This post was updated on January 22nd. The new media experiences will enter public preview towards the end of January 2024, and will ship worldwide shortly thereafter.
Viva Engage connects people across the organization, providing a multichannel, multimedia tool to reach and engage employees at scale. Communicators and creators are increasingly leveraging the power of video and images to share news, experiences, and perspectives. Today’s workforce is more accustomed to consuming content through video and images, and our data shows that video and images drive nearly double the engagement.
We’re introducing powerful new experiences for video and images in Viva Engage. These innovations reflect both the growing importance of media to our customers, and the feedback from our public preview of a feature we called “Stories”.
Stories
Today, 2.8 million users are part of the public preview of the feature we called “Stories” in Viva Engage. Their feedback has led the way to these new experiences. We learned that separating video and images from existing feeds and offering two separate creation experiences with discrete feature sets led to confusion about which tool to use. As we refined our vision, consumer social media also evolved, with several platforms also bringing media directly into the feed—for example, “Reels” in Facebook.
We are simplifying the experience so that all users can add videos and images with the dedicated buttons available in the command bar. All videos and images will appear in the existing feeds, instead of in a separate carousel, which will be removed from the preview experience called “Stories”. And posts where videos or images will be showcased with an engaging layout and immersive viewer when media is the hero content within a post.
With these integrations, we will no longer refer to stories as a discrete experience. We will instead make media look great, across Viva Engage experiences.
New experiences for video and images in Viva Engage—showcasing media in the feed, post preview, and the immersive viewing expeirence—will be available in early 2024 to preview customers. For customers currently enjoying the preview of stories, videos and images already shared as stories will be migrated and incorporated into feeds automatically—no content will be lost. We will announce the public preview a few weeks before launch.
Upload or create with a powerful new camera and screen recording
We’re making it easier for anyone to upload and record media with two new dedicated buttons in the command bar, shown below. These new buttons are avalable today to all customers worldwide.
[above] Record button
[above] Add a photo or video button
You can upload videos and images on both desktop and mobile; and record video and images on mobile. On desktops and laptops, you can record video that includes your webcam and/or screen recording.
You can also use powerful new features of the camera to blur or add custom backgrounds, annotate the video with ink, text, and stickers, and edit the video by trimming, reordering, or adding video clips. So anyone can create video with a consumer-grade, “stories-like” experience.
[above] Recording a video from the publisher
[above] Editing a video from the publisher
Superpowered video and image viewing experiences
We are introducing a new way to feature your video and images in feeds and a new, immersive experience to view media.
Now, when you create a post where a video or image is the hero, the media can be featured above the text, like this post with a video:
[above] Video and images can be showcased in the feed with media above the text of the post
When you create a storyline post with one image or video, we'll suggest showcasing it above the text, but you can choose to show media below the text, as an attachment.
[above] Choose whether to feature a photo above the text of your post, or display the photo below the text, as an attachment
In the first half of 2024, we'll bring this new creation experience to community posts, and we are considering support for posts with more than one image or video.
You can play the video in the feed, or click to open the video or image in the new, immersive player:
[above] Immersive viewing experience for video and images
We are considering allowing videos to auto-play, on mute by default, in the feed.
Preview and general availability
The new buttons for uploading images and video, and recording video are available today to all Viva Engage users at no extra charge.
Showcasing media above text in feeds and the immersive player—will be available in early 2024 to preview customers. For customers currently enjoying the preview of stories, videos and images already shared as stories will be migrated and incorporated into feeds automatically—no content will be lost. We will announce the public preview a few weeks before launch.
These new experiences for video and images will be available to all Viva Engage customers at no extra charge in early 2024.
Learn more about what’s included in Microsoft Viva and Viva Engage here and stay tuned for more updates.
Changes to “Enable stories” in the Storyline feature management interface
Based on customer feedback, the stories feature under public preview will not be released to general availability. Instead, stories will be replaced with a new, more integrated experience for video and images. Because of this, the “Generally available” toggle for stories located in the Viva Engage admin settings for storyline will be removed.
[above] Current experience of Enable stories, highlighting the section that will be removed:
Customers who are opted in to stories when the new experience is released to preview, will be opted in to the preview of the new experience. Customers that want to opt in (or out) from the preview of the new media experience, can do so with the stories preview toggle, up until the public preview starts for the new experience. Customers that wish to opt in (or out) once the public preview of the new media experience has started, can do so by submitting a support ticket.
[above] New experience of Enable stories, without “Generally available”. Details about how to opt in or out of the public preview of the new experience are included.
