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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 introduction 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.
New experiences for video and images in Viva Engage—showcasing media in the feed, post preview, and the immersive player with navigation to other media—will be available later this year 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.
[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’ll be able to record video that can include your webcam and/or screen recording.
You’ll also be able to use powerful new features of OneCamera 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
Editing a video from the publisher
Superpowered video and image experiences for Viva customers
We’re introducing a new layout that showcases your video and images directly in feeds and a new, immersive experience to view and navigate media.
Now, when you create a post where a video or image is the hero— meaning a post with one video or image and less than 200 characters of content—the media will automatically be showcased, like this post with a video:
[screenshot of video in feed]
This all happens automatically, but we’ve added a Preview command in the Post menu so you can see how your post will look before you share it.
When a video appears in a feed, it will play automatically when you hover over the video. You can click to open the video or image in the new, immersive player:
The player also lets you navigate to other videos and images. The carousel at the bottom of the player shows you the next (and previous) posts with hero videos and images.
Preview, general availability and licensing
The new buttons for uploading images and video, and recording video will ship next quarter, and will be available to all Viva Engage users at no extra charge.
Showcasing media in feeds, post preview, and the immersive player with navigation to other media—will be available later this year 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 by the end of the year for creators who have access to Microsoft Viva suite, or the new Viva Communications and Communities solution, which includes Viva Engage, Viva Amplify, Viva Connections, and now Answers in Viva. When a creator shares a video or image, the media will be showcased in feeds, and viewable in the immersive player, to all Viva Engage users regardless of subscription—the video or image will be showcased to everyone.
Learn more about what’s included in Microsoft Viva and Viva Engage here and stay tuned for more updates.