Over time, Viva Engage has rapidly grown to support more ways to connect, communicate, and manage communities. But as capabilities expanded, so did the number of places users had to look. Customers told us they were encountering duplicate paths, crowded community pages, and navigation that felt confusing. We heard one message consistently across channels: simplify the experience.
This change is now reaching customers. The initial phase includes Engage navigation and layout refresh, bringing a cleaner, more consistent experience to Engage on the web and in the Engage app on Microsoft Teams. It keeps conversations and community engagement front and center, aligns Engage with modern Microsoft design patterns, and adapts better to the size of the user’s screen. The UI becomes consistent for right panel on all web pages, and a community’s right panel forms purpose-driven groups that show up only when relevant. The changes are enabled by default, with no configurations required by administrators.
What’s changing now
We’re simplifying the Viva Engage experience to make navigation more intuitive and reduce clutter. These changes help community members find information more easily while giving community admins a cleaner, more streamlined management experience. We’ve highlighted a few of the changes below!
Consistent right panel on all pages – A more consistent right-side panel experience across pages, with similar styling and iconography. This applies to Home feed, Leaders, Answers, Community and Storyline pages. Sharing below an example of the Home feed with the new right panel.
Layout improvements – Better use of screen space on the web with adaptable sizes of center and right panes based on screen size.
Consolidation of community modules on the right panel – Community content is organized in one destination on the right panel instead of across tabs and right panel. Please note that header tabs for About, Events, and Files are now removed, and those modules will be accessible directly through the right panel. The right panel has 4 purpose-driven modules split by a divider: what the community is, what admins need, what is happening right now, and the resources people come back for.
Community Members can view the modules that are populated.
Empty state modules hidden – Only relevant and modules with content appear. Modules with nothing will be hidden by default until content has been added by community admin.
Dedicated experiences for specific features – Following the principle of progressive disclosure, the right panel provides a sneak peek of relevant capabilities in the community, with more room for users to discover or work with events, campaigns or other features through dedicated full-page experiences. Below is an example of a dedicated page for Info and related communities, accessed with the action “View all” in right panel.
Community Management in one place – All actions related to management of a community resides in a single destination with multiple tabs – managing members/experts, settings, and agents. This is accessible through people in the right panel or the existing settings button.
Frequently asked questions
How do I access the tabs: About, Files, and Events?
Duplication to navigate common modules across the header tabs and the right panel has been removed. All modules are now accessible through the right panel only. Members, Info, Events and Related communities when populated in a community, show up in the right panel. Files can also be accessed through the ‘Pinned links and files’ module in the right panel.
Where did files go?
Files remain accessible, but through a different path requiring an additional click. This is an intentional change due to prior customer feedback on users accidentally messing the community’s files. Moving files to a dedicated Files experience makes it easier to manage content thoughtfully and helps prevent accidental deletions.
To access Files, find the right panel module ‘Pinned links and files’, click on ‘View all’ and switch to the ‘Files’ tab to see all files shared in the community. Please note that files are hidden entirely if it is toggled off in the community settings; we continue to honor prior settings.
Importantly, existing permissions haven’t changed. The same people who could add, share, or delete files before can continue to do so.
What’s going away?
As part of this update, we’re retiring two features that saw very little usage: Community Resources and the Intelligent Importer. Community members can continue to access their SharePoint document library from the Files tab, and as a workaround, communities that actively used the SharePoint document library, site, Planner or OneNote links, can pin them in the Pinned links section in the community. The Intelligent Importer module, which helped seed questions and answers, is being retired from the right panel. However, it can still be accessed in a new community through the new community user experience.
How do I access the SharePoint library for a community?
- In the right panel, find the module ‘Pinned links and files’, select ‘View all’ and switch to the Files tab.
- Click on the “Share” or “Copy link” and open in new Web tab.
Note – The Files tab only shows up when it is toggled on in the community settings, else it is hidden.
Where will we see these changes?
These changes are visible on Viva Engage on the web and to the Viva Engage app in Microsoft Teams. Communities in the Teams chat experience are not changing in this phase, but is intended to follow soon.
What’s staying the same?
Your content, communities, licensing, and permissions are unchanged. Posting and replying, joining communities, following storylines, and creating events, campaigns, and communities all work the way they do today.
Rollout timing
The first phase started rolling out in the end of July and will be complete by the end of August 2026. Message center post MC1384422 in the Microsoft 365 admin center has the administrator-facing details.
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Availability |
What’s included |
Timeline |
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Now available – right panel and layout changes |
A consistent right-side panel, a better-fitting web layout, simplified community navigation, a dedicated membership page, and the retirement of two low-use modules. |
Began July 2026, expected to complete by end-August 2026 |
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Coming next – left navigation enhancements |
A collapsible, resizable left navigation, and removal of limits to number of favorites. |
Dates to be announced |
Tips for admins and communicators
- Let your community admins know of the changes to the page layout and navigation experience.
- Refresh internal help content and screenshots that point to the old community tabs and modules.
What’s coming next
Our next focus (Phase 2) will be on the left navigation. It can be collapsed/expanded and resized in width, so as to give more focus to the conversation feed when needed. Favorites will be enhanced to have no item limit, and can be reordered with simple drag-and-drop functionality. We’re still finalizing timing and will share more when the details are ready.
This refresh started with customer feedback, and we want that conversation to continue. Once you have explored the new layout, tell us what feels easier, where you still encounter friction, and what you would simplify next. Share your experience in the comments or join the conversation in the Engage customer community, your feedback will help shape what comes next.