Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled its plans to ditch the Yammer brand in favor of Viva Engage. Now, the company has announced that the Yammer.com web experience has been renamed to Viva Engage.
Yammer was initially launched as a startup at a TechCrunch startup event back in 2008. It was designed to help organizations create internal social networks for employees. Microsoft acquired Yammer more than a decade ago for $1.2 billion. The company later integrated the enterprise-focused social networking tool with its core Office suite of products such as Microsoft Teams.
On the other hand, Viva Engage is a relatively new addition to the Viva employee experience platform. Microsoft described it as an “evolution” of the Yammer Communities app for Microsoft Teams, which provides “consumer-like social networking” features for organizations. Viva Engage is available within Microsoft Teams alongside other Microsoft Viva modules.
Microsoft explained that keeping two different social platforms was confusing for enterprise customers. So, the company is eliminating the Yammer brand and going all-in on Viva Engage instead. Microsoft noted that it has already renamed Outlook notifications, Yammer Embed, Yammer SharePoint web part, and Yammer mobile app to Viva Engage.
“When existing Yammer Desktop PWA users open the app, they’ll get a prompt asking them to reinstall the app. Users will have to click “OK” and the app will reinstall and renamed to “Viva Engage (Yammer)”. If the prompt doesn’t display the Engage logo and shows the Yammer logo, users will have to uninstall the app and reinstall it again,” Microsoft explained.
Yammer URLs domains and APIs won’t be rebranded until late 2023
Lastly, Microsoft says that this change won’t affect the Yammer URLs and APIs until the end of 2023. For now, the company will automatically redirect Yammer URLs to the new Viva Engage experience.
Microsoft plans to hold a virtual event called “Viva Engage and Yammer Rebranding: What’s Next” on July 11, 2023, at 9:00 AM PT. The company will discuss the next phase of the rebranding and new features coming to Viva Engage.