Yammer and Viva Engage are two platforms that are becoming increasingly popular in the business world, especially for organizations that are looking to improve their internal communication and collaboration.
Yammer Vs Viva Engage
To know the main differences between Yammer Vs Viva Engage, Let’s start by defining what each platform is.
What’s Yammer?
Yammer is a social networking platform designed specifically for businesses. It allows employees to connect with one another, share information and ideas, and collaborate on projects in real time.
Yammer is an excellent choice for companies that have a remote or distributed workforce, as it enables team members to stay connected regardless of their location.
Yammer launched officially in September 2008.
Yammer Features
Yammer allows users to create groups, share files, and post updates on a news feed. One of its most popular features is the ability to create and participate in discussions, making it an excellent tool for brainstorming and collaborating on projects.
Yammer also has a robust search function, allowing users to quickly find information and files that they need.
Now, let’s dive deeper into Yammer’s unique features:
- News Feed: Yammer has a news feed similar to social media platforms like Facebook, where users can see posts, comments, and updates from colleagues and teams they follow.
- Groups: Users can create and join groups based on their department, project, or interests. This allows for better communication and collaboration within teams.
- Direct Messaging: Yammer allows for private messaging between users, allowing for quick and direct communication.
- Polls: Yammer has a built-in polling feature that allows users to quickly gather feedback from their colleagues on a particular topic.
- Announcements: Yammer allows users to create and send announcements to groups or the entire organization, ensuring important information is shared quickly and effectively.
- File Sharing: Yammer enables users to share files, documents, and images with colleagues, either within groups or individually.
- Notifications: Yammer sends notifications to users for events such as new messages, mentions, and group activity, helping to keep them informed and up-to-date.
- Search: Yammer’s search feature enables users to search for specific messages, files, or people within the platform.
- Mobile App: Yammer has a mobile app that allows users to access the platform on the go, ensuring they are always connected and able to communicate with their colleagues.
What’s Viva Engage?
Viva Engage, on the other hand, is a platform that helps organizations improve their internal communication and engagement.
It is part of the Microsoft Viva suite of tools and provides a range of features that help employees stay informed, connected, and engaged with their work and colleagues.
Microsoft announced Microsoft Viva in February 2021 as an employee experience platform.
Viva Engage Features
Viva Engage offers a range of features that help companies improve employee engagement. For example, it has a recognition feature that allows employees to recognize their peers for their work and achievements. This can help boost morale and create a positive work culture.
Viva Engage also provides employees with personalized news and content based on their interests, making it easier for them to stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates.
Now, let’s dive deeper into Viva Engage’s unique features:
- Employee engagement platform integrated with Microsoft Teams
- Personalized employee experience based on their interests and activities
- AI-powered Insights to help managers track and analyze employee sentiment and engagement
- Employee recognition and rewards system to motivate and incentivize employees
- Social tools for employee networking and collaboration
- Integration with company intranet and other Microsoft tools for seamless communication and access to information
- Mobile app for on-the-go access to company news, events, and updates
- Customizable dashboard for HR and management to monitor employee engagement metrics and track progress.
Rebrand Yammer into Viva Engage
Due to both tools serving similar purposes, Microsoft announced that it intended to rebrand Yammer as Viva Engage in order to give its customers a unified and enjoyable experience. This shift will take place across all current Yammer surfaces and will happen throughout 2023.
Read more at SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: February 2023
Here’s a brief timeline of the rebranding process that will happen in phases throughout 2023
- February: You can expect an in-app rebrand banner to appear in the Yammer mobile app giving you advance notice of the change.
- March: The Communities app in Outlook will also be rebranded to Viva Engage.
- April: The Yammer mobile app becomes Viva Engage. It’ll still be discoverable as Yammer for a while (e.g., in Apple’s Spotlight Search). You can expect an in-app rebrand banner to appear in the Yammer.com web experience giving you advance notice of the change.
- June 2023: The Yammer.com web experience becomes Viva Engage, with a few UX/UI enhancements. The Yammer.com URL will remain for a while as the team makes additional backend updates. The PWA (desktop app) will be rebranded.
- Later in 2023: Yammer.com URLs will be updated. We plan to support redirection for legacy URLs so that existing links and integrations continue to function.
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Conclusion
Both Yammer and Viva Engage are designed to improve internal communication and collaboration within an organization.
- Yammer is excellent for real-time collaboration and discussions, while
- Viva Engage is better for improving employee engagement and morale.
However, they have many common features that can be bundled into one product Viva Engage as Microsoft announced.
Don’t worry, the same content moderation and other admin policies set in Yammer be transferred over to Viva Engage, and you can read more at Yammer is evolving to Viva Engage
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