Microsoft Temporarily Halts Daily Viva Briefing Notifications

Microsoft Viva Insights Achievement follows a baptism by fire, having its origins in the enterprise analytics company Volometrix, acquired by Microsoft in 2015. Volometrix has progressively evolved into popularized versions like Delve Analytics, MyAnalytics, and finally Viva Insights.

Residing under Microsoft 365, the objective of Viva Insights remains firm – to help users optimize their time utilization. The suite incorporates features such as the Viva Insights add-in for Outlook, the Viva Insights app for Teams amongst others, to provide users robust interaction data with Microsoft 365.

The Viva Briefing daily email outlines the constant interactions and activities of users. However, Microsoft announced through notification MC486289 on December 15 that the Viva Briefing daily email will be temporarily paused for all users signed up for these communications.

Typically delivered through direct injection into users' mailboxes, these briefings are quite unique. This process bypasses the Exchange Online transport system, sidestepping processing stages like mail flow rules. At first glance, this delivery method may appear irregular but is permissible due to Microsoft's marking of emails as from a trusted sender.

Microsoft’s directive will limit the issuance of Viva Briefings after January 15, 2023. Consequently, if the deployment follows the usual timelines, users should expect to stop receiving these briefings by February 1, 2023. However, a resumption of these communications is expected at some point in 2023.

The annotated shift in Microsoft’s briefing operations aims to overhaul content to be more user-specific. Despite the ambiguity of these changes, the overarching aim of Viva Briefing has always been to deliver unique content to each user. Viva Other Products is an example of how this tailored approach works.

Exchange Online has defaulted new mailboxes to receive the Viva Briefing email. However, only active users receive these mailings. Lower traffic volume or inactivity, as noticed during the Holiday period, could explain the pausing of briefing messages.

Powershell can be used to determine which mailboxes are designated for Viva Briefings. By checking each mailbox with the Get-UserBriefingConfig cmdlet, users can distinguish which ones enable deliverance of Viva Briefing, and which ones don't.

Additional Overview

Viva Briefing is a product of Microsoft's effort to improve time management and productivity via Microsoft 365. It's designed to help busy professionals make the best use of their work hours through its usage-based insights. Whilst its pause may disrupt some users, Microsoft's decision to redefine the personalization of briefing messages ultimately points towards a more user-centric approach.

Microsoft is expected to elaborate on these improvements during Viva Briefing's relaunch. Until then, users will be compelled to monitor commitments and action items using Outlook tasks, To Do, Planner, Project, or any of the several methods Microsoft 365 offers.

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Microsoft's Review on Personal Insight Generation

Microsoft has been providing users with personal insights based on their work patterns and activities since the acquisition of Volometrix in 2015. Volometrix improved organizational efficiency by evaluating user mailbox and calendar data. Eventually, this function was evolved into Delve Analytics, MyAnalytics, and the Viva Insights suite. The suite includes the Outlook Add-in and the Teams App, which offer information gleaned from Microsoft 365 user interaction.

Suspension of Viva Briefing Emails

According to message center notification MC486289 (released on December 15), Microsoft has decided to suspend Viva's daily briefing emails for sign-up users. These briefing and digest emails are added directly into user inboxes. They do not pass through Exchange Online's transport system, making them immune to mail flow rule processing. To ensure acceptability, Microsoft marks these messages as coming from a trusted sender.

The Pause: Toward Improved Personalization

Microsoft has declared a pause on sending Viva Briefing messages from the 15th January 2023 until later in 2023. The aim of this pause is to work on making the Viva Briefing messages more personalized for individual recipients. Cortana, integrated into Viva Insights, scans mailbox messages for key words to provide highly personalized suggestions for follow-up actions. Some users have found is a useful tool for tracking missed actions.

User Enablement for Viva Briefing

The Viva Briefing email function is automatically enabled in new Exchange Online mailboxes. But to receive briefing messages, the user must be active. A lack of activity, such as sporadic usage of a test mailbox, means Cortana won't have enough activity to analyze, resulting in the non-receipt of briefing messages. PowerShell commands can be used to discover which mailboxes are enabled for Viva Briefing by running the Get-UserBriefingConfig cmdlet.

Expectations following Briefing Suspension

Once the service resumes, Microsoft is expected to provide more information on how personalization of Viva Briefing messages has been improved. In the meantime, tracking of commitments and tasks can be achieved via Outlook tasks, To Do, Planner, Project, or other methods provided in Microsoft 365.

Conclusion

Acquiring insights that increase productivity requires an understanding of the technology involved. The Office 365 for IT Pros team offers an in-depth eBook covering Office 365 and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem, providing insights that most users may miss.

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