check before: 2025-09-15
Product:
Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Viva Engage, Teams
Platform:
mobile, Online, World tenant
Status:
Change type:
Admin impact, Feature update, Updated message, User impact
Links:
Details:
Summary:
Microsoft Viva Engage is updating Community Announcement notifications to use a smarter, behavior-based delivery system. Users will receive notifications through their most engaged channel first, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. Rollout begins mid-September 2025, completing by January 2026.
Details:
Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction
We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements.
When this will happen
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect the rollout to reach GA (General Availability) by end of January 2026.
Change Category:
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Scope:
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Release Phase:
Created:
2025-08-28
updated:
2025-12-05
Task Type
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Docu to Check
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MS How does it affect me
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MS Urgency
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MS workload name
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summary for non-techies**
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Direct effects for Operations**
Notification Delivery Changes
Users may miss important announcements if they are not engaged with the selected notification channel, leading to potential delays in receiving critical information.
- roles: Community Admin, End User
- references: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/12/04/updated-microsoft-viva-engage-smarter-delivery-of-community-announcement-notifications/
User Confusion
Users may be confused by the new notification system, leading to frustration and decreased engagement with Community Announcements.
- roles: End User, IT Support
- references: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/12/04/updated-microsoft-viva-engage-smarter-delivery-of-community-announcement-notifications/
Increased Monitoring Needs
Admins will need to monitor user feedback and engagement more closely to ensure the new system is functioning as intended, which may require additional resources.
- roles: Community Admin, IT Operations
- references: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/12/04/updated-microsoft-viva-engage-smarter-delivery-of-community-announcement-notifications/
Configutation Options**
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Opportunities**
Enhanced User Engagement
The new behavior-based notification system will help reduce notification fatigue, ensuring users receive important announcements through their preferred channels. This can lead to higher engagement rates and better communication within teams.
- next-steps: Conduct user surveys to assess current engagement levels and gather feedback on the new notification system. Analyze data post-implementation to measure changes in user engagement and satisfaction.
- roles: Community Admins, HR Managers, Team Leaders
- references: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/engage" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/engage, https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/announcing-microsoft-viva-engage/ba-p/3100156
Improved Communication Strategy
With the new notification logic, organizations can refine their internal communication strategies based on user engagement data. This allows for targeted communication that resonates with users, enhancing overall information dissemination.
- next-steps: Review existing communication policies and align them with the new notification behaviors. Develop training materials for admins to effectively communicate changes to users.
- roles: Communication Managers, IT Administrators, Community Admins
- references: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/09/29/how-to-improve-internal-communication-in-your-organization/, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/engage" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/engage
Data-Driven Insights for IT Operations
The use of behavioral data for notification delivery can provide insights into user preferences and engagement patterns. This information can be leveraged to improve IT operations and tailor services to better meet user needs.
- next-steps: Implement analytics tools to track user engagement with announcements and notifications. Regularly review these insights to adapt IT services and support based on user behavior.
