Viva Connections, part of Microsoft Viva, is your gateway to a modern employee experience. The Viva connections app incorporates a customizable dashboard, the feed, and relevant resources all in one experience in the Microsoft Teams desktop and mobile app.

This Public preview release includes the ability to:

1. Set a SharePoint home site from the SharePoint admin center
2. Create, author, and manage a dashboard from the home site
3. Use Video news links to communicate announcements
4. Use the new Dashboard and Feed web parts on the home site
5. Brand the Viva Connections app for the desktop and mobile experiences for Android and iOS

Note: The preview is off by default and requires admin configuration to enable.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 86542

When this will happen

The Viva Connections Public preview release will begin rolling out starting September 9th and is expected to be completely rollout by September 20th.

Note: Many customers will notice that certain Viva Connections features will become available in SharePoint before the Viva connections app can be enabled in Teams. It’s recommended that you prepare for Viva Connections now but plan to enable the full experience in the Teams admin center after September 20th.

How this will affect your organization

The Viva connections app in Microsoft Teams will be blocked by default. A Teams admin can enable and customize the Viva Connections app in the Teams admin center once a home site in SharePoint has been designated and the dashboard has been published.

Set up home site from the SharePoint admin center

A home site can now be set from the SharePoint admin center instead of using PowerShell. From this home site, a dashboard can be created and configured for use in the Viva Connections app. Learn more about setting up a home site from SharePoint admin center.

Set up the Viva Connections dashboard for the first time

Once you’ve set your home site, you can create the Viva Connections dashboard from the home site’s settings panel. Then, create custom dashboard cards that are targeted to help employees find relevant resources and complete essential tasks.

Microsoft also recommends use of the Viva Connections Extensibility for building even more engaging custom experiences for your dashboard.

Use Video news links to communicate with your organization

Videos are an engaging way to reach users in your organization. Videos hosted on SharePoint sites can be published as Video news links from any SharePoint organizational news site. Video news links will appear in the Viva Connections Feed. Learn more about Video news links.

Use the new Dashboard and Feed web parts on the home site

Once you’ve set up the dashboard, you can use the Dashboard web part on the home site to surface Viva Connections content in SharePoint. Use the Feed web part on the home site to display a personalized list of conversations and news across the organization.

Customize Viva Connections branding for the desktop and mobile experience

In the Teams admin center, upload the logo or icon your organization would like to use for the Viva Connections experience. This logo or icon will appear in the Teams app bar for both desktop and mobile. Clicking on that logo will launch the Viva connections experience.

What you need to do to prepare

Viva Connections is an optional application that brings news, resources, and tasks into one place. Microsoft recommend that you plan to build and deploy your Viva Connections app as a part of your organization’s employee experience.

Review the Viva Connections overview where you will learn how to prepare your tenant and find step-by-step guidance on how to deploy Viva Connections for your organization.

Microsoft is currently rolling out SharePoint app bar and Global navigation to SharePoint online tenants. By default the home icon in app bar is linked to the SharePoint start page. To change this behavior, you need to enable the global navigation. Enabling and customizing global navigation in SharePoint requires a home site.

SharePoint online home site is also required to use Microsoft Viva connections in Microsoft Teams desktop client.

So, if you are planning to customize the global navigation or use Microsoft Viva connections in Microsoft Teams, first you have to set up a home site for your SharePoint online tenant. Home site is a SharePoint site that you create and set as the top landing page for all users in your intranet. You can set only one SharePoint site as a home site which must be a communication site.

Steps to set a site as your home site

1. Create a communication site to set it as the home site or use existing communication site.
2. Customize the communication site by adding navigation, header, footer, site logo, news, events and other web parts as per your requirements and brand.
3. Use PowerShell commands to set a communication site as the home site.

Use PowerShell to set a communication site as the home site

After you create and customize the communication site that you want to use as your home site, you need to run a PowerShell commands to set it as your home site. To run this commands, you must be a global admin or SharePoint admin in your Microsoft 365 tenant.

Using SharePoint Online PowerShell

1. Download the latest version of SharePoint Online Management Shell.

2. Connect to SharePoint admin site as a global admin or SharePoint admin using below command:

Connect-SPOService -Url https://<tenant>-admin.sharepoint.com

3. Run below command to set a communication site as the home site:

Set-SPOHomeSite -HomeSiteUrl https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<communicationsite>

Using PnP PowerShell

You can use PnP PowerShell Set-PnPHomeSite command to set the home site for your SharePoint tenant.

Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://<tenant>-admin.sharepoint.com/ -Interactive
Set-PnPHomeSite -HomeSiteUrl "https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<communicationsite>"

Using CLI for Microsoft 365

You can use CLI for Microsoft 365 spo homesite set command to set the specified communication site as the Home Site.

m365 login
m365 spo homesite set --siteUrl https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<communicationsite>

Points to remember

• Only one communication site can be set as the home site.
• Search scope for the site will be changed to tenant-wide search.
• The site will be automatically set up as an organization news site.
• The first time you set up a home site, it might take up to several minutes for the changes to take effect.
• If you run the above command again to switch your home site to a different site, it might take up to 2 hours.
• Home site can be registered as a hub site, but it can’t be associated with a hub.

Unregister a home site from your tenant

If you have registered a site as a home site in your tenant previously and now you don’t want to have any home site in your tenant, you need to run the following PowerShell command with administrator privileges:

Remove-SPOHomeSite

This removes the current SharePoint Online Home Site setting. Note that you do not need to specify the URL of your home site.

Learn more

• Set up a SharePoint home site from the SharePoint admin center
• Set SharePoint site home page using PnP PowerShell and CLI for Microsoft 365
• Set SharePoint site home page using PnP PowerShell and CLI for Microsoft 365
• SharePoint Online: Empty Recycle Bin using PnP PowerShell
• Change SharePoint Online List URL using PnP PowerShell
• Update SharePoint Page Banner Image using PnP PowerShell
• Add/Update image columns in SharePoint/Microsoft Lists using PnP PowerShell
• SharePoint Online: Apply JSON View formatting using PnP PowerShell
• SharePoint Online: Apply JSON View formatting using CLI for Microsoft 365