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What’s new for Microsoft Viva – May 2025
May 2025 has wrapped up, and while we’re observing that familiar pattern of a slightly quieter release cycle for Microsoft’s employee experience platform, there’s still some valuable content to explore! The innovation continues, just with a more strategic and focused approach these days.
This month, Viva Engage took center stage with a comprehensive set of updates designed to enhance daily user interactions and overall platform usability. While the update frequency has moderated compared to Viva’s initial rapid deployment phase, the quality and strategic focus of these enhancements really stand out. For organizations invested in Microsoft’s employee experience suite, these May updates definitely worth your attention and consideration.
MAY
5
Microsoft Viva: Viva Glint and Viva Insights Integration – Employee engagement and work patterns analysis and reporting
Viva Insights
This feature provides an intuitive out-of-the-box report that shows the relationships between employee sentiment item and their work pattern drivers influencing employee engagement, allowing HR users to share insights with leaders easily without customization or running their own data analysis.
Microsoft Viva: Viva Glint -User Schema Enhancements: Self-Serve Renaming for Custom Hierarchies
Viva Glint
This feature enables Viva Glint admins to rename existing hierarchies and hierarchy levels within the user schema. By providing a self-service capability, admins can easily manage and update the structure of user data without requiring external support.
MAY
6
Microsoft Viva Engage: Updated email subscription management
Viva Engage
Microsoft Viva Engage will update email subscription management in mid-May 2025, offering a more intuitive experience. Users will manage preferences on modernized pages, with the removal of the “Unsubscribe from all” option. No admin actions are required, but users should update bookmarks and internal documentation.
Microsoft Viva Glint | User schema enhancements: Rename hierarchies
Viva Glint
Admins will soon be able to rename existing hierarchies and levels in Viva Glint from the Manage user attributes page. This feature will be available mid-May 2025 and requires a Viva Glint license. No admin action is needed before the rollout. More details: [Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 489835](https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=489835).
MAY
9
Microsoft Viva: Viva Learning – Notification Settings
Viva Learning
Admins can now enable/disable all learning-related notifications from a centralized settings page.
Microsoft Viva: Anonymous comments in Engage events
Microsoft Viva
Organizers & attendees can now post comments anonymously during Engage events—just like anonymous questions. When enabled by the organizer, these comments are fully anonymous in the UI and compliance systems, helping foster open, honest conversations. Look for the “Comment anonymously” toggle when posting to protect your identity and encourage authentic engagement.
Microsoft Viva: Viva Learning – Academy auto-save and drafting functionality
Viva Learning
Changes you make to new, draft, or published LPs are now saved automatically in the background. In addition, your updates are now saved in a draft state while editing a published LP until you are ready to publish. The live version stays untouched until you hit publish.
MAY
13
Microsoft Viva Engage: Centralized admin role management from the Engage admin center
Viva Engage
Microsoft Viva Engage is launching centralized admin role management in mid-May 2025, simplifying role assignments and management. This update, part of phasing out the legacy Yammer admin center, will enhance visibility and governance. The new experience will be available in the Engage admin center and will be on by default. No prior admin action is required.
Microsoft Viva Insights | Copilot Analytics: Unified experience for Copilot Dashboard and Insights analyst workbench
Viva Insights
Microsoft Viva Insights will introduce a unified Copilot Analytics experience for Copilot Dashboard users and Viva Insights analysts. This rollout will start mid-June 2025 and complete by early July 2025. Existing configurations and settings will migrate automatically. Admins can manage access via Viva’s feature controls. No immediate action is required.
Microsoft Viva: Allow/disable reactions in Engage events
Microsoft Viva
Organizers can now disable reactions in Engage events. When this setting is turned off, attendees won’t see or be able to use reactions on questions, discussions or comments. Organizers can manage this option under additional settings in the event creation/edit page.
Microsoft Viva: Viva Glint – User Schema Enhancements- Create and Edit Hierarchies
Viva Glint
This feature enables Viva Glint admins to create and edit hierarchies directly within the platform. It empowers admins to easily update and maintain the structure of user data without requiring support.
MAY
1
Microsoft Viva: Viva Glint – Include missing survey takers
Viva Glint
This feature enables a Glint Admin to create surveys for participants who were not originally included in a live survey. With this update, the admin can modify the distribution list within the survey program settings and generate surveys for the newly added participants.
MAY
15
Microsoft Viva: Organizers reply privately to individuals
Microsoft Viva
Allows Engage event organizers to answer questions from specific attendees without displaying the reply to the other participants. This capability can be helpful for sensitive questions, personal inquiries, or follow-up discussions that are not intended to be broadcast to the entire audience.
