February 5, 2021: On Thursday, Microsoft introduced a group of services initially accessible in its Teams app to keep people informed and avoid burnout.

Viva provides access to workers to online learning material, an encyclopedia of information generated automatically from corporate files, a feed of organizational updates, and product suggestions. There are tools for managers to monitor the work of their teams.

Few of these capabilities existed before, by different names. Microsoft has offered Workplace Analytics for tracking organizational behavior, and SharePoint provides a hub for internal content.

Seth Patton, a general manager, said in an interview on Wednesday, “What our customers were telling us is they want something more preconfigured, simple, and mobile that brings all those things together.”

Teams with video calling and text chat rooms became famous as coronavirus emerged, which resulted in offices to close and keep in touch with the employees virtually.

Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, told analysts that more than 100,000 people currently use Teams at 117 different organizations. Microsoft is effectively packing Teams with more and more while app usage is higher than before the pandemic.

Some features of Viva will come to other Microsoft assets. If a person comes across an unfamiliar or unknown term in Teams, the Viva Topics feature will display a pop-up box with the information of what it is. Microsoft could also add to other applications, such as Word, Patton said.

The Viva Insights component for improving workplace productivity shows information from different tools, like Workday and Zoom, with survey results from Glint, which Microsoft-owned LinkedIn acquired in 2018.

Microsoft isn’t alone in trying to demonstrate the power of its software as vaccines become more widely available and companies prepare to reopen their facilities. On Wednesday, video-calling rival Zoom announced updates meant to help people use its software in conference rooms without making physical contact with dedicated hardware.