Come see the future of Yammer, February, 3, 2020, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time.
Join the Yammer product team as we introduce you to the new Yammer – a completely redesigned UI packed with new features and integrations. This webinar will walk through the modern interface, demonstrate new experiences and capabilities, and showcase how Yammer has been rebuilt to power leadership, communications, and engagement. Attendees will have the opportunity for Q&A with the Yammer engineering + marketing team to help prepare for the arrival of the new Yammer.
Webinar Questions and Answers
New Yammer & Program Management
How can we become part of the preview for the New Yammer? How can I test drive this for my organization?
The preview is currently closed. To stay up to date with the latest news about the new Yammer, follow the Yammer blog or sign up for our newsletter here: https://aka.ms/TheNewYammer
Is the new experience available for EU data resident customers?
Yes!
If we did get into the preview what is the expected availability?
Stay tuned. Hopefully in the coming weeks, you will received an email from The New Yammer with additional documentation and details confirming your network access.
When are these features released? How will the features release?
General Availability of the new Yammer web experience will be sometime later in the first half of this calendar year. We'll continue updating the mobile apps on a regular cadence so be sure to download and use the mobile app. Some of these features (like Native Mode, eDiscovery, Teams integrations, unified profile, mobile video sharing, and others will be released before the new Yammer hits tenants. Keep an eye on the blog and the Message Center for exact timing. Timeframes are subject to change based on product availability and readiness.
Will we issue a list of new features?
The roadmap will have the features as they release. The New Yammer experience is the first app to be built fully in Fluent, the Microsoft design language, and will strengthen coherence between Yammer and other M365 apps. Along with the UI, we've added new capabilities... such as:
- To better convey the purpose of Yammer, Groups are now called Communities
- Pin your favorite communities to the sidebar
- Brand your network with your company logo on the home page
- Brand your communities with vibrant cover photos
- Customize the All Company community cover photo and avatar
- Pin important posts at the top of your communities
- Close conversations that have come to a conclusion
- Enhanced discovery feed combining top posts from groups, people and topics you follow
- New publisher experience, with the ability to make any type of content an announcement
- New conversation styling treatments for posts, questions, praise stand out for even greater engagement
- Rich media uploading + viewing improvements, including recently used file suggestions
- Live Events dedicated event page with questions as the default post type
- New people card experiences aligned with Microsoft 365
- Responsive design for viewing Yammer on your mobile browser
- Ability to provide feedback without leaving Yammer
- and so much more!
Yammer Admins
Have there been any changes in the Admin Center for Admins? What about security and compliance changes?
Yes! Check out the eDiscovery and Native Mode options for Yammer blog post for more details.
Will you be able to edit existing email address?
Admins will be able to via the O365 Admin Center.
Will external groups be available in EU Data centers?
We have plans to enable external collaboration in EU instance of Yammer. The internal goal is to start with a private preview in H2 CY2020.
In the current version you see Group Actions, O365 Resources, where are they in the New Yammer?
At the moment, they are hidden by design. Still available just moved.
Are communities tied to O365 Groups? Is All Company moving to an O365 Groups?
Yes, we encourage all communities be connected to Office 365 Groups. Office 365 group User limits will not be a limiting factor for All Company becoming an Office 365 group.
- When All Company is backed by an Office 365 Group, users are not actually added as a group member. Rather, the Yammer client treats all users as if they are members.
- Office 365 connected Yammer Communities are not subject to the same membership restrictions of Outlook Groups and Teams. Yammer Office 365 Connected Communities can support hundreds of thousands of users.
Will a Yammer community create a SP document library?
Yes. All Office 365 Connected Yammer Communities will have a SharePoint site (and hence doc library) provisioned. This is for maintaining compliance and privacy of the content and information shared in that community. The Privacy and Sensitivity properties are set at a community level and the doc lib inherits those properties to make sure that the conversation and files data follow the same policies as set by admins. Starting in January 202, all files stored in a connected community will have their files stored in SharePoint by default.
Where would the files be stored for disconnected communities?
The files would be stored in Yammer (Azure) for legacy communities.
Are the Company Resources in the new Yammer.
Yes, they are still in the background, just not links.
Have enhancements been made to the data export?
Not yet, its on the roadmap for 2020.
Is there anything new for the Yammer analytics for communities?
No, at the moment, Community Insights is staying the same as today. Here’s a blog post with 10 Questions to Assess Your Yammer Network with the current analytic set up to get you started.
Will the API allow us to close a conversation or pin a conversation to a group?
