Install Viva Connections today

[Michael Holste]

UPDATE: Microsoft Viva Connections is now available for both desktop and mobile. Learn more. 

UPDATE: And now, Viva Connections can be installed and deployed directly from the Teams Admin Center using this guidance. 

The next step in the journey towards greater employee experience is here. Earlier this month, we announced that Microsoft Viva Connections would soon be available for desktop and today, we’re excited to share that you can now download and install the Viva Connections desktop app in your organization.

Watch this video and follow the instructions below to get started with Viva Connections.

Step-by-step guide to setting up Viva Connections desktop

Complete the following steps to enable Viva Connections desktop using SharePoint PowerShell:

1. Set up a SharePoint home site: We highly recommend that you set up a SharePoint home site and use that site as the default landing experience for your users in Teams.
2. Enable global navigation and customize navigational links: Set up and customize global navigation in the SharePoint app bar. Learn about the different ways you can set up the home site navigation and global navigation to surface the right content at the right time.
3. Create a Viva Connections app package in PowerShell: The SharePoint admin needs to download and run the Viva Connections PowerShell script from the Microsoft download center to create the Viva Connections desktop package. Ensure that you are using the latest version of the SharePoint Management Shell tool before running the script.
4. Provide tenant and site information to create the package: For a detailed description of the information you’ll need to provide, reference this article. 
5. Upload the Viva Connections desktop package in the Teams Admin Center: Once you successfully provide the details, a Teams app manifest, which is a .zip file, will be created and saved on your device. The Teams administrator of your tenant will then need to upload this app manifest to Teams admin center > Manage apps.
6. Manage and pin the app by default for your users: Once the Viva Connections desktop package is successfully uploaded in the Teams admin center, it can be managed like any other app. You can configure user permissions to make this app available to the right set of user who will then be able to find this app in the Teams app catalog.

Find more detailed instructions on getting started with Viva Connections for admins and end users.

Continuing the journey

We are excited for you to begin working with the Teams desktop experience of Viva Connections and look forward to hearing your feedback.

The mobile experience for Viva Connections will be available in Teams in the summer of 2021. Learn more what the mobile experience for Viva Connections can do for your employees, leaders, and IT.

In conjunction with the release of the mobile experience, we will also release an update to the desktop experience that will focus on improvements for IT administrators and deployment enhancements. This summer update will combine both the mobile and desktop configuration and deployment into the Teams admin console.

In this summer update we will also release web parts for the “dashboard” and “feed” to align with the mobile experience. These new web parts will enable the dashboard experience, authored in SharePoint, to be constant across all end points.

As web parts they will be available to add to any of your sites and allow you to leverage multiple columns and other advanced layouts on the desktop.

Stay tuned!

-Mike Holste
Michael Holste is a senior product marketing manager for employee engagement at Microsoft