
Storyline lets people post updates to their followers, a bit like a personal feed on LinkedIn. Employees can share announcements, wins, photos, and short videos, and colleagues can follow, comment, and react across Viva Engage, Teams, Outlook, and Viva Connections.
If you’re already working within Microsoft 365 tools like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint, Viva Engage feels like a natural extension. You don’t need to jump between multiple apps; instead, it fits neatly into your digital workspace.
Viva Engage not only fosters peer-to-peer communication but also bridges the gap between employees and leadership. Leaders can interact directly through Q&A sessions, share inspiring messages, or get real-time feedback from their workforce.
You can embed Viva Engage into your SharePoint intranet using the Conversations, Community, and Highlights web parts, turning static pages into places where employees can post, ask, and react without leaving the portal.
Stay connected on the go with Viva Engage’s mobile-friendly interface. All features are accessible whether you’re at your desk or on your phone.
A few common Viva Engage examples we see in Microsoft 365 tenants:
New-hire onboarding community where joiners meet peers and get questions answered fast.
Leadership AMAs and Q&A so employees can hear from and respond to executives directly.
An IT or "ask the experts" community that crowdsources answers and cuts repeat tickets.
A CEO or leader storyline for company-wide updates that feel personal, not corporate.
Employee resource and interest groups that build belonging across locations.
The value of Viva Engage goes beyond its features. Adoption is real: at Microsoft Ignite 2024, Microsoft reported that Microsoft Viva passed more than 66 million monthly active users. Here’s how this tool can benefit your organization:
An engaged workforce is a productive workforce, and Viva Engage makes it easy for employees to meaningfully connect. The platform helps them share their voice, celebrate their successes, and feel valued beyond their job roles.
By breaking down silos, Viva Engage encourages knowledge sharing and cross-department collaboration. Whether it’s a quick question or an ongoing project discussion, it ensures people get the answers and connections they need to succeed.
Leadership teams have a powerful tool to initiate conversations, provide transparency, and foster trust companywide. Viva Engage enables direct lines of communication between decision-makers and team members, driving unity and alignment.
With the rise of hybrid and remote work, fostering a sense of workplace community has become more challenging. Viva Engage helps bridge that gap, ensuring employees feel part of something bigger, no matter where they’re located.
Since it’s a Microsoft product, Viva Engage offers enterprise-grade security while scaling to meet the needs of even the largest global organizations. Plus, its seamless integration with tools like Teams and SharePoint simplifies adoption across multiple teams and departments.
Self-service community creation also empowers users to build grassroots engagement, with no IT bottlenecks required.
Viva Engage and Viva Connections are both part of Microsoft Viva and work best together. In Microsoft's own words, Engage is the social fabric of Viva while Connections is the gateway to it.
| Capability | Viva Engage | Viva Connections |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Two-way conversation and community | Curated company news and resources |
| Best for | Questions, discussion, leadership Q&A, and belonging | A branded home base for news and quick links |
| Direction | Many-to-many | Mostly one-to-many |
| Lives in | Teams, web, and mobile | Teams and SharePoint |
| Think of it as | The workshop | The front door |
If you already use Microsoft Teams, and you almost certainly do, Viva Engage complements it rather than competes with it. The simplest way to think about "Viva Engage vs Teams" is scope: Teams is for your immediate group, Viva Engage is for the whole organization.
| Capability | Microsoft Teams | Viva Engage |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Task-focused collaboration | Open communication and community |
| Scope | Your immediate team or project | The whole organization |
| Typical use | Chat, meetings, calls, and file sharing | Communities, leadership Q&A, and knowledge sharing |
| Communication style | Real-time, synchronous | Ongoing, asynchronous |
| How they fit | Runs the day-to-day work | Carries the culture, and appears inside Teams as an app |
Microsoft Teams: task-oriented collaboration such as chat, meetings, calls, and file sharing inside a team or project.
Viva Engage: open communication, community building, and leadership connection that spans departments and locations.
You don't pick one. Teams handles the day-to-day work, Viva Engage carries the culture and company-wide conversation, and Engage surfaces inside Teams as an app so people don't switch context. For the full breakdown, see Viva Engage vs Microsoft Teams
For M365 admins, Viva Engage isn’t just “another tool” to manage– it’s a crucial element in driving employee satisfaction and engagement. Its integration with other Microsoft tools ensures minimal disruption to workflows while offering maximum value for your organization.
If you’re looking to implement a platform that brings your workforce together, this is it.
Viva Engage adoption is a good problem to have, right up until every team spins up its own community. Each one creates a Microsoft 365 group behind the scenes, and without a plan that becomes duplicate communities, ownerless groups, and cleanup nobody wants.
Orchestry helps you stay ahead of it with provisioning templates, naming and lifecycle policies, and workspace reviews for the Microsoft 365 groups behind your communities, so engagement grows without the governance headache.
See how Orchestry governs Microsoft 365 in a demo or download our Ultimate Viva Engage Guide for more information.
It already has. Microsoft rebranded Yammer as Viva Engage in 2023 and has since retired the Yammer brand completely. Your communities, conversations, and history carried over, so Viva Engage is the same network with a new name and new capabilities like Copilot.
The core Viva Engage experience, including communities, conversations, and storyline, is included with most Microsoft 365 and Office 365 enterprise and frontline plans at no extra cost. Premium features such as Leadership Corner, AMAs, campaigns, delegation, and advanced analytics require the Microsoft Viva Suite or the Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities license. Copilot in Viva Engage requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Teams is for task-focused collaboration like chat, meetings, and files with your immediate group. Viva Engage is for open, company-wide conversation and community that reaches beyond your team. Most organizations use both.
No. Viva Connections is the curated front door for news and resources, while Viva Engage is the space for two-way conversation and community. They're complementary.