Sensitivity Labels Are Coming to Viva Engage Communities Here's What You Need to Know
If you've seen MC1250283 in your Message Center and have questions, you're not alone. In the past few weeks we've heard from customers across industries — financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, government — all asking variations of the same questions. This post is our attempt to answer them all in one place. You can find out more via this article Sensitivity labels in Viva Engage. | Microsoft Learn What's changing Starting March 31, 2026 sensitivity labels will be available in Viva Engage community creation. When someone creates a new community, they'll see a sensitivity label picker, the same kind of label selector that already exists in Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. This is Engage joining the rest of Microsoft 365. Sensitivity labels for groups and sites have been supported in Teams, SharePoint, and M365 Groups for years. Engage communities, which are built on top of M365 Groups and SharePoint sites, are now part of that ecosystem. How it works Labels come from Purview, not Engage. There is no new admin setting in the Viva Engage admin center to turn this on or off. Your sensitivity labels are configured and published in Microsoft Purview, and those settings now apply to Engage communities the same way they apply to Teams and SharePoint. Labels are synced across all three surfaces. An Engage community's sensitivity label is shared with its linked M365 Group and SharePoint site. When a label is applied to one, it synchronizes across all three. This means your label governance is consistent — not fragmented. Existing communities are not automatically labeled. Communities created before this rollout will remain in an unlabeled state. They won't have a label auto-assigned. Admins can apply labels to existing communities in bulk using existing PowerShell scripts against the linked M365 Groups or SharePoint sites, no new tooling is needed. Applying a label via those surfaces will trigger the sync to Engage. Labeling can be mandatory or optional. Whether users must pick a label when creating a community is controlled by your Purview label policy. In the label policy publishing flow, under "Groups and sites > Settings," there's a checkbox to make site labeling mandatory. If you check it, users will be required to select a label when creating a community. If you don't, the label picker appears but community creation is still allowed without a selection. Default labels are set in Purview. If mandatory labeling is enabled and a user hasn't picked a label, the creation flow pre-populates a default. That default is determined by your label policy settings in Purview — Purview suggests the lowest-priority label with the right scope, but you can configure a different one. On Day 1, before an Engage-specific default is configured, the existing site default label (if set) will pre-populate. Community admins and owners can change labels after creation. This isn't locked to tenant admins. Community admins and owners will be able to update the label via community settings in Viva Engage or through the M365 admin center group listings. ttings. Programmatic community creation still works. If you create communities via the Graph API's /community endpoint, the label won't be set through that call — there's no Graph API support for setting labels directly on communities in this release. However, after creation, you can apply the label via PowerShell targeting the linked M365 Group or SharePoint site, which will sync to Engage. Your existing automation flows won't break; they just need a label-setting step added if you need one. The governance tension we've heard The most substantive concern we've received, and it's a legitimate one, comes from organizations that have configured their Purview label policies to enforce private-only labels for groups and sites. These organizations allowed public Engage communities precisely because Engage wasn't subject to sensitivity label governance. When Engage joins that ecosystem, their Purview policy will apply — and if their policy only permits private-supporting labels, new Engage communities will only be creatable as private communities. We want to be direct about this: Purview sensitivity label policies are tenant-wide and can't be scoped to individual workloads. There is no way to say "apply this policy to Teams and SharePoint but not Engage." Engage communities are built on M365 Groups and SharePoint sites, and they share the same label scope in order to stay in sync. If your organization has strict private-only governance and you need to continue creating public Engage communities, the practical path is: Create a public-supporting sensitivity label (e.g., "General - Internal Communications") Publish it to admins only — not your entire user base — so it doesn't accidentally appear in Teams or SharePoint creation flows for end users Apply this label to Engage communities via the admin center or PowerShell scripts Optionally, publish the label to your entire user base and use automated scripts to monitor Groups and Sites for misuse of that public label and correct them This is a workaround, not an ideal solution. We've heard the feedback clearly: Engage's use case — broad internal communication and knowledge sharing, is fundamentally different from SharePoint or Teams collaboration, and a one-size-fits-all label scope creates real tension. We're tracking this as a design consideration and have raised it with the Purview team. If you want to formally register this feedback, submit a Design Change Request (DCR) with your Microsoft Account team asking for per-workload label scoping support. What sensitivity labels do NOT change Community discoverability. All Engage communities remain discoverable to all users regardless of sensitivity label. Labels don't create "hidden" communities. A private community is visible in search — users just can't read the content without being a member. What users can see in search. Search results are governed by access control lists (ACLs), not sensitivity labels. Users will only see content they have permission to access. Your custom label taxonomy. Labels like "Confidential" or "Highly Confidential" are defined by your organization in Purview. There's no universal label structure — your configuration is yours. Frequently asked questions Can I test this in a staging tenant before it hits production? This rolls out to production tenants starting March 31. There isn't