espnguyen Thanks for the explanation. I think the frustrating thing for us comms and adoption folk is that all of the product names are really hard to explain to end users and they absolutely do care about this. We took the decision to talk about Viva in terms of 'bringing everything into Teams' as Teams is fairly well understood, whereas if we mention Yammer they really don't understand why both apps exist and often aren't remotely open to the explanations around inner/outer loops and pace of conversations and not through lack of trying. 'Communities' made sense, as that was a good way of describing what Yammer enabled rather than what it was called. 

Leaders often challenge us 'if you want to add a comms channel, take another one away'  - we now potentially have to explain that no, it's not something new, it's still Yammer, and then they get frustrated and disengaged and we end up having to apologise for MSFT's branding decisions. 

To me, it would make sense to chuck everything under the Viva brand, so we had Viva Teams, Viva Engage, Viva Connections etc and got rid of all the other names as that would make it easier to communicate. If Engage is Yammer, then get rid of Yammer, but having the terms Viva Engage, Communities and Yammer hanging about is a recipe for more confusion, and all the while we're talking about what things are called we've got less airtime to talk about what they do, and that's a real shame because underneath it all you're delivering great stuff. 

espnguyen - I categorically disagree with your statement "First, it's important for us to think about how we can add value to end users. End users don't spend a lot of time thinking about whether it's one product name or the other."  That may be the assumption from within MSFT, but the reality is that end users absolutely spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it is they're using, getting confused about what to use when (see the recent blog post - published by Microsoft - about the 3 different posters explaining when to use To Do, Planner, and Tasks).  You do need to clearly communicate exactly what one solution offers, what its touchpoints are, and where that overlaps other solutions. 
FWIW, I'm all for rebranding Yammer.  Look at all the other product line rebrands - there are no/few standalone products anymore; they fit under a Purview or Azure or D365 or M365 or Power umbrella.  All except Yammer.  
If this statement above is true: "Viva Engage will continue to show the same network, home feed, and communities that you see today in Yammer. Any content created in Yammer.com or mobile – including community conversations, storyline posts, and stories – will be viewable in Viva Engage. Likewise, content created in Engage will show up in Yammer native experiences. Viva Engage will also continue respecting any custom branding done for the Communities app. To use Viva Engage an organization must be licensed for Yammer." -- then it doesn't make sense to continue the Yammer brand.

What happens with Yammer?

Yammer is not going away.  Engage is just enhancing the experience, and the Communities app for Teams is being rebranded to Viva Engage.  

See this article:  Introducing Viva Engage - Microsoft Tech Community

Future of Yammer

Yammer is a key part of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva and this change only impacts the Communities app for Teams & Outlook. The Yammer web experience and the native Yammer mobile apps will continue to be a part of Microsoft 365 SKUs and the same communities, storylines, and stories are made available through both Yammer and the new Viva Engage app. We are continuing to invest in Yammer and bring the powers of Yammer to Microsoft 365 and Viva.

How will Viva Engage and Yammer work together?

For nearly ten years, Yammer has been a leader in employee engagement, and now we are delivering these superpowers into the Microsoft Viva platform to empower people and teams to be their best, have a voice, and feel included in the workplace. We know communities, conversations, cross-company relationships, and personal expression are critical to any thriving culture and organization – and essential pieces of employee experience.

Viva Engage will continue to show the same network, home feed, and communities that you see today in Yammer. Any content created in Yammer.com or mobile – including community conversations, storyline posts, and stories – will be viewable in Viva Engage. Likewise, content created in Engage will show up in Yammer native experiences. Viva Engage will also continue respecting any custom branding done for the Communities app. To use Viva Engage an organization must be licensed for Yammer.

Patrick Drews I just read that too but I'm still confused about the business-logic behind this decision.  I'm not clear on the purpose of rebranding Yammer apps into Viva, unless the long-term goals are to (a) make Yammer a premium offering, and/or (b) abandon the Yammer brand name.

The features introduced today could/should have all just been updates to Yammer itself.  Bringing it into Viva is the first step of a larger and unclear goal by Microsoft. 

atrain204 would it be accurate to say that "Viva Engage" will replace the name "Yammer' across all versions of the product? (web and mobile too)?

 

First, it's important for us to think about how we can add value to end users. End users don't spend a lot of time thinking about whether it's one product name or the other. Having said that, we have no immediate plans of changing anything because we have two constituents to serve. One constituent is a Microsoft 365 licensee. As mentioned above, nothing changes there. In fact, new capabilities like storyline and stories will be available and will continue to evolve this.

Our second constituent is the employee experience. Which is a whole new muscle for us and the brand that we've decided on as a company is Viva. We don't want to just slam the Yammer brand in there. So we are sort of doing this hybrid rebranding, if you will. Will it over time mean that at some point the Yammer name goes away and everything becomes Viva? We're open to that if it makes sense and we'd love your feedback as we evolve these feature sets over the next, say, 12 months and see what resonates with you best.

By the way, that's the amazing opportunity we have with you and our other customers where you can tell us what's better for you and your users. And we are very open to that. So for now, there are no plans today to entirely rebrand Yammer, but we also don't have any fixed mindset around that.

Current Microsoft 365 customers will continue to have access to Yammer and to Viva Engage. Everything you see in this announcement today will be available to Microsoft 365 customers at no additional cost. Perhaps the best way to think about this announcement is that Yammer is going to power the Viva Engage experience. Viva Engage is really an updated version of the Communities App in Teams and the beginnings of us bringing Yammer more closely to our Viva suite of products. 

I agree with the other comments here that this is highly confusing, as evidenced by the contorted explanations for how it works. Surely it would be easier to just say Yammer is becoming Viva Engage and we are adding these new features. If Viva Engage is Yammer then why are two apps needed that do essentially the same thing? MS is terrible at this overall, constantly putting out new apps that duplicate functionality so its unclear what users should use and when. The confusion over Planner, To-Do and Outlook tasks is a case in point, why can't there just be a tool called Tasks that combines these together into one place? MS finally seem to be moving in that direction by depreciating outlook tasks and adding Planner tasks to ToDo but its taken years, don't make the same mistake with Yammer and Viva!

Kristi Robison  Well said. I am all in for changes, but user will get confused with name Yammer and Viva Insight. In email communications or chat some user may mention post as Viva Engagement Story and some refer as Yammer post.  If Microsoft rebrand/rename Yammer as Viva Engage, then it is easy to adopt, communicate and collaborate.

Kristi Robison rpskumar Jon Carpenter JonesTrac I want to thank you for your honest feedback. Please know that your input here is very much considered along with what we're hearing from others in other channels. Your feedback is thoughtful and understood. Please know that we do not have a fixed mindset around the Yammer brand. Please know that our teams also have thoughtful discussions internally about these branding decisions and there are a lot of factors that go into rebranding efforts. It's not a simple "Find and Replace" exercise. We definitely will continue to take signals from folks like you into consideration. 

I think you all are making some sensible predictions about where things might end up.