Microsoft Viva: Export event questions
Microsoft Viva
Organizers & co-organizers can now download all event questions (within the past 28 days) —including status, source, timestamps, upvotes and reactions—in a .csv file for easy filtering, analysis, and sharing. The option to export questions is available by default, if there is at least one question posted, on the event page.
MAY
16
Microsoft Viva: Viva Insights – Skills landscape report for organizations
Viva Insights
A Power BI report that provides an overview of the skills distribution in the organization and supports users in identifying skill gaps and making informed decisions on workforce planning, resource allocation, and skilling initiatives.
MAY
19
Microsoft Viva Insights: People Skills insights for analysts
Viva Insights
Microsoft Viva Insights will soon introduce the Skills landscape report in the advanced insights app, available via Power BI. This report helps analysts and leaders understand People Skills data, browse skills, and explore skills distribution and hierarchy. Public preview starts in late June 2025, with general availability in late July 2025. A relevant license is required.
Microsoft Viva Learning: Auto Save and Draft mode for learning paths
Viva Learning
Microsoft Viva Learning will introduce Auto-Save and Draft modes for learning paths in May 2025. These features require a Viva Learning Premium or Viva Suite license. Changes will be saved automatically, with updates to published paths saved as drafts until published. No admin action is required.
MAY
21
Planned Maintenance: Viva Goals
Viva Goals
Planned maintenance for Viva Goals will occur on May 25, 2025, from 04:30 to 08:30 UTC. The service may be intermittently unavailable, displaying a maintenance page. This is scheduled outside standard business hours to minimize disruption, but may still affect users in different time zones.
MAY
22
Microsoft Viva: Copilot Dashboard – Updated meeting metrics for Intelligent Recap
Microsoft Viva
Copilot Dashboard users can now view metrics that reflect both summarized and recapped meeting activity, offering a more complete view of Copilot’s impact in Teams. These updates replace previous Copilot Assisted Hour calculations and meeting metrics with unified “summarized or recapped” metrics, helping leaders better understand usage across their organization. The updated metrics are available in both the Copilot Dashboard and the M365 Copilot Impact report in Advanced Insights, with additional query support for Intelligent Recap meeting metrics.
Microsoft Viva: Autoplay videos in Engage (Muted)
Microsoft Viva
Muted Autoplay for Videos in the Engage Feed. As you scroll, videos will start playing silently—captions on, sound just a click away. Admins can enable or disable the feature for their organization.
MAY
28
Non-Native and Hybrid Microsoft Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) Networks are being upgraded
Viva Engage
Non-Native and Hybrid Microsoft Viva Engage networks are being upgraded to Native Mode, which aligns with Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365, offering benefits like hosting Live Events and supporting eDiscovery. Upgrades start December 2022 and continue through December 2024. Some features will be lost, but alternatives are provided. Organizations can self-initiate migration or allow Microsoft to manage it.
Viva Insights: New Viva Learning Culture report
Viva Insights
Microsoft Viva Insights is introducing the new Viva Learning Culture Report, available to premium tenants with specific licenses. The report provides insights into employee engagement with Viva Learning content, starting mid-June 2025. It tracks learning usage, culture, and content played, visualized in Power BI. No admin action is required before rollout.
MAY
29
Microsoft Viva Insights: Skills insights for leaders
Viva Insights
Microsoft Viva Insights will soon allow leaders to use Microsoft 365 Copilot to explore team skills insights via natural language prompts, generating dynamic visual reports. This feature requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a Viva Insights subscription and will be available by default starting mid-June 2025.
MAY
30
Microsoft Viva: Copilot Dashboard – Benchmarks
Microsoft Viva
Compare Copilot active usage with benchmarks in Copilot Dashboard. External benchmarks will provide a reference for how usage compares to other companies. Internal benchmarks will enable users to compare similar groups, within your company.
Microsoft Viva: Copilot Dashboard – Enhanced scope drilldown
Microsoft Viva
Leaders and managers can drilldown and explore data in Copilot Dashboard by indirect groups, unlocking a new layer of visibility into Copilot adoption and impact.
This month’s update is now also available as a podcast! If you prefer listening over reading, or want to catch up on the latest SharePoint developments while commuting or running, you can now tune in on Spotify and YouTube.
The podcast features AI hosts Maria and John, who dive into the same updates covered in this post but through a conversational format. John brings his technical analyst perspective with attention to detail, while Maria focuses on the strategic implications and user experience impact. As the prompt director, I guide the conversation to ensure we’re covering what matters most for your day-to-day work.
This is an experiment in making tech updates more accessible, so I’d love your feedback on this format. Give it a listen and let me know what you think!
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