Viva Engage has been part of Microsoft Teams in different forms for a while now. We have had the dedicated app. We have had Storyline integrated. It has all been there. And it has worked. But if we are honest, it has still felt a little separate. Something you open on purpose rather than something that naturally sits in your daily flow.
This new update changes that feeling.
Microsoft is rolling out a new experience where Communities are available directly from the Chat area in Teams. Instead of jumping into a separate Viva Engage app to see what is happening, your communities show up right next to your chats and channels.
In other words, they live where you already work.
It is not a dramatic redesign. It is mostly about placement. But that placement makes a big difference. When something sits inside your normal workspace, it becomes easier to notice, easier to access, and much easier to actually use.
If you are still using the classic layout where Chat and Teams are separated, you will find Communities inside the Teams app. So depending on how your Teams client is configured, the placement will look different.
One of the biggest issues with Viva Engage has not been what it can do. It has been whether people actually remember to use it. When something sits in its own app, outside the daily flow, it dissappears in the background. Most people stay in chat. It is quick and it is right in front of them. This is also is where conversations are already happening throughout the day in different projects.
By bringing Communities into the main Teams experience, Microsoft lowers that barrier. You do not have to switch context. You do not have to go looking for it. It is simply there, in the same place where you are already working.
There is also a practical improvement here that I personally like. If you are using the Favorites sections in Teams, you can now organize communities together with chats and channels in the same custom group. So instead of thinking in terms of product boundaries, you can structure your workspace around how you actually work.
For example, you might group:
- A project channel
- The Copilot community
- A group chat with the lunch crew
All in one place where it is easy to find!
More integration, less apps
This makes Teams feel less like a collection of apps and more like the true collaboration hub that it really is. The “virtual” coffee machine where we all meet for a qucik chat.
From a governance and adoption point of view, this is where things become interesting. When something is easier to see, more people will use it. That is usually a good thing. But when everything sits in the same place, it can also create confusion. Chats, channels, and communities are now side by side in the same view and that means that we need to be clearer than before.
- When should something be a quick chat?
- When does it need the structure of a channel?
- When does it turn into a broader community conversation that goes beyond one team?
If we do not help people understand the difference, the tool will not solve it for us. Technology makes it possible to unify everything. But clarity still needs to come from us.
Microsoft describes this as part of a broader effort to unify communication and connection inside Teams. And honestly, that direction makes sense. If Teams is the place where daily collaboration happens, employee communities should not feel like a separate destination you visit occasionally.
Personally, I really like this as it increases visibility. It makes cross organizational conversations easier to discover and harder to miss.
Communities inside Teams are currently rolling out in Public Preview. If you want to test it, you need to enable Public Preview in your Teams client and then wait for your tenant to receive the update.
Curious to hear how you are thinking about this in your organization.
