Microsoft Viva is a hybrid experience office that combines communication, learning, and insights. The Viva suite is available on Microsoft Teams and acts as a launchpad for four main features: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics. Like Microsoft Teams, Viva is available on Microsoft 365 and syncs with Office and other apps. However, Teams is an equally capable collaboration platform, available in the Microsoft 365 suite. Read on to discover the differences and how each product helps your business.
What is Microsoft Viva?
Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform (EXP), which means that it focuses on improving your employee’s online work experience. With Microsoft Viva, your company can access office resources to learn and manage work at their own pace wherever they are. The platform works like intranets, allowing organizations to access knowledge within the hub and learn from each other.
Viva Connections
Viva Connections brings company communications and cultures to one accessible platform on the desktop and phone. Connections is available on Microsoft Teams, where users can collaborate, talk, and chat in one place. Employees can link directly into Viva Connections from Teams for quick links to documents, recommended company news, search and share content.
Viva Topics
Viva Topics helps you organize company knowledge through AI. Topics compiles information through keywords and phrases, allowing you to easily access information from different sites, files, and platforms.
People can access information such as blogs, company news, courses, files and connect with experts internally. In addition, the hovering functions and search features make it easier to learn more about the organization.
Viva Insights
Viva Insights helps you improve productivity and management by using data. With Insights, you can protect your working time by setting productivity modes, setting work time, taking breaks on Headspace, and disconnecting after work through virtual commutes. Managers can also use Insights to identify employee strengths, send them praises, set ‘no meeting’ days, and assign tasks based on productive hours.
Viva Learning
Viva Learning brings all learning resources to one central hub. Users can find information and share learning resources. You can add courses from internal groups and external platforms such as Coursera, edX, LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learning, and other third-party content providers. The AI-powered platform also recommends other learning resources based on your topic searches.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a collaborative app that helps groups meet, chat, collaborate, and call each other, all within the Microsoft ecosystem. You can set up focused channels, connect to Office apps and storage to share files, enable voice and video calls, and create an immersive webinar experience.
Users can share presentations by sharing screens while using the chat feature to respond to comments and messages during live meetings and webinars. You can also link to Microsoft Whiteboard and draw on the same digital canvas across different devices.
Microsoft Teams also merge calls and easily add people to conversations, transfer calls between your mobile phone and laptop without interruption, transcribe calls and conversations for accessibility and easy follow-up.
Teams also offers breakout rooms, a feature that allows users to set up meetings in virtual spaces resembling auditoriums and coffee shops instead of using the standard dynamic layout. Meeting organizers can also organize breakout rooms during meetings and allow participants to move within multiple breakout rooms.
| Feature / Function | Microsoft Viva | Microsoft Teams |
|---|---|---|
| Learning | Viva Learning brings learning resources into one hub. Users can also access learning resources on Teams and vice versa. | Teams helps you set up virtual meetings and classes with Whiteboards and chats and create immersive webinars for your audience |
| Microsoft 365 | Connect with Microsoft 365 applications. | Connect with Microsoft 365 applications. |
| Personal Insights | Use Viva Insights to plan your productivity hours, set up productivity moods with music, take breaks on headspace, set no-meeting days, track employee strengths, and set virtual commute hours when you can’t work. Leaders can also use data insights to improve employee management. | Launch Viva Insights via Teams to manage your personal productivity hours, set work moods, take breaks, and set virtual commute hours. Leaders, managers, and teachers can also use Insights on Teams to catch up on student and group activity. |
| Calls | While you cannot set up calls on Viva, you can connect to Viva features from Teams. With one click, you can share files and links from the Viva suite. | Set up voice and video calls, record calls, set up transcription, merge calls, and adjust video calls settings such as backgrounds and breakout rooms. |
| Chats | Set up chats to ensure fast conversations. Users can access chat histories, share files in chats, chat during meetings, and also @ each other to respond to individuals in group chats. |
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| Find information | Viva Topics helps you search for information automatically within one hub. It compiles short descriptions about resources and information about the people working on a piece of knowledge. Users can save valuable time taken when they step outside the work environment to search for information. | Viva Topics helps you search for information automatically within one hub. It compiles short descriptions about resources and information about the people working on a piece of knowledge. As a result, users can save valuable time taken when they step outside the work environment to search for information. |
Microsoft Viva versus Microsoft Teams. Which Is Right For You?
If you are looking for a hybrid collaboration platform for business, Viva and Teams are great options. However, both platforms serve different purposes and work together to produce the best results.
With the Viva suite, you can give your group a better experience, combine knowledge, improve navigation, and productivity management. Viva is great for large and small organizations with knowledge hubs, and want a central hub where they can promote employee learning and information organization.
However, you need Teams to collaborate through real-time calls and chats. Teams is, therefore, necessary to enable quick and efficient meetings and communication between people. Fortunately, you can move between platforms for maximum productivity.
What’s more, both Microsoft Viva and Microsoft Teams are part of the Microsoft 365 suite and Office 365 plans. In conclusion, with Viva and Teams, employers and groups can enjoy a better hybrid environment for remote work.
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