- roles: IT Managers, Data Analysts, Community Admins
- references: https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/engage" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/engage
Potentional Risks**
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Data Protection**
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IT Security**
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Hypothetical Work Council Statement**
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DPIA Draft**
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explanation for non-techies**
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change history
| Date | Property | old | new |
| 2025-12-05 | MC Messages | Updated November 20, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect the rollout to continue in the coming few months. We will share an update on the final GA date once that becomes available. | Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect the rollout to reach GA (General Availability) by end of January 2026. |
| 2025-12-05 | MC How Affect | Previously, when an admin created a new Community Announcement, this would send a notification in Teams and Mobile Push immediately, followed by an email notification two hours later if the announcement was not opened already in Teams and/or Mobile Push. With this new update:
Users will now receive the notification in one channel only-either Teams, Mobile Push, or Email. This notification channel may differ by user and is selected based on where a user has opened Engage notifications most frequently in the past 30 days. If the announcement is not opened within two hours in the first notification channel, a secondary notification channel will be sent, also determined by where a user opens Engage notifications most frequently. We will continue to respect all user notification preferences and settings where applicable. If a notification channel is disabled or the app is not installed, it will not be selected as a potential notification channel for the Community Announcement delivery. Note that this change applies only to regular Community Announcements in Viva Engage and does not affect the "immediate" Community Announcement feature (where admins can still select the checkbox to send emails immediately -this functionality remains unchanged). Can I still notify Community users via email immediately (along with other notification channels)? Yes! In Viva Engage, we offer an option to send an "immediate" Community Announcement. With this feature, Community admins can choose to send email notifications immediately after posting a Community Announcement, even if a user has opted out of receiving emails. All other notification channels will also send immediately along with email, including Teams and Mobile Push. Therefore, we recommend admins to use this feature when there is a Community Announcement that requires immediate attention from users. Community Admins can find this "immediate" Community Announcement option by firstly navigating to the announcement publisher and selecting the hyperlinked "option to send emails immediately" at the bottom of the publisher. Upon clicking this option, an additional pop-up box will open called "Immediate email delivery". By selecting this checkbox, this will ensure that all three notification channels - Email, Teams, and Mobile Push - will send to customers immediately after a Community Announcement is made. What you can do to prepare No admin action is required. However, we recommend: Informing your users about the new notifications change to reduce confusion Monitoring user feedback and engagement with Community Announcements' notifications delivery Reviewing internal communication strategies to align with the new notification's behavior Compliance AreaExplanation Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed?Yes. Notification delivery logic now uses user behavior data (last 30 days of notification engagement) to determine delivery channels. This data is used to personalize delivery but is not stored permanently. Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data?Yes. The system uses behavioral data to determine the most effective notification channel, which is a form of machine learning-based personalization. Does the change provide a new way of communicating between users, tenants, or subscriptions?Yes. The change modifies how users receive communications (Community Announcements) by introducing a dynamic, behavior-based delivery method. | Previously, when an admin created a new Community Announcement, this would send a notification in Teams and Mobile Push immediately, followed by an email notification two hours later if the announcement was not opened already in Teams and/or Mobile Push. With this new update:
Users will now receive the notification in one channel only-either Teams, Mobile Push, or Email. This notification channel may differ by user and is selected based on where a user has engaged with Engage notifications most frequently in the past 30 days. If the announcement is not opened within two hours in the first notification channel, a secondary notification channel will be sent, also determined by where a user engages with Engage notifications most frequently. We will continue to respect all user notification preferences and settings where applicable. If a notification channel is disabled or the app is not installed, it will not be selected as a potential notification channel for the Community Announcement delivery. Note that this change applies only to regular Community Announcements in Viva Engage and does not affect the "immediate" Community Announcement feature (where admins can still select the checkbox to send emails immediately -this functionality remains unchanged). Can I still notify Community users via email immediately (along with other notification channels)? Yes! In Viva Engage, we offer an option to send an "immediate" Community Announcement. With this feature, Community admins can choose to send email notifications immediately after posting a Community Announcement, even if a user has opted out of receiving emails. All other notification channels will also send immediately along with email, including Teams and Mobile Push. Therefore, we