Viva Connections brings us a dedicated app in Teams with our SharePoint Intranet. Microsoft released an upgraded app that provides easier installation together with desktop/mobile experience. The first version, which was released in March 2021, showed a desktop-only experience. Now we can take a look at the mobile side of the Viva Connections.
Let’s take a look at what’s inside the upgraded app:
- Microsoft app ready to use in Teams Store (no more PowerShell). We can also customize it in the Teams Admin Center.
- The app works with mobiles (with Dashboard, Feed, and Resources, more about that later)
- Dashboards that can be extended using SPFx or Adaptive Cards (YES!)
Keep in mind that it is still a Preview version. More features could be available when it’s released. Enable Preview in Teams!
How to start?
Before we can go and dig into Dashboards, cards, and other features we must prepare our tenant for Viva Connections.
Requirements:
- Enable Global navigation in SharePoint
- Prepare SharePoint site and make your home site
When we are ready we can go and add the app to our Teams.
Installing the app
You must have Teams Admin rights to enable the app for users.
Go to the Teams Admin Center and navigate to the Manage apps section. Now search for Viva connections.
Go inside the app.
Change status to Allowed. Now every user with Preview enabled in Teams can install the app!
This new app can be customized directly from the Admin Center. Click Action (top right) and edit settings.
What we can change here?
- Name
- App details
- Icon (you can upload your own)
- Colors
Install the app in Teams
In Teams go to the Teams Store and search for Viva Connections app (or the name that you created) and install the app. Simply as that.
When you open the app, you get your modern Intranet page created in SharePoint Online.
Mobile App
If you open Teams on your mobile device you will get the same app! Click on the app and you get your Intranet in mobile experience with 3 tabs – Dashboard, Feed, and Resources.
- Dashboard – This is a toolbox for employees. You can create a Dashboard using links, apps available in Teams, and custom extensions build in Spiff. The Dashboard can be designed for device type (mobile or desktop).
- Feed – Personalized feed with the information provided by SharePoint news, Stream, and Yammer. The feed can be targeted.
- Resources – Navigation from Global navigation can be targeted as well.
Create a Dashboard
To create a Dashboard, go to your home site and open settings.
In the settings, panel click on Set up Viva Connections (Preview)
In the Viva Connections pane click Create Dashboard.
Now you can create your first Dashboard. There are 3 modes available – Mobile, Tablet, and Desktop.
In each mode, you can create the Dashboard using cards. There 3 default cards:
- Web link card – A card redirects users to external or internal resources
- Assigned tasks card – A card shows all tasks assigned to a specific user
- Teams app card – Use existing Teams apps as a card
You can also create custom cards using Spiff with Adaptive Cards to cover custom scenarios and applications. Details are available on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/viva/overview-viva-connections.
When you publish your Dashboard, you can navigate to Teams on mobile and open the Connections app. You will get your custom Dashboard inside the app!
Summary
The upgraded app provides an easy installation and mobile experience. Using the mobile app and custom Dashboards can change your Intranet to a tailored app with information and apps needed by your users. No more long feeds/pages with information.
Custom web parts for Viva Connections Dashboard allow creating apps that suit specific needs. Apps can consume information from different systems, redirect to internal/external apps, and provide actions for users.
I’m excited about a version of the Connections app.
