Viva Engage Communities and Storylines in Teams – Individual enablement controls

Introduction

We are introducing separate admin controls for Viva Engage Communities and Storylines in Microsoft Teams. These controls provide more granular management by allowing administrators to independently enable or disable each experience within Teams, while existing controls in the Viva Engage admin center remain unchanged. By default, both Communities and Storylines will be enabled in Teams unless configured otherwise.

When this will happen:

• General Availability (Worldwide): Individual controls will be available by May 18, 2026

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected:

• All users licensed for Microsoft Teams and Viva Engage
• Administrators managing Teams messaging policies

What will happen:

• Two new independent controls will be available in the Teams admin center:
  • Communities
  • Storylines

Screenshot: Viva Engage Controls in Teams Admin Center:



• Admins can configure these controls through Teams messaging policies.
• Default state:
  • Communities in Teams: On
  • Storylines in Teams: On
• If Communities is turned off in Teams, it is hidden in Teams but remains available in Viva Engage.
• If Storylines is turned off in Teams, it is hidden in Teams but remains available in Viva Engage.
• If Storylines is disabled in Viva Engage, it is disabled in both Viva Engage and Teams.
• If Viva Engage experiences in Teams was previously turned off, Storylines will remain off and Communities will be enabled by default after this update.
• Changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate.

What you can do to prepare:

Action required:

• Review and configure your preferred settings before Communities reach General Availability in June. If no action is taken, Communities and Storylines will remain enabled by default in Teams.

Recommended steps:

• Review current Teams messaging policies
• Decide whether Communities and Storylines should be enabled or disabled
• Update settings as needed

To disable Communities in Teams:

1. Go to Teams admin center
2. Select Settings & policies
3. Choose Global (Org-wide default) or custom policy
4. Open Messaging settings
5. Set Communities to Off
6. Save changes

To disable Storylines in Teams:

1. Go to Teams admin center
2. Select Settings & policies
3. Choose Global (Org-wide default) or custom policy
4. Open Messaging settings
5. Set Storylines to Off
6. Save changes

Learn more: Manage Viva Engage experiences in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Compliance considerations: