Updated Microsoft Viva Connections: Enhanced Desktop Experience 2023

The New Viva Connections Desktop Experience

The Microsoft Viva Connections desktop is benefiting from a significant refresh. The updated interface not only offers a more interactive layout but also comes with many new appealing features including branding capabilities, sending announcements function, and a restructured Resources section. As a major addition, the Feed will now be visible in the viewport on the Connections page.

• Announcements: Crucial and time-sensitive information appeared on tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers.
• Hero section: This brand-new area displays the Connections Feed in the viewport and is centered on organization news.
• Dashboard layout: With inline extension, the Dashboard section is becoming more fluid.
• Resources: This section replaces global navigation with company-curated links. Having a distinct list with images like icons is made possible with greater flexibility in the new section.
• Moved Viva Suite links now appear at the bottom of the experience and provide links with descriptions that are compatible with the user's license.
• Full page feed: The full page feed treatment is now present at the top of the page and has its own pivot.

Notable updates expected include a dedicated section for company announcements visible across all platforms, a Hero section focusing on organitational news which also incorporates the Connections Feed, an evolution of the Dashboard layout towards more inline expansion, and a new section for company-curated links set apart from global navigation which allows greater flexibility in displaying a distinctive list with graphic elements.

Additionally, the Viva Suite has been relocated to the bottom of the dashboard and will offer links specific to the user licensing with respective descriptions. The Feed will constantly be in your Connections page viewport, an important advantage to your communication team who can now share significant organizational news with your employees, which would appear in the Hero section at the top of the page.

Phased Rollout and Organizational Impact

The planned rollout of this extensive update is set to occur in two phases. The first phase is projected to begin in early November 2023 and be completed by mid-January 2024. The second phase will kick-off in early February 2024 and should be finalized by late March 2024.

The improved resources experience will enable administrators to handle a list of company links including icons, images, and URLs reflecting your company's brand and mission. A user-managed section for workers to handle their own links is scheduled to be unveiled in the second phase of this update. The improved resources experience will take over the existing global navigation, still accessible through double-clicking on the Connections app.

It's essential that you prepare, notify users and update any essential training materials. You must also migrate your current links from your global navigation to the new resources section. To do this, access the provisioned SharePoint list link before the November 2023 launch and add your company links to it.

Implementation Process

The list will have two required fields you'll need to complete to include a link to your instance: Title and Link URL. You will need to review and add the links to the list in order to render them accessible in your Connections instance when we launch. Only 48 links can be stored so use them wisely.

Once the new Viva Connections desktop experience is widely available, your links will populate under the new resources experience titled as "Company Links" in your tenant. The link to the provision list will be accessible a month prior the launch date so admins have ample time to add their links to the new experience upon its official launch.