Currently there is no ability to close a conversation or pin a conversation in a group via API. Exposing this via API needs to be planned, and something that has not happened so far, so unable to provide timelines right now.
Will there be a new Yammer API?
We have a v1 API today for Yammer documented at https://developer.yammer.com which contains endpoints for many operations in Yammer. There are no immediate plans to update the v1 API but it’s something we’re investigating.
Can you integrate other applications into Yammer via APIs? So you could link in your IT Service Management system, or timekeeping, or travel booking, etc.
Yammer has a REST API - so data can be pulled out of or pushed into Yammer. There are many third-party apps that integrate with the Yammer API, please see https://www.yammer.com/apps
Yammer Communities
Can you favorite without being a member of that community (for groups we keep an eye on)?
Not at this time. We recommend joining communities that interest you.
Is there any options to give categories to communities?
Not at this time.
Are there any new roles within communities?
No changes within the roles. You will have community member, community admin, and network admin.
Is there a way to get a more condensed view in the communities pane? You added a lot of whitespace and waste screen estate. Nice visual outline but a functional pain for people which have to track many communities (we're a large shop with a far 6-digit number of seats and maaaaaaany communities).
Not at this time but this is a good suggestion. We have passed this along.
Is it possible to have private communities?
Yes, you can still create private communities in the new Yammer.
Do you have the dimensions for the new banner to start creating community cover photos?
Yes, The Cover Photo image dimensions are 1360x550. And check out this blog post to start testing it out with the Cover Photo Preview template. Stay tuned to the blog for a new Yammer file and sizing guide.
Can you gather up all the best answers into a community FAQ?
Great idea. You cannot do this automatically, but you could also turn the answer into a knowledge base. See how to do this within this blog post here. You are able to sort a community by Q&A, unanswered questions, and all conversations.
Will the new experience have the “report abuse” option like other social networking platforms have?
We’re adding a report option that will quarantine the post for a community manager. It likely won’t ship in the initial release of the new Yammer UI, but you can set up a no-code solution for your own organization. Check out how to do this today in this blog post.
My company would love to make this more turnkey within Yammer for things like Employee Resource Groups and grassroots endeavors.
This is a great way that many of our customers use Yammer currently for this use case. See our blog posts about this here: 10 Yammer communities considered the backbone of many Yammer customers' networks [Customer Story] How the largest UK rail operator uses Yammer to empower LGBT+ Communities ; Start the diversity and inclusion conversation at your company; Real-world ways to promote diversity and inclusion in your organization with Yammer and Microsoft Te...
Messages, Postings & Yammer Feeds
What is changing with topics?
No immediate changes with the new Yammer, but future development on Topics is being researched in line with our commitment to knowledge as a pillar of the new Yammer (think Cortex).
Can I order my @mentions?
These are automatically displayed alphabetically.
What about private messaging?
This is still located within the Yammer inbox. You can also start a Teams chat from the profile cards in the New Yammer.
Are polls still anonymous?
Yes, if you need additional data for questions or polls, we suggest using Microsoft Forms for a richer experience.
How many posts can you pin at once time? Can you have a message pinned for a specific amount of time?
You can only pin one message or announcement at a time. Community admins select which messages are pinned and unpinned manually. There is not a date selector. Admins will need to unpin a post in order to pin a different one.
Will the colors of the praise, question and polls be able to be customized?
No, however the LIKE, comments and favorite icons will match your Office 365 color scheme.
How does the New Yammer update links to SharePoint pages?
No updates at this time. Though links coming from SharePoint have underwent some style improvements to show more smoothly in the thread.
How do we turn a conversation into a task? How do we email a particular message to my outlook? So I can flag it and turn into a task? Conversations are usually talking about projects and somehow we need someway to remember to deal with these projects or conversations? What I have to do right now is market conversation unread to remind me that I need to deal with the conversation I think there needs to be someway to flag a conversation?
One of the Yammer PMMs, Angus, uses a Flow sequence for this and sends the message to a private group and any new post within the private groups gets a tasks created for him.
Can community owners set a default type of post? Like Q&A if the community is mostly used mostly for feedback.
For Live Events in Yammer (in the event tab in each Yammer community), the default conversation style is set to question and answer. We are looking to expand this for other areas.
What is the single file size can be uploaded to Yammer enterprise?
Currently the max file size is 10mb for images uploaded to Yammer. For Office 365 Connected Communities (where files are stored in SharePoint by default), the max file size would be determined by the existing SharePoint policies.
Will one be able select the place where a picture is shown within the text of a post? This would be great to present information as you can refer the text parts to particular pictures right next to it. We have many requests for such a feature, especially when you want to basically explain something about the pictures. Is there any other way to do this if you do not want to publish separate posts?
While we have improved how images are tiled in a grid layout, we do not have this functionality within the new Yammer. You may want to use another type of medium, like a recording or a file with the long form of information and then share to Yammer, depending on the specific message you need to convey.
Can you move questions to another community if not correctly posted?
Yes, the move function exists currently in Yammer and in the new Yammer! You can select which community you would like to move the post to. Yammer will include autogenerated text about which community the message was originally posted and where it was moved to. Yammer will also notify the poster to let them know their message has been moved.
Will this ever be implemented to translate any foreign language that your profile isn't set to?
No plans at this time, but Yammer does offer translation. See here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator/business/yammer/
If I am a delegate for a leader's outlook, if I were to respond to a Yammer post via outlook (under the leader's account) will it post as the leader? Or is there a way to post on behalf of another user?
Here’s an article on how to use Power Automate to schedule a post in Yammer. When you set this Flow up you need to authenticate an associated Yammer account with the Flow. This Yammer account is who the post on Yammer will appear as. Once the Flow is setup you can Share the post to someone else to run. Doesn’t matter who runs the Flow, it’ll post on behalf of the authenticated Yammer account in the Flow.
Example: CEO authenticates their Yammer account to the Flow. When Joanna runabout the Flow, it posts to Yammer as CEO. Joanna shares the Flow to Eric. Eric now has permission to run the Flow. Eric runs the Flow and it posts to Yammer as CEO.
Pros:
- No need to know the exec login credentials.
- Can simultaneously schedule post AND post on behalf of someone else
Cons:
- Due to some Flow limitations can’t do rich text, can’t attach images/files
- Can only start new threads. Cannot reply to posts using this method
How can I set what is shown in my Yammer feed?
Content from groups you join and people you follow will generally be prioritized in the feed. We're also working on increasing user control so they can see more of and see less from people and groups.
If a user is not a member of a community but the community is public will they be able to see posts from that community in their feed without joining the community? For our use case, our team is not well-known across the company and we are trying to use Yammer to make our presence aware.
Yes, if it’s a public community based on the interactions of the community members and the users, content and conversations may display in their feed.
Can a community I favorited be promoted more within my feed?
Not yet, but this is on the roadmap.
Can I arrange the order of my communities?
You can favorite up to 10 communities along the left navigation. We’re looking at ways to customize the order of these communities (most likely via a drag & drop).
Can you add LinkedIn tweets or linked posts within a Yammer community?
You can create a Flow for your community. More details here
What things are you doing to make Yammer as inclusive and accessible as possible for people, with accessibility requirements e.g. visual impairments.
The current Yammer web experience has several documentation detailing accessibility here: Accessibility in Yammer. As for Office 365 as whole, check out: O365 Accessibility Happy to say that we have accessibility features across web and mobile as well. For this new redesigned experience, we currently do not any resources created yet, BUT the experience has been built to be keyboard and VoiceOver accessible! We’re continuing to invest in accessibility features like translation, auto face-recognition and auto transcription for live events, etc.
Yammer Profile
Are there plans to show how many times a user has been praised?
At the moment there is no plans to share this, but you can view the praise’s by user via their profile.
Are there changes to notifications? Will you still be able to manage our notification preferences with the new profile experience?
No changes to the actual notifications, however where you find the various notifications will change. Your Yammer inbox will stay the same with the conversations that you are part of, but notifications have been moved into the Office 365 banner to match the rest of the suite.
You will be able to manage them within your Yammer notification settings as you can do currently.
How are bookmarks ordered? Will bookmark be available on the Yammer mobile app?
They are ordered by the last updated conversation. Bookmarks are coming to the mobile app.
Will it be easy to navigate on the Yammer app between communities?
Yes! And the new updates may release to the mobile apps prior to the web, so make sure you are using the latest Yammer apps.
Live Events
Is there Livestreaming available, or is it just record and post a video?
You can host a live event or record and post a video. We also announced mobile video sharing which brings near instant sharing directly from the mobile app into your Yammer communities.
Will this video functionality require an encoder, or would the app and mobile phone be able to capture videos?
You can use either or – for more details about Live Events in Yammer check out this documentation. We announced DIY Live Events without the need for an encoder at Ignite. We also announced mobile video sharing which brings near instant sharing directly from the mobile app into your Yammer communities.
Can you explain a business use case for the recording feature you are showing? I cannot imagine using stickers, etc in this kind of video at work, but for sure you have examples
Depending on your organization, mobile video sharing has all kinds of use cases, from welcoming new employees, to training, to showing authentic moments from the field or factories. Companies have also done campaigns from the front line with videos of employees. For more ideas, check out this blog post: Support your next campaign with video content via Yammer
What's the maximum number of participants for live events? Is there a limit to how many users can be participating/viewing live event in Yammer?
Currently up to 10,000 members can attend live– and many more can attend on-demand after the recording is automatically uploaded to Stream. More about Live Events here.
Can small-scale "Live Events" be broadcast through Yammer directly? Today, this redirects to Teams . In other words, does broadcasting within Yammer require a studio/production setup, or can people do this on the fly with their mobile device.
This is coming within the next few months. Announced at Ignite, it allows the producer to use Teams on the backend (similar to a Skype Broadcast event) while attendees still view and participate in Yammer on the front end.
Do we need to use a specific video tool to broadcast a live event on Yammer? We currently use webcast. Wondering if it will integrate with Yammer
Any broadcast tool that supports RTMP will work. or you can just use teams. More about Live Events here.
Can you also tell something about bringing events in yammer?
Many customers use events, online and offline for a way to engage employees with Yammer. Here’s a few blog posts for how they are doing this: Support your next campaign with video content via Yammer ; 6 ways Yammer boosts engagement internally ; The event which unlocked our Yammer Success ; A guide to creating a Live Event in Yammer - before, during and after ; Four ways Yammer can make your event better
Will you be able to host normal Teams meetings in a group vs. Live Events? For some smaller groups and those wanting more equal engagement in a meeting, the Live Events feature is overkill. Does a Live event in Yammer use the same functionality as a Live event in Teams? Teams already offers the Live Events feature. How does the Yammer feature compare?
Depending on your event type and production expectation you can use different ways to product your live event directly in Teams or in Yammer. Learn more about Live Events here.
You can also view our Live Events playbook for additional best practices for hosting live events in Yammer.
Microsoft Teams and Yammer
The distinction between Teams and Yammer is an important question. will you be addressing this? guidelines or use cases perhaps?
Yes, we agree! In fact, we announced a new Yammer App for Microsoft Teams at Ignite, which will allow you to bring in your communities and org-wide conversations from Yammer into your hub for collaboration and teamwork.
Here’s a few resources to help understand the differences: Yammer & Microsoft Teams: Ideas for using the Yammer tab in Teams ; 10 Yammer communities considered the backbone of many Yammer customers' networks ; The Microsoft Teams team uses Yammer?; Turbo Charging your Fuzzy Help-Desks with Microsoft Teams + Yammer Integration ; Manage your Skype to Microsoft Teams transition with Yammer ;
I like the naming change to Communities, since that helps differentiate between Teams and Yammer. Is there a way to convert Yammer groups to teams in Teams, for those that are better suited for that tool?
This is not possible at the moment.
Is it possible to click on a person in the "Teams/Yammer-integration" and a new chat with this person in teams will be open?
Yes! You will be able to start a message from the new Office 365 profile card.
SharePoint and Yammer
For the Yammer SharePoint webpart, can you post/reply to Yammer messages while remaining in the SharePoint site, or do you have to navigate out of SharePoint and into the full Yammer experience?
Yes, you will have full functionality within the SharePoint webpart, including the new publisher, Q&A, gifs, and rich text.
If I embedded the feed on a SharePoint site, will I have to update it after the launch of the new Yammer?
No changes necessary.
And what about Yammer in an intranet?
If you are referring to Yammer embed, yes this will also be updated to reflect the new Yammer changes. We’re also working on some out of the box embedded communities that would live on SharePoint but be powered by Yammer.
What blog capabilities are there and what is the integration with documents from SharePoint?
You can use SharePoint Online for blogging capabilities. Using Yammer as comments will be on the coming roadmap.
Do the search parameters include SharePoint and Yammer?
Not at this time, though Yammer conversations are included in Bing search in Edge when signed in to your corporate account.
Microsoft Stream and Yammer
Does the video automatically live in Stream? And does it support closed captioning?
Yes, live event video recordings live in Stream. And yes, Stream supports closed captioning.
Looks amazing, thanks for the preview. Are you still working on auto transcription of the videos? That's a MUST for us to be able to talk about that feature, in fact we'd actively stop people from sharing the video unless it was accessible. Thanks!
Currently, any video uploaded to Stream is automatically transcribed, which is the case for Live Events.
Where are the videos uploaded? Will this be integrated with Stream to automatically upload?
Mobile videos are not stored in Stream currently.
Does Stream count the views from within Outlook?
Yes! Anywhere a stream video is viewed, it’ll count the view.