Preparing for the Retirement of the Viva Connections Feed Web Part

By João Ferreira Aug 9, 2024 Microsoft Viva, Viva Connections 0 Comments

Starting September 1, 2024, Microsoft will retire the Feed for Viva Connections web part, a feature that was added to SharePoint when Viva Connections was first introduced. This web part provided a unified interface, aggregating relevant content for each user, but unfortunately, there is no direct replacement that offers the same comprehensive view.

To ensure you’re prepared for this change, I’ve put together this guide outlining the alternatives suggested by Microsoft. It’s crucial to analyze what each alternative displays and make the necessary adjustments to your Viva Connections SharePoint page before November 5, 2024. After this date, the Feed web part will no longer display content.

The Viva Connections feed provides targeted updates to users based on the sites and communities they follow in Microsoft 365. It is a great component to deliver relevant information to the intended recipients automatically.

Seamlessly integrated into Microsoft 365 it shows updates from the following applications:

1. Viva Engage – This includes posts to the organization community, posts to communities the user follows and features posts
2. SharePoint news – This includes news posted in the home site, organization news sites, communication sites, team sites and boosted news posts
3. Microsoft Stream – This includes videos shared as video news links in SharePoint organization news sites (this feature is also being retired in September)

Microsoft is recommending that site editors utilize web parts like News, Viva Engage, File and Media, Highlighted content, as well as video pages as alternatives. Below is a table comparing the data sources of the Feed web part with those from the recommended replacement web parts.

	Feed	News	Viva Engage	File and Media	Highlighted Content
SharePoint News	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Microsoft Stream	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Viva Engage	Yes	No	Yes	No	No

To complement the data sources the Feed web part also includes social engagement features with options to Like, Share and Bookmark content directly from the web part.

News web part

The News web part on SharePoint offers a versatile way to display a collection of news posts from various sources. You can customize the source of your news posts to fit your needs. Options include displaying news from the current site you’re working on, from a hub site that the current site is part of, or from one or more individual sites. Additionally, you can choose the “Recommended for current user” option, which curates posts specifically for the user based on their interactions, such as posts from colleagues, managers, top followed sites, and frequently visited sites. This flexibility ensures that users receive relevant and personalized news content.

If you are already using the new SharePoint Video Pages, the new web part will also display the stream content you publish a news post directly from the Stream application.

Viva Engage Conversation web part

The Viva Engage web parts on SharePoint is ideal for fostering user interaction by embedding Viva Engage conversations directly into your SharePoint page. This integration allows users to engage in discussions without leaving the page, leveraging the latest capabilities of Viva Engage. You can display conversations from a specific Viva Engage community, focus on a particular topic, or highlight all conversations that a specific person has participated in. This seamless experience ensures that users remain connected and engaged within the SharePoint environment.

However, this does not offer the same features as the Feed web part, where users are presented with relevant Viva Engage posts tailored to them, rather than predefined content set by the content editor. The Viva Engage web part does not displays any information from SharePoint News or Microsoft Stream videos.

File and Media web part

The File and Media web part on SharePoint is a versatile tool that allows you to display various types of content from different sources. You can showcase files from your SharePoint document libraries, and OneDrive. Additionally, it supports embedding media such as videos from Microsoft Stream.

While this web part can be configured to display Microsoft Stream Videos, it does not offer options to get data from Viva Engage or SharePoint news.

Highlighted Content web part

The File and Media web part on SharePoint is a versatile tool that allows you to display various types of content from different sources. You can showcase files from your SharePoint document libraries, OneDrive, or even upload new files directly. It supports embedding media in the SharePoint page however each web part displays only one file.

While this web part displays Microsoft Stream videos, the content is static and the content editor needs to edit it to modify what is visible to the end users.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Microsoft provides various web parts that can pull content from all the data sources used by the Feed web part, it is not possible to replicate the same functionality, even by combining multiple other web parts. The Feed web part’s unique ability to aggregate and display personalized, relevant posts in a single interface is unmatched. As you prepare for its retirement, it’s essential to explore the suggested alternatives and make the necessary adjustments to your Viva Connections SharePoint page to ensure a smooth transition.