a separate staging path for this feature. We recommend using this window before rollout to review your Purview label policies, identify any communities where label assignment may create issues, and prepare admin and end user documentation. What happens if we have no sensitivity labels configured in Purview at all? If you don't use sensitivity labels for groups and sites, this change will have no impact. Community creation will support the privacy picker as it always has. Will this affect Copilot? Yes, and this is worth thinking through. Verified answers and content in private communities are scoped to members of that community. If your governance pushes more communities to private, that content becomes less accessible to Copilot for org-wide knowledge retrieval. If broad knowledge sharing is a goal, this is a factor to weigh in your label policy decisions. Will there be any visual change for end users? Users creating communities will see a sensitivity label dropdown in the creation flow. If your organization has labels published to users, they'll be able to select from those labels. If mandatory labeling is not enabled, they can leave it blank. If a community has a label, it will be visible in the community header. What to do before March 31 Review your Purview label policies. Specifically check whether you have mandatory labeling enabled for groups and sites, and what default label is configured. This will determine what your users see in community creation. Check for existing communities with label mismatches. If your linked Groups or SharePoint sites already have labels applied, confirm that those labels are ones that make sense for public community use. Prepare your community admins. Let them know the label picker is coming and what they should (or shouldn't) select. Prepare end user guidance if needed. For most organizations this will be low-friction. But if you have a complex label taxonomy or strict governance, proactive communication helps.
Monday Masterclass Season 2 – Week 4 Designing Events Employees Remember
Great events don’t just deliver information — they create moments people remember, return to, and build on. In Week 4 of the Viva Engage Monday Masterclass Season 2, we wrapped up the series by focusing on how to design events that drive participation, trust, and momentum before, during, and after the moment. This session brought together product insights, customer examples, and practical guidance to help communicators and community leaders turn events into ongoing engagement engines. If you’ve ever hosted an event that felt successful in the moment — but fizzled right after —or if you had questions on how to drive engagement beyond the event... this session was for you. Why host events in Viva Engage? Instead of treating events as one-off calendar invites, hosting them in Viva Engage creates a single, continuous experience. When you host events within a community, you target the audience for the event and discovery happens across your network. Before the event: Build awareness and anticipation with announcements, pinned posts, and seeded questions. During the event: Centralize participation through questions, discussions, reactions, and upvotes — all in one place. After the event: Keep the conversation alive with recordings, recaps, followups, and searchable knowledge people can return to. This approach helps events support broader goals like leadership visibility, culture building, learning, and community connection — not just attendance. Event formats that fit your goals The session walked through how different event formats support different outcomes, including: Broadcasts Ideal for large, one-to-many moments like town halls or major announcements. Meetings Better suited for learning sessions, office hours, and interactive discussions. Inperson or textonly events Flexible options that still keep the conversation anchored in Engage. Choosing the right format isn’t about feature checklists — it’s about optimizing for the experience you want attendees to have. Before, during, after: designing the full event lifecycle The session emphasized thinking about events as a connected journey, not a single time slot. Before the event Promote early with clear value and calls to action Share teaser posts tied to key themes Seed conversation with openended questions During the event Guide participation clearly Use moderation and upvotes intentionally Keep conversation focused in the event feed After the event Share recordings and highlights Publish a recap that’s skimmable and actionable Continue answering questions and extending the discussion This is where events shift from “done” to durable. Customer spotlight: turning events into learning rhythms We also highlighted how customers are using Viva Engage events to create repeatable learning moments, not just onetime sessions — from biweekly Copilot learning hours to office hours that build steady adoption momentum. The common thread: Events work best when they’re part of a rhythm, not a reaction. Keep learning with the Viva Engage Masterclass This session capped off Season 2 of the Viva Engage Monday Masterclass, which covered: Week 1: Beyond the basics – roles, moderation, and community configuration https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/customer-hub/monday-masterclass-your-guide-to-the-viva-engage-essentials/session-7/ Week 2: AI-powered engagement in Viva Engage https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/customer-hub/monday-masterclass-your-guide-to-the-viva-engage-essentials/session-8/ Week 3: Campaigns and storytelling https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/customer-hub/monday-masterclass-your-guide-to-the-viva-engage-essentials/session-9/ Week 4: Designing events employees remember All session slides and recordings can be found here Broadcast and meetings require Microsoft Teams, available as part of the suite or as a standalone. Learn more: Licensing updates extend access to advanced capabilities in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Places | Microsoft Community Hub"Disable Sharing Outside of Private Group
I work in a large organization, and we have many private groups to avoid employees getting tired of seeing posts that are not relevant to them. However, it is difficult to tell whether a group is private or not, so users often end up sharing posts from private groups. Is there a way to disable the sharing option in our group? And could you please make it easier to see when a post is in a private group?
