💡 Our Technical Review in summary
Summary
- Overview: Microsoft is introducing “intelligent notifications” for Viva Engage Community Announcements. This change moves away from a broadcast-style delivery to a behavior-based approach intended to reduce notification fatigue.
- New Logic: Instead of sending notifications to all channels simultaneously, the system will analyze a user’s engagement behavior over the past 30 days to determine their preferred channel (Teams, Mobile Push, or Email).
- Timeline: The rollout began in mid-September 2025 and is expected to reach General Availability (GA) by February 6, 2026.
Impact
- Notification Delivery Change: Previously, announcements sent immediate Teams and Mobile Push alerts followed by an email 2 hours later. Under the new system, users receive a notification in only one channel initially. If the announcement is not opened within two hours, a secondary notification is sent via the next most relevant channel.
- Urgent Communications: The “Immediate” Community Announcement feature remains unchanged. If a Community Admin selects the “send emails immediately” checkbox, all three channels (Teams, Mobile, and Email) will still be triggered instantly, bypassing the smart delivery logic.
- User Preferences: The system will continue to respect individual user settings. If a user has disabled a specific notification channel or does not have the app installed, that channel will be excluded from the selection logic.
- Data Usage: The delivery logic utilizes the last 30 days of notification engagement data to personalize the experience. This is categorized as a modification to how customer data (behavioral data) is processed for communication delivery.
Action Required
- Educate Community Admins: Ensure that Community Managers and Admins are aware of this change. Emphasize that for critical, time-sensitive information, they must use the “Immediate email delivery” checkbox in the announcement publisher to ensure multi-channel delivery.
- Update Documentation: Update internal training materials or FAQs regarding Viva Engage to reflect that notifications may now appear on different devices/channels depending on the user’s recent activity.
- Monitor Feedback: Observe user engagement levels following the rollout to determine if the intelligent delivery is improving or hindering announcement visibility within your organization.
- Review Strategy: Re-align internal communication strategies to distinguish between “standard” updates (leveraging smart delivery) and “critical” updates (requiring immediate override).
Microsoft Official Update
Service: N/A
Category: planForChange
Severity: normal
Updated January 23, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction
We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It’s always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we’re rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user’s engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements.
When this will happen
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect the rollout to reach GA (General Availability) by February 6, 2026 (previously end of January).
How this affects your organization
Previously, when an admin created a new Community Announcement, this would send a notification in Teams and Mobile Push immediately, followed by an email notification two hours later if the announcement was not opened already in Teams and/or Mobile Push.
With this new update:
- Users will now receive the notification in one channel only—either Teams, Mobile Push, or Email. This notification channel may differ by user and is selected based on where a user has engaged with Engage notifications most frequently in the past 30 days.
- If the announcement is not opened within two hours in the first notification channel, a secondary notification channel will be sent, also determined by where a user engages with Engage notifications most frequently.
We will continue to respect all user notification preferences and settings where applicable. If a notification channel is disabled or the app is not installed, it will not be selected as a potential notification channel for the Community Announcement delivery.
Note that this change applies only to regular Community Announcements in Viva Engage and does not affect the “immediate” Community Announcement feature (where admins can still select the checkbox to send emails immediately —this functionality remains unchanged).
Can I still notify Community users via email immediately (along with other notification channels)?
Yes! In Viva Engage, we offer an option to send an “immediate” Community Announcement. With this feature, Community admins can choose to send email notifications immediately after posting a Community Announcement, even if a user has opted out of receiving emails. All other notification channels will also send immediately along with email, including Teams and Mobile Push. Therefore, we recommend admins to use this feature when there is a Community Announcement that requires immediate attention from users.
Community Admins can find this “immediate” Community Announcement option by firstly navigating to the announcement publisher and selecting the hyperlinked “option to send emails immediately” at the bottom of the publisher. Upon clicking this option, an additional pop-up box will open called “Immediate email delivery”. By selecting this checkbox, this will ensure that all three notification channels – Email, Teams, and Mobile Push – will send to customers immediately after a Community Announcement is made.
What you can do to prepare
No admin action is required. However, we recommend:
- Informing your users about the new notifications change to reduce confusion
- Monitoring user feedback and engagement with Community Announcements’ notifications delivery
- Reviewing internal communication strategies to align with the new notification’s behavior
| Compliance Area | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? | Yes. Notification delivery logic now uses user behavior data (last 30 days of notification engagement) to determine delivery channels. This data is used to personalize delivery but is not stored permanently. |
| Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data? | Yes. The system uses behavioral data to determine the most effective notification channel, which is a form of machine learning-based personalization. |
| Does the change provide a new way of communicating between users, tenants, or subscriptions? | Yes. The change modifies how users receive communications (Community Announcements) by introducing a dynamic, behavior-based delivery method. |
