Use announcements in Viva Connections

Announcements allow you to create and share time-sensitive messages in Viva Connections. You can set up, manage, and schedule announcements from your organization’s SharePoint home site.

Note

• Starting in October 2023, users will be required to have a Microsoft Viva suite or Viva Communications and Communities license to utilize the announcements feature. See Microsoft Viva plans and pricing for more info.
• You must have edit permissions or higher to your organization’s SharePoint home site or Viva Connections to author and manage announcements.
• Announcements are unavailable in GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments. For more information, refer to the list of service availability.

When to use announcements

Announcements are the best way to communicate targeted, time-sensitive information in the Viva Connections app.

Example Scenarios:

• Remind employees in a specific role of an upcoming deadline.
• Share details about open enrollment benefits for full-time employees.
• Send a specific call to action for new employees.

Important

For emergencies such as a safety hazard, it’s recommended to use multiple modes of communication.

Best practices for using and writing announcements

• Use announcements sparingly so that users understand their importance. Sending them too frequently can cause users to disregard the notifications.
• Be aware that delivery time increases with the size of the targeted audience. Sending an announcement to a group of 50 users may take just a few minutes but sending one to 100,000 users may take several hours.
• Announcements aren’t designed for life-threatening emergencies.
• Keep messages short with a clear call to action. Plan to link to more information for complex topics.
• Specify which audiences need to receive the announcement to ensure the highest engagement possible.
• Allow users to dismiss announcements for less-urgent topics or when there are several high-impact announcements active at the same time.

How announcements display in Viva Connections

Announcements will be viewable to users using desktop, tablet, and mobile experiences through Viva Connections

• In Teams: Users get a Teams notification alerting them of a new announcement within Teams and on their mobile device’s lock screen when the user has enabled it.

• In Viva Connections: Announcements will display towards the top of the Viva Connections experience where more details can be viewed.

Accessing the announcements page

Owners will be able to create announcements through the Viva Connections desktop experience or from their SharePoint home site using the announcements page. To access the announcement page:

• In Viva Connections: Experience owners can select the ellipsis in the upper-right of Viva Connections then select Announcements. This will open the announcements page where users can select + New announcement to begin drafting an announcement.

• From the SharePoint home site: The easiest way to access the announcements page is to select Announcements from the site navigation and then + New announcement.

Note

Users can also access the announcement page in SharePoint by:

• Selecting Settings > Manage Viva Connections > Announcements > + New announcement.
• Select + New from the command bar and choose Announcement.

Drafting your announcement

After choosing to create a new announcement either from your Viva Connections experience or from the SharePoint home site, you'll be presented with the following fields for drafting your announcement.

1. Add a title and message.

2. Select up to 10 audiences to distribute the announcement to. Audiences can be Microsoft Entra groups, Microsoft 365 Groups, or Microsoft Entra dynamic groups.

3. Select an end date and time for when the announcement should no longer appear (up to two weeks from the original posting date).

   

4. To add a link to more information, add a URL and label for the link under More options.

5. To allow users to dismiss the announcement after viewing, toggle the Allow users to dismiss setting on under More options.

6. Select Next to review the details of your announcement.

   

7. If the announcement is ready to send immediately, select the Send announcement option.

   

Note

Once an announcement has been sent, message details and end date can still be edited.

How to schedule an announcement to send later

1. Follow the steps to access the announcement page and to drafting your announcement.
2. Toggle on the Schedule to send later option and enter a date and time:

Note

• The end date can be up to two weeks from the original posting date.
• Scheduling is only available in half-hour increments (e.g. you could schedule a post to send at 10:30 but not 10:15).

3. Select Next to review the details of your announcement.

4. If the announcement is ready to be scheduled, select Schedule announcement and the announcement will be sent at the scheduled time.

   

5. The scheduled date and time can be edited anytime before the announcement has been sent.

Save an announcement as a draft

1. Follow the steps to access the announcement page and to drafting your announcement.
2. After writing the title and message, choose the Save as draft button.
3. You can come back and edit the announcement later from the announcements page.

Manage announcements from the announcements page

You can view all announcements that are active, scheduled, saved as drafts, and expired from the Announcements page.

From this page you can complete the following tasks:

Create a new announcement

Choose + New announcement and follow the steps to draft your announcement.

Edit an active, scheduled, and drafted announcement

1. From the Announcements page, select the edit (pencil) icon for the announcement you want to make changes to.

   

2. Make any desired changes in the Announcement details pane.

3. Choose to send or schedule drafted announcements.

Delete an announcement

1. From your Announcements page, select the delete (trash can) icon for the announcement that you want to delete. Deleted announcements can’t be recovered.

   

2. When prompted, choose Yes, delete.

3. If the announcement was active, users will no longer be able to view it, but it may still be accessible through a Teams notification.