M365 Changelog: Pin External Resources to Viva Topics Topic Pages

MC394843 — Topics contributors of Viva Topics will now be able to pin external resources to their topic pages. Previously, contributors could only link to sites and pages within SharePoint. The Viva Topics product team is aware that relevant topic content often lives outside of SharePoint and wants to bridge the gap between that knowledge and their Viva Topics.  

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 93204

When this will happen:

This update was tested in our Preview ring and will begin rollout in late June and will be rollout out completely by early July. 

How this will affect your organization:

With this update, you will now be able to connect knowledge and content that lives outside of SharePoint (examples- WordPress, Wikipedia, etc.). The pinned external resources will behave the same as any other pinned resources on a topic. The topic card and topic answer will continue to surface the top pinned resources.

Note: Permissions on external resources are not checked and pinned external resources will be displayed to anyone who has access to that topic. 

Topics end users will have a richer knowledge experience with Viva Topics.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update your training and documentation as appropriate.