Private content mode

For investigation and moderation, Private Content Mode allows verified admins and Engage admins to temporarily grant themselves access to private communities and private messages. Admins don't have to be members of those communities or message participants. Each admin user must explicitly enable this mode for themselves in the Viva Engage admin center.

Manage private content mode

1. Sign into Viva Engage as a Verified admin or Engage admin. If necessary, learn more about admin roles.

2. Open the Engage Admin center and select Governance & Compliance > Data Management.

3. Enable the Private content mode toggle.

   

   • A persistent banner appears in the admin’s Engage experience, showing they are in Private Content Mode.

Private content mode tasks

Private content mode enables the following features:

• Private communities (without being a member)
• View all conversations posted in a private community
• Perform muting, closing, deleting, and moving threads
• Publish conversations in the community
• Edit community settings, mute community in feeds and digests for the network, and designate as an official community
• Manage the following settings for the community:
  • Community info
  • Posting permissions
  • Manage community resources for other users in the community, including the Files tab
  • Manage the default publisher
  • Move conversations into the community
  • Assign/remove community experts
  • Manage user requests to be a community expert
  • Delete communities
• View community analytics
• View top questions in the community
• View community campaigns

[NOTE] For private messages, view the full conversation and take moderation actions (e.g., close, delete) directly from the private message link.

Files & attachments in private communities when not a member:

While admins can view images attached to conversations in Private Content Mode, files and videos shared within a community remain inaccessible unless the admin is also a member of that community. This design aligns with SharePoint governance practices, because the community's SharePoint site stores its files and videos.

[NOTE] To assign members or admins to a private community without being a member, an Engage admin or Entra ID group administrator must use Entra admin center. Go to the group that's linked to the private community and add users as both group members and group owners to ensure they sync as community admins.

Related articles

Verified Admin Private Content Mode in Viva Engage (Viva Engage Developer Center)