Set up Viva Engage

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To set up Microsoft Viva Engage, you must have Engage administrator permissions.

Set up licensing for Viva Engage

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

Configure and review privacy and security settings

The Engage admin (Yammer administrator) can manage data, privacy, and security settings in Viva Engage. For details, see Overview of security & compliance.

Set up Viva Engage

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:

Install Viva Engage

Install Viva Engage in Teams

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:

  1. Open Teams on the web or in a desktop client.
  2. From the left side of Teams, select Apps.
  3. Search for Viva Engage.
  4. Select the Viva Engage app, and then select Add. The app is added to all your Teams clients, including mobile.

Install or access Viva Engage on other surfaces

You can direct users to these other installation options:

Customize the appearance for Viva Engage in the Teams store

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.

Support adoption of Viva Engage

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

See also

Manage administrator roles and permissions in Viva Engage Manage licenses in Microsoft 365