recommend admins to use this feature when there is a Community Announcement that requires immediate attention from users. Community Admins can find this "immediate" Community Announcement option by firstly navigating to the announcement publisher and selecting the hyperlinked "option to send emails immediately" at the bottom of the publisher. Upon clicking this option, an additional pop-up box will open called "Immediate email delivery". By selecting this checkbox, this will ensure that all three notification channels - Email, Teams, and Mobile Push - will send to customers immediately after a Community Announcement is made. What you can do to prepare No admin action is required. However, we recommend: Informing your users about the new notifications change to reduce confusion Monitoring user feedback and engagement with Community Announcements' notifications delivery Reviewing internal communication strategies to align with the new notification's behavior Compliance AreaExplanation Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed?Yes. Notification delivery logic now uses user behavior data (last 30 days of notification engagement) to determine delivery channels. This data is used to personalize delivery but is not stored permanently. Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data?Yes. The system uses behavioral data to determine the most effective notification channel, which is a form of machine learning-based personalization. Does the change provide a new way of communicating between users, tenants, or subscriptions?Yes. The change modifies how users receive communications (Community Announcements) by introducing a dynamic, behavior-based delivery method. |
| 2025-12-05 | MC Last Updated | 11/20/2025 18:11:25 | 2025-12-04T23:26:10Z |
| 2025-12-05 | MC End Time | 01/30/2026 09:00:00 | 2026-03-02T09:00:00Z |
| 2025-12-05 | MC Summary | Microsoft Viva Engage will roll out smarter Community Announcement notifications starting mid-September 2025, delivering alerts via one preferred channel based on user behavior, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate multi-channel email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. No admin action is required. | Microsoft Viva Engage is updating Community Announcement notifications to use a smarter, behavior-based delivery system. Users will receive notifications through their most engaged channel first, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. Rollout begins mid-September 2025, completing by January 2026. |
| 2025-11-21 | MC Last Updated | 09/04/2025 22:26:57 | 2025-11-20T18:11:25Z |
| 2025-11-21 | MC Messages | Updated September 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline and content. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect to complete the rollout by early November 2025. | Updated November 20, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect the rollout to continue in the coming few months. We will share an update on the final GA date once that becomes available. |
| 2025-11-21 | MC End Time | 12/31/2025 09:00:00 | 2026-01-30T09:00:00Z |
| 2025-11-21 | MC Summary | Microsoft Viva Engage is updating Community Announcement notifications to use a smarter, behavior-based delivery system starting mid-September 2025. Users will receive notifications via their most engaged channel first, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. No admin action is required. | Microsoft Viva Engage will roll out smarter Community Announcement notifications starting mid-September 2025, delivering alerts via one preferred channel based on user behavior, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate multi-channel email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. No admin action is required. |
| 2025-09-05 | MC Messages | Updated September 3, 2025: We have updated the timeline and content. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect to complete the rollout by the early November 2025. | Updated September 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline and content. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect to complete the rollout by early November 2025. |
| 2025-09-05 | MC Last Updated | 09/03/2025 23:22:22 | 2025-09-04T22:26:57Z |
| 2025-09-05 | MC Summary | Microsoft Viva Engage will roll out smarter Community Announcement notifications from mid-September to early November 2025, delivering alerts via one preferred channel based on user behavior, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate multi-channel email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. No admin action is required. | Microsoft Viva Engage is updating Community Announcement notifications to use a smarter, behavior-based delivery system starting mid-September 2025. Users will receive notifications via their most engaged channel first, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. No admin action is required. |
| 2025-09-04 | MC MessageTagNames | Feature update, User impact, Admin impact | Updated message, Feature update, User impact, Admin impact |
| 2025-09-04 | MC Summary | Microsoft Viva Engage will roll out smarter Community Announcement notifications in September 2025, delivering alerts via the user's most engaged channel (Teams, Mobile Push, or Email) to reduce notification fatigue. Secondary notifications follow if unopened. This uses recent user behavior data and respects notification preferences. | Microsoft Viva Engage will roll out smarter Community Announcement notifications from mid-September to early November 2025, delivering alerts via one preferred channel based on user behavior, with a secondary channel if unopened. Immediate multi-channel email notifications remain available for urgent announcements. No admin action is required. |
| 2025-09-04 | MC Last Updated | 08/27/2025 23:41:49 | 2025-09-03T23:22:22Z |
| 2025-09-04 | MC Messages | Introduction
We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in early September 2025 and expect to complete the rollout by the end of September 2025. | Updated September 3, 2025: We have updated the timeline and content. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It's always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we're rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user's engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. When this will happen General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect to complete the rollout by the early November 2025. |
