With the aim of making workplace communications more engaging, Viva Engage will be rolled out on Microsoft Teams over the coming weeks.
Microsoft is looking to liven up workplace communications by letting Teams users posts their own video stories. This will let people document their activities throughout the day in a similar way to apps such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Microsoft-owned professional networking site LinkedIn introduced a similar stories feature before discontinuing it last year. Twitter also had a disappearing content feature called Fleets, which it retired soon after it launched.
Microsoft’s new stories feature will be part of a portal called Viva Engage, which aims to inject new energy into Teams and help organisations build personal networks.
As well as stories, users will be able to post storylines and communicate with colleagues through different groups.
Viva Engage will be rolled out on Teams to Office subscribers for free in the coming weeks. It will be an enhanced version of Microsoft’s existing Communities app, which incorporated enterprise social network Yammer into Teams.
Users will be able to access Viva Engage on the Teams desktop, web and mobile apps. It will also be available through Yammer and the new Viva Engage app.
Users will be able to record stories with PC webcams to share with colleagues. As of yet, there is no way to share a story from Viva Engage to Instagram or TikTok, but it will be possible to embed web links and PowerPoint files in Viva Engage videos.
According to Dan Holme, product lead for Viva Engage, the feature will make communication in the workplace more engaging for younger workers who are accustomed to using short-form videos in their everyday lives.
“There was a real interest in using video as a richer way to express messages and thoughts within an organisation, whether it’s something just to keep your team going, whether it’s capturing or meeting recording, or whether it’s on a broader level across an organisation,” Holme told CNBC.
Viva Engage in Teams. Image: Microsoft
“Because video allows people to express things in their own voice and captures much richer body language and signals there.”
Viva Engage’s stories will differ slightly from Instagram and Snapchat stories in that videos will not be deleted after 24 hours. They will remain on a creator’s page until deleted manually.
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