Integrate Viva Connection Desktop For Microsoft Teams

Introduction

Microsoft Viva has four modules and Viva Connection is one of them.

Viva Connection is the entry gate to a modern employee experience. Previously, Viva connections for desktop experience is known as home site App.

Users can discover and search relevant content like sites, news from across organizations from Microsoft Team’s application bar using Viva connections along with the organization’s branding and identity.

Learning Objectives

Prerequisites for Viva Connection Desktop
Set up SharePoint Home Site
Enable Global Navigation and customize navigation links
Create Viva connections app package
Upload Viva Connections desktop package in Team Admin Center
Manage and pin the app in teams

Let’s begin,

Prerequisites for Viva Connection Desktop

SharePoint home site should be used as the landing experience for Viva Connections in Microsoft Teams.
Only Modern SharePoint Sites and Pages is mandatory.
Global navigation should be enabled in SharePoint.

Set up SharePoint Home Site

I assume, Intranet with Communication site is already existing in your organization.

If you want to create a new communication site then click here

Set a site Home Site using Power Shell

Download the latest SharePoint Online Management Shell

Run the below command to connect in the Powershell.

PS C:\Github> Connect-SPOService
cmdlet Connect-SPOService at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Url: https://<tenent>-admin.sharepoint.com

Run the below command to set Homesite.

PS C:\Github> Set-SPOHomeSite -HomeSiteUrl "https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<SiteName>"
Confirm
Before you set a Home site, make sure you review the documentation at https://aka.ms/homesites. Continue?
[Y] Yes [N] No [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"): Y
Value
-----
The Home site has been set to https://dev1802.sharepoint.com/sites/Home. It may take some time for the change to app...

Enable Global Navigation and customize navigation links

Open SharePoint Homesite in the browser.
Click on Gear Icon.
Click on Global Navigation.
Click On enable global Navigation.

Integrate Viva connection desktop for Microsoft Teams

Create Viva connections app package

Install PnP Module,

Install-Module -Name PnP.PowerShell

Execute the Publish-PnPComanyApp cmdlet with the following parameters,

Publish-PnPCompanyApp 
   -PortalUrl 'https://dev1802.sharepoint.com/sites/home' 
   -AppName 'Connections' 
   -Description 'Viva Connections' 
   -LongDescription 'The landing page for your intranet available from Microsoft Teams' 
   -PrivacyPolicyUrl 'https://dips365.com/' 
   -TermsAndUsagePolicyUrl 'https://dips365.com/' 
   -CompanyName 'Contoso' 
   -CompanyWebSiteUrl 'https://dips365.com' 
   -ColoredIconPath 'C:\Connections\color.png' 
   -OutlineIconPath 'C:\Connections\outline.png' 
   -AccentColor '#FFFFFF'

AppName: Name of the app which will appear in Microsoft Teams
ColoredIconPath: path to the icon
CompanyName: Name of Organization
CompanyWebsiteUrl: Public website of your organization
Description: Short description for the app
NoUpload: If specified the app package will not be uploaded to the teams
OutlineIconPath: Path for Outline icon
PortalUrl: Url of the site you want to use in the app
PrivacyPolicyUrl: Privacy policy link for the app
TermsAndUsagePolicyUrl: The terms of use link for the app.
Force: This will overwrite an existing zip file if exist
LongDescription: Long description for the app