Microsoft Viva Engage: Flexible targeting of Storyline Announcements

We're introducing more flexible and precise audience targeting in Viva Engage, starting with Storyline Announcements. This update allows leaders and their delegates to define a custom audience at the time of posting—without relying on pre-configured Leader Audiences. Audiences can include organizational attributes (such as reporting structure, country, department, job title), existing groups (Microsoft 365 Groups, DLs, SGs), or individual users by name. This flexibility enables more timely, targeted communication, helping leaders reach the right people with the right message. Notifications and delivery channels (such as Teams, email) will continue to follow existing Storyline Announcement behavior, ensuring a seamless experience for recipients.

This feature is ideal for leaders who want to tailor communications to specific departments, locations, or existing groups, enhancing relevance and engagement across the organization.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 499895.

When this will happen:

• Public Preview (Worldwide): Begins mid-November 2025 and completes by early February 2026.
• General Availability (Worldwide): Begins early February 2026 and completes by early March 2026.

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected: Leaders and delegates using Viva Engage Storyline Announcements in tenants enrolled in public preview.

What will happen:

• This capability is being introduced as part of the public preview for Viva Engage. During this phase, leaders and their delegates can actively experiment with flexible audience targeting for Storyline Announcements—defining a custom audience at the time of posting, rather than relying solely on pre‑configured Leader Audiences.
• Audiences can include organizational attributes (such as reporting structure, country, department, job title), existing groups (Microsoft 365 Groups, DLs, SGs), or individual users.
• Notifications and delivery channels (Teams, email, Viva Engage Inbox) remain unchanged for recipients.
• No dependency on IT or advance audience setup—leaders can act immediately when communication needs arise.
• Available only in public preview; functionality and targeting options may evolve before general availability.
• Admins should ensure organizational attributes in Entra ID or Organizational Data in Microsoft are accurate to support successful targeting.
• Available platforms: Desktop and web.
• Licensing requirements: This feature requires a premium license available through Viva or Communications and Communities (C&C). Availability may vary depending on your organization's Microsoft 365 licensing agreement.

What you can do to prepare:

No admin action is required for rollout. To prepare, you may want to:

• Validate organizational attributes (reporting structure, country, department, role, job title) in Microsoft Entra ID or Organizational Data in Microsoft.
• Confirm leader and delegate assignments to ensure the right people can use Storyline Announcements and the new targeting control.

Learn more:

• Use your organizational data in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva | Microsoft Viva | Microsoft Learn

Compliance considerations:

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.