| 2025-09-04 | MC Title | Microsoft Viva Engage: Smarter delivery of Community Announcement notifications | (Updated) Microsoft Viva Engage: Smarter delivery of Community Announcement notifications |
| 2025-09-04 | MC How Affect | Previously, when an admin created a new Community Announcement, this would send a notification in Teams and Mobile Push immediately, followed by an email notification two hours later if the announcement was not opened already in Teams and/or Mobile Push. With this new update:
Users will now receive the notification in one channel only-either Teams, Mobile Push, or Email. This notification channel may differ by user and is selected based on where a user has opened Engage notifications most frequently in the past 30 days. If the announcement is not opened within two hours in the first notification channel, a secondary notification channel will be sent, also determined by where a user opens Engage notifications most frequently. We will continue to respect all user notification preferences and settings where applicable. If a notification channel is disabled or the app is not installed, it will not be selected as a potential notification channel for the Community Announcement delivery. Note that this change applies only to regular Community Announcements in Viva Engage and does not affect the "essential" Community Announcement feature (where admins can still select the checkbox to send emails immediately -this functionality remains unchanged). What you can do to prepare No admin action is required. However, we recommend: Informing your users about the new notifications change to reduce confusion Monitoring user feedback and engagement with Community Announcements' notifications delivery Reviewing internal communication strategies to align with the new notification's behavior Compliance AreaExplanation Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed?Yes. Notification delivery logic now uses user behavior data (last 30 days of notification engagement) to determine delivery channels. This data is used to personalize delivery but is not stored permanently. Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data?Yes. The system uses behavioral data to determine the most effective notification channel, which is a form of machine learning-based personalization. Does the change provide a new way of communicating between users, tenants, or subscriptions?Yes. The change modifies how users receive communications (Community Announcements) by introducing a dynamic, behavior-based delivery method. | Previously, when an admin created a new Community Announcement, this would send a notification in Teams and Mobile Push immediately, followed by an email notification two hours later if the announcement was not opened already in Teams and/or Mobile Push. With this new update:
Users will now receive the notification in one channel only-either Teams, Mobile Push, or Email. This notification channel may differ by user and is selected based on where a user has opened Engage notifications most frequently in the past 30 days. If the announcement is not opened within two hours in the first notification channel, a secondary notification channel will be sent, also determined by where a user opens Engage notifications most frequently. We will continue to respect all user notification preferences and settings where applicable. If a notification channel is disabled or the app is not installed, it will not be selected as a potential notification channel for the Community Announcement delivery. Note that this change applies only to regular Community Announcements in Viva Engage and does not affect the "immediate" Community Announcement feature (where admins can still select the checkbox to send emails immediately -this functionality remains unchanged). Can I still notify Community users via email immediately (along with other notification channels)? Yes! In Viva Engage, we offer an option to send an "immediate" Community Announcement. With this feature, Community admins can choose to send email notifications immediately after posting a Community Announcement, even if a user has opted out of receiving emails. All other notification channels will also send immediately along with email, including Teams and Mobile Push. Therefore, we recommend admins to use this feature when there is a Community Announcement that requires immediate attention from users. Community Admins can find this "immediate" Community Announcement option by firstly navigating to the announcement publisher and selecting the hyperlinked "option to send emails immediately" at the bottom of the publisher. Upon clicking this option, an additional pop-up box will open called "Immediate email delivery". By selecting this checkbox, this will ensure that all three notification channels - Email, Teams, and Mobile Push - will send to customers immediately after a Community Announcement is made. What you can do to prepare No admin action is required. However, we recommend: Informing your users about the new notifications change to reduce confusion Monitoring user feedback and engagement with Community Announcements' notifications delivery Reviewing internal communication strategies to align with the new notification's behavior Compliance AreaExplanation Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed?Yes. Notification delivery logic now uses user behavior data (last 30 days of notification engagement) to determine delivery channels. This data is used to personalize delivery but is not stored permanently. Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data?Yes. The system uses behavioral data to determine the most effective notification channel, which is a form of machine learning-based personalization. Does the change provide a new way of communicating between users, tenants, or subscriptions?Yes. The change modifies how users receive communications (Community Announcements) by introducing a dynamic, behavior-based delivery method. |
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