At Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, declared that Microsoft Viva Engage, the latest app in Microsoft Viva, intended to assist people and teams to be their best, have a voice, and feel contained in the workplace. Viva Engage encourage people to work together across the organization to link up with leaders and coworkers, quickly find answers to queries and concerns, share their story, and understand belonging at work. Viva Engage develops on Yammer, and brings together Yammer’s experiences—communities, open conversations, and individualized discovery—with new capabilities and features for self-expression and contributing through storyline and stories, and upcoming innovations.
Announcing Microsoft Viva Engage – Microsoft Tech Community
When this will happen:
The rollout of the Viva Engage brand change from the Communities app will take place in late August. However, the rollout of the UX changes from the Communities app to Viva Engage experience will commence in late August and accomplish by the end of September.
How this will affect your organization:
The new Viva Engage app is going to replace the Communities app in Microsoft Teams. This shift does not do any essential changes to any existing functionality available in current Yammer services. On web, mobile and desktop, Yammer.com and the Yammer apps for iOS and Android remain the hero standalone experiences for employee engagement. In Teams, Viva Engage will directly replace the Communities app, such as in the app bar or in the Microsoft Teams admin center. However, there are no changes to administrative controls.
Viva Engage will maintain to show the same network, home feed, and communities as you see today as in Yammer. Viva Engage will also keep on acknowledging any custom re-branding done for the Communities app.
As a part of this release, posts in storylines will also be released under preview. See MC402424: Storyline available for public preview in Yammer and Microsoft Viva Engage beginning late August.
As with the Communities app, the new Viva Engage app will continue to require an existing Yammer license.
What you need to do to prepare:
Update any existing internal information you may have prepared for your organization regarding the Communities app in Teams to reflect the new Viva Engage app in Teams. Viva Engage will be included in the current Yammer pricing model at no additional cost.
Reference(s)
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/yammer-blog/introducing-viva-engage/ba-p/3571377