Over the years, Yