Microsoft Viva overview

Microsoft Viva is Microsoft's employee experience platform (EXP) — a family of products built on top of Microsoft 365 covering communications, learning, well-being, knowledge, and goals. It's positioned as the modern intranet plus workforce-analytics plus learning-and-development surface, all delivered through Teams.

What's in Viva

The modules, grouped:

Communications and community

• Viva Connections — the modern intranet surface, a personalised home in Teams pulling SharePoint content, news, and announcements.
• Viva Engage — community discussions, social posts, Q&A, "ask me anything" sessions, internal video. The rebranded successor to Yammer.
• Viva Amplify — outbound corporate communications and campaign management.

Insights and well-being

• Viva Insights — personal productivity insights, manager insights, leader insights based on Microsoft 365 telemetry.
• Viva Pulse — quick feedback surveys.
• Viva Glint — full employee engagement surveys (formerly Glint).

Knowledge and expertise

• Viva Topics — AI-curated knowledge cards about people, projects, and concepts surfaced across Microsoft 365. Note: Microsoft has announced Viva Topics retirement; capabilities are migrating into Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Learning and skills

• Viva Learning — central learning surface aggregating content from LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, Coursera, Pluralsight, internal SharePoint, and many other providers.
• Viva Skills — skills profile, recommendations, and matching.

Goals and performance

• Viva Goals — OKR (Objectives and Key Results) management.

How Viva is licensed

Viva is partially included with Microsoft 365 and partially sold as add-ons:

• Microsoft 365 plans include: Viva Connections, basic Viva Engage, basic Viva Insights, basic Viva Learning (limited content).
• Viva Suite — the bundled add-on, including the premium versions of Connections, Engage, Insights, Learning, Goals, and Glint.
• Standalone modules are sold for tenants that want only specific Viva products.

The licensing model has been adjusted several times; check the current Microsoft Viva pricing page when planning.

Where Viva lives

Viva is delivered through Teams primarily. There's no separate "Viva" app for most users — Connections appears as a customised home in the Teams sidebar, Engage as a Teams app, Insights surfaces in Teams and Outlook, Learning in Teams.

For Viva Engage, the standalone web (engage.cloud.microsoft) and mobile apps also exist.

Where to start

For organisations new to Viva, a sensible adoption sequence:

1. Viva Connections — replace the existing intranet experience with the personalised Teams home.
2. Viva Engage — if you're already on Yammer, it's already there.
3. Viva Learning — turn it on with whatever content licences you already have.
4. Viva Insights — encourage personal productivity insights at the user level first.
5. Viva Goals — pilot with one or two leadership teams; expand if it sticks.

Not every Viva module fits every organisation. Viva is a menu, not a mandate — pick the parts that solve real problems.