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What’s new for Microsoft Viva – September 2025
September brings the smallest batch of Microsoft Viva updates since I started this monthly roundup, but don’t let the size fool you—there are still some valuable enhancements worth noting. Even in a quieter month, Microsoft continues to refine the Viva experience with features that make workplace engagement and information access smarter.
The highlights this time include a new AI-powered audio briefing in Viva Connections mobile, delivering quick summaries of top news with playback controls, and AI agents in Viva Engage communities, now in Public Preview, that draft answers using community content and SharePoint grounding for improved accuracy. These updates may be fewer, but they show how AI is steadily becoming part of the Viva ecosystem.
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Microsoft Copilot dashboard (in Viva Insights): New benchmarks to compare Copilot usage across organizations
Viva Insights
Microsoft Copilot dashboard in Viva Insights will add benchmarks to compare Copilot usage internally and externally, helping identify adoption trends. Rolling out from late September to October 2025, it includes privacy-protected external benchmarks and internal cohort comparisons, with admin controls for access management.
Viva Engage Planned Maintenance
Viva Engage
Viva Engage will undergo three planned maintenance windows starting September 13, 2025, each lasting about 12 hours. During these times, it will be in read-only mode—users can view content but cannot create, reply, edit, or perform write actions, receiving error messages if attempted.
Microsoft Viva: Copilot Analytics – Unified Exclusion list
Microsoft Viva
Microsoft Viva Insights introduces a Unified Exclusion list for consistent user exclusion across all Viva Insights and Copilot analytics. Admins can manage exclusions via CSV or Entra ID groups. The feature rolls out globally from late September to early October 2025, enhancing privacy controls and simplifying administration.
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Viva Engage – New admin toggle to manage Move conversation feature
Viva Engage
Viva Engage will add an admin toggle (rolling out October 2025) to control the Move conversation feature. By default, all users can move conversations; turning the toggle off restricts this to specific roles like admins and corporate communicators. No action is needed unless restriction is desired.
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Microsoft Viva: Updated Regional Benchmarks for employee feedback
Microsoft Viva
Viva Glint will refresh its Country & Region external benchmark suites for 2025. These updated benchmarks provide organizations with more accurate and current comparative insights into employee feedback across geographies, enabling better-informed decisions and more relevant action planning.
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Microsoft Viva : News AI audio briefing in Connections Mobile
Microsoft Viva
Microsoft Viva Connections mobile will introduce an AI audio briefing feature providing summaries of top news with playback controls. Available mid-September to November 2025, it requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, is on by default, and needs no user configuration.
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Distribute SharePoint news posts with Viva Amplify across Outlook, Teams, and Engage
Viva Amplify
Viva Amplify in SharePoint enables users with licenses to distribute news posts across Outlook, Teams, Viva Engage, and SharePoint sites from a single interface. It auto-optimizes content, offers engagement analytics, and rolls out from late September to mid-October 2025, requiring no admin action unless updating guidance.
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Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365): Viva Engage – Agents in communities
Viva Engage
Agents in Viva Engage communities supports communities by answering questions, facilitating knowledge sharing, citing sources, and scaling expertise.
Viva Engage: Agents in Viva Engage communities Public Preview
Viva Engage
Viva Engage communities now have agents in Public Preview (from Sept 18, 2025) that draft AI-generated answers using community content. SharePoint grounding will enhance accuracy by late Sept. Admins can enable, configure auto-posting or review, and add SharePoint sites. General Availability is expected early 2026.
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Viva Engage: Mute a conversation from Teams for iOS
Viva Engage
Viva Engage will allow network admins and corporate communicators to mute conversations directly in the Teams app on iOS and Android, removing muted threads from home feeds and email digests. This feature, enabled by default, will roll out worldwide from early to mid-October 2025.
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Microsoft Viva: Flexible targeting of Storyline Announcements
Microsoft Viva
We’re introducing more flexible and precise targeting capabilities in Viva Engage, starting with Storyline Announcements. This new feature allows leaders and their delegates to define a custom audience at the time of posting, without relying on pre-configured Leader Audiences. Audiences can be built, and saved for reuse, using organizational attributes such as department, job title, or country, existing groups like M365 Groups, distribution lists, or security groups, and even individual users by name. This flexibility enables more relevant communication, helping leaders reach the right people with the right message. Notifications and delivery channels, including Teams and email, will continue to follow existing Storyline Announcement behavior, ensuring a seamless experience for recipients. This feature is designed to help leaders tailor communications to specific departments, locations, or groups, enhancing engagement and relevance across the organization.
Microsoft Viva Pulse: Updates to data retention policy
Viva Pulse
Microsoft Viva Pulse updates its data retention policy starting October 2025, storing templates indefinitely in Azure Cosmos DB while subscriptions are active. Previously stored in Microsoft Forms, data retention depended on response thresholds. No action is needed, and workflows remain unchanged.
Microsoft Viva Glint: User schema enhancements with custom age and tenure derivations
Viva Glint
Microsoft Viva Glint will enable admins to create custom age and tenure derivations for tailored employee data reporting, rolling out globally from mid-October to mid-November 2025. Admins can define ranges, map source fields, and manage derivations with historical data retained even if disabled.
Related questions now available in Viva Engage for Teams on iOS
Viva Engage
Viva Engage in Teams for iOS will show related questions in real time when users type new ones, helping avoid duplicates and improve efficiency. This feature, enabled by default for tenants with the Viva Engage Knowledge Service Plan, will roll out globally from late September to early October 2025.
Listen to the latest updates
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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