Highlights:

  • Microsoft is launching Viva Engage, an app similar to Facebook that will promote social networking at work.
  • Viva Engage improves on some of Yammer’s features by enabling workplace digital networks, dialogues, and self-expression.

Ten years ago, Microsoft acquired Yammer for USD 1.2 billion. Yammer is an enterprise-focused social networking platform. Despite the fact that 2019 was dominated by the revamp of Yammer, Microsoft has been highly focused on Teams and its new Viva platform as the communication platform for workplaces.

Microsoft is now launching Viva Engage, an app like Facebook to promote social networking at work.

Viva Engage improves on some of Yammer’s features by enabling workplace digital networks, dialogues, and self-expression. Often Yammer gives a feel of an extension of SharePoint and Office, while Viva Engage is more of a Facebook replica. The storyline area of Viva Engage resembles a Facebook news feed and includes conversational posts, videos, photos, and more. Viva Engage has a Facebook-like interface, allowing employees to exchange news and personal interests.

Augmentation of Microsoft use

Microsoft has spent the better part of a decade attempting to construct something comparable. The company’s early Yammer investment was into enterprise-focused social networking, paving the path for communities within enterprises that depend on Office. The integration of Yammer with SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics, and Skype appeared to be more of a must than something that enterprises often demanded.

As is common knowledge, the pandemic allowed the corporate world to usher into hybrid work, increasing the need for applications such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack. Microsoft Teams is now increasingly positioned as the central platform for work and communication. Teams is now the obvious place for many businesses’ employees to connect and discuss, and it’s become a social network for many who use Teams channels.

A brief peek into Viva Engage

Viva Engage will incorporate a feature known as Stories, which is analogous to those seen on Snapchat and Instagram. This is a function that LinkedIn, which Microsoft owns, abandoned a year ago. Workers may now share their stories on Microsoft Teams and Viva Engage in a manner analogous to that of Instagram; there is no longer a requirement for users to follow one another on Instagram or fill up the email inboxes in Outlook.

Viva Engage can be more successful than previous attempts with Microsoft Teams’ integration and concentration on consumer-like social networking. Surprisingly, Viva Engage was created with Facebook Workplace in mind or Workplace from Meta. Microsoft has been cautious of Meta’s drive into the industry, and the two companies are increasingly headed toward a head-on collision in the metaverse battle.