Notification Experience in Viva Engage
Our company has recently adopted Viva Engage, and we've been receiving a lot of feedback from our users regarding the notification system, particularly around how it affects their ability to stay informed without being overwhelmed. We have also noticed a significant reduction in engagement from users since moving from WorkPlace to Viva Engage. Here are the main concerns we've encountered: Users who have email notifications enabled are receiving far too many alerts. Many have expressed a desire to receive email notifications only for new posts, not for every comment or reply. Those who have turned off email notifications often forget to check Viva Engage because the only way to see new activity is to manually open the app and check The app icon doesn’t show any indication of new activity. We have not adopted using the announcement feature and we don't intend to as: Only defined community specialists and admins are allowed to use this feature and we do not want to make every employee a specialist/admin for every Engage Community It requires people to remember to use the feature for every new post There are no pop-up notifications like in Microsoft Teams. The counter in Viva Engage shows updates for both new posts and comments, which many users find distracting. They would prefer to have the option to see in-app counters only for new posts, not for every interaction. I have seen people suggest the following workaround: manually unfollowing each post to avoid comment notifications. This solution is not scalable or user-friendly IMO. A more elegant solution would be to reverse the logic: users should only receive comment notifications if they choose to follow a post. Suggested Improvements: Add granular notification settings (e.g., toggle for “new posts only” vs. “all activity”). Introduce pop-up notifications for new posts, similar to Teams. Allow users to follow posts only if they want updates, rather than being auto-subscribed. Improve visual indicators on the app icon to show unread activity. We believe these changes would significantly improve the user experience and help drive engagement without overwhelming users. Has anyone else faced similar issues? Would love to hear your thoughts or if Microsoft has any updates planned in this area. Thanks!
Does anyone know how I can get a list of all the members of a Viva Engage Community?
I would like to export the list of names, or, even better, email addresses, of all members of a Viva Engage Community of which I am an Admin, ideally in Excel format. I know that there is an option to import members using CSV format, but is there also a way to export them? There are several hundred people in the Community and I don't want to have to scroll down and type out all their names one-by-one!
Viva Engage connection with MFA
I'm not able to connect to https://engage.cloud.microsoft/main/org/microsoft.com, where I'm was added as member of several communities (I received notifications with "You have been added on..."). I'm requested to log on using my work account. All options fail: Using passkey: "Something went wrong" Using Authenticator app: "Request wasn't sent" (I approved the request.) Using password: "Your account or password is incorrect." (I entered the correct password.) It could be something with connection between my company and Microsoft. My organization has passwordless logon. Is this something that Microsoft or my organization has to fix?Enhancements wanted for Viva Engage Event Experience
In the Event tab within Viva Engage Communities it would be great with some improvements to enhance the usage and customization of Events. Similar to Facebook and Workplace events where participants had the possibility to select "Attending" and "Not attending". We have cases where we plan in person events where it would be really helpful to get an overview of participants that are attending. Similar to Facebook and Workplace events where participants had the possibility to select "Attending" and "Not attending". Additionally, giving users the ability to add events directly to their calendars would help them stay organized and maintain a better overview of company activities. To summarize very wanted features are: The options for participants to click Attending/Not attending. Option to "Add to Calendar" directly from the event page The ability to mark the event as In Person Is this on Microsoft's Roadmap for enhancements, or could it be considered for future updates?
