Viva Engage: Deactivate Private Messages

Reasons for deactivating private messages in Viva Engage

Viva Engage is a platform that promotes employee engagement, collaboration and well-being. It offers many features that improve communication within organizations. One of them is the ability to send private messages to other employees — useful for sharing information, giving feedback, or asking questions.

The use of private messages in Viva Engage should still be scrutinised case by case. Do you think the function is necessary? Are there other applications in Microsoft 365 that serve the purpose of a private message better? And can the function actually hurt communication within the company? This post shows which solutions have advantages over private messaging in Viva Engage, and how you deactivate the function.

Benefits for your internal communication when private messages are off

Important information becomes visible to all employees or teams in the right place. That increases the clarity and transparency of your communication.

It reduces the number of applications employees have to coordinate for internal communication, which raises efficiency and productivity.

Sensitive or confidential information is sent to the right people in the right application, which supports security and compliance.

Challenges posed by private messages in Viva Engage

Alongside Viva Engage, companies generally use several other applications for internal communication, such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online and Outlook. “Private messages” therefore reach employees across different applications. For example:

• Outlook: for emails on minor and major issues
• Microsoft Teams channels: to promote collaboration
• Microsoft Teams chat: for small and large questions or socialising
• SharePoint Online: for formal communication such as policies and events

The fragmentation of communication can lead to distraction and overload. It makes information hard to track and conversations hard to trace. It also takes more time and effort to pick the right application for each purpose and to keep a conversation going across channels. The chance of important information getting lost increases, and different formats and expectations undercut the consistency and quality of communication. If sensitive information goes to the wrong people or the wrong application, it jeopardises security and compliance.

Steps for deactivating private messages in Viva Engage

The change can only be made by a Viva Engage administrator or a global administrator. The option is not in the new Viva Engage admin centre — the administrator has to switch to the old Yammer admin centre. Click the gear icon in the top right and then “Switch to the old Yammer admin centre”. The Yammer admin centre can also be reached directly at https://www.yammer.com/{Tenant}/admin/success.

The function is then found in the “Network” tab under the “Security” section. Deactivate the “Private messages” checkbox and click “Save change” to complete it. After these steps, employees can no longer send or receive private messages in Viva Engage. Existing private messages are not deleted and can still be viewed in each employee’s inbox, but it is no longer possible to reply to those conversations.

Conclusion

Private messaging in Viva Engage can cause more problems than it solves. Switching it off is quick for anyone with the right administration rights in the old Yammer admin centre, and it can noticeably improve your communication landscape: more transparency, and better efficiency, consistency, security and compliance. For internal communication, alternatives such as Microsoft Teams or Outlook are often the better fit — whether for a quick exchange or a more formal discussion.