Set up Viva Engage
To set up Microsoft Viva Engage, you must have Engage administrator permissions.
Core experience
As a foundational component of Microsoft Viva Engage, the Core Service Plan provides essential features and capabilities to enhance engagement and collaboration within your organization.
If you don't enforce Viva Engage licensing, users can access the Viva Engage Core experience.
If you do enforce Viva Engage licensing, users can still access the Viva Engage Core experience. However, each user must be assigned:
- a Microsoft 365 license, and
- a Viva Engage Core Service Plan (or Yammer Enterprise Service Plan)
Premium experience
Your organization can enjoy premium Viva Engage experiences if your tenant owns either of these plans:
- Microsoft Viva Suite
- Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities
Note
No Viva Engage licenses are required for admins to configure Viva Engage (core or premium). Unlike Viva Engage users, Engage administrators (also called Yammer administrators in Microsoft Entra ID) are exempt from needing a Viva Engage Core or premium license to access the Engage website, the Engage admin center, or legacy network admin center. Other Viva Engage admin roles can also administer premium features without being assigned a premium license.
Service plan | Enables | Comes with this product |
---|---|---|
Viva Engage Core or Yammer enterprise | Engage core experiences and the Answers in Viva core experiences Example: Communities, storyline |
Microsoft 365 |
Viva Employee Communities and Communications | Engage premium experiences Example: Leadership corner, AMAs (Ask Me Anything), storyline announcements, delegation, analytics, campaigns |
Microsoft Viva Suite, Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities |
Viva Engage Knowledge | Answers in Viva premium experience | Microsoft Viva Suite, Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities, Viva Topics |
The Engage admin (Yammer administrator) can manage data, privacy, and security settings in Viva Engage. For details, see Overview of security & compliance.
Where you set up Viva Engage is a matter of preference. Engage admins (Yammer administrators in Microsoft Entra ID) can use the Microsoft 365 admin center for initial setup. The Engage admin center provides most Viva Engage settings and customization options. To control some Viva features, such as Copilot in Viva Engage, you must use Microsoft 365 feature access management.
From the Microsoft 365 admin center, you can:
- Assign Engage and Answers admins
- Pin Viva Engage in Teams
- Manage other settings in Viva Engage
The Microsoft Teams admin can deploy and pin the app for all users, or for particular departments, through a Teams app setup policy. Setup policies allow users to easily set up Viva Engage themselves, using the following steps:
- Open Teams on the web or in a desktop client.
- From the left side of Teams, select Apps.
- Search for Viva Engage.
- Select the Viva Engage app, and then select Add. The app is added to all your Teams clients, including mobile.
You can direct users to these other installation options:
- Install the Viva Engage desktop app
- Install Viva Engage on your iOS or Android phone
- Access Viva Engage on the web
Customizing the Viva Engage app is a good choice for companies that tailor their network branding to fit their corporate identity. From the Teams app store, you can customize the appearance for the following Viva Engage properties:
- app name
- app description
- app icons
- accent color
Note
Currently, customizations don't affect the Viva Engage app branding that appears within the Viva Engage Experience. Learn more about customizing details of an app.
Review the contents of the Viva Engage Adoption page to help you get started, train and engage your organization, build champions, and secure your environment. If you’re setting up the premium Viva Engage experience, you’ll need to assign admin roles specific to Viva Engage to ensure usage and successful adoption of its many premium features
Manage administrator roles and permissions in Viva Engage Manage licenses in Microsoft 365