Microsoft on Tuesday announced Viva Engage, a new portal coming to the Teams communication app that will allow colleagues to share video stories documenting their activities.
This could breathe more life into Teams. The chat app had more than 270 million monthly active users in January. It’s the centerpiece of Microsoft Office, which contributes nearly 23% of the company’s $49 billion in quarterly revenue.
Similar features have appeared earlier on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and even Microsoft-owned LinkedIn. Both Twitter and LinkedIn discontinued their Stories features in 2021.
But within companies and governments, communication is not always colourful. Workers tend to communicate through emails, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Microsoft’s change may make things a bit livelier, especially for young people who are used to finding out what’s going on with the help of short videos.
“There was real interest in using video as a richer way to express messages and thoughts within an organization, whether it’s just to move your team forward, whether it’s capturing or ‘recording meetings, or whether it’s on a broader level in an organization,’” Dan Holme, product manager for Viva Engage, said in an interview with CNBC on Monday. “Because video allows people to express things in their own voice and captures much richer body language and cues.”
Viva Engage will replace the Communities app that introduced the business-oriented Yammer social network to Teams, following Microsoft’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer in 2012. Users will be able to save stories to broadcast on Viva Engage with high-quality PC webcams, or they can use the Teams or Yammer apps for mobile devices, Holme said.
He said it would be possible to embed PowerPoint files or a web link — like an Instagram story or TikTok video — into a story, but there’s no way yet to share a story from Viva Engage to. Instagram or TikTok.
At Microsoft, executives regularly post to Viva Engage about recent developments, such as meetings with customers or their weekend outings, Holme said. Members of an organization can follow their peers to view videos on a carousel on Viva Engage. The software will feature stories recommended by other colleagues, and users can comment or add emoji reactions.
The feature works differently than on other services like Instagram or Snapchat. There is no way to limit the circulation of a video story to a small group of colleagues. And the story won’t disappear after 24 hours. The video is visible on a creator’s page until it is deleted.
Rather than measuring success by simply counting active users — a common approach in consumer-targeted social networks — Microsoft pays attention to, among other things, tracking and creation activity. “We want to see people actually connect and then see the result of that connection,” Holme said.
The Stories feature will be available in Teams at no additional cost in addition to Office subscriptions later this summer. It will eventually launch in Microsoft’s Outlook and Yammer apps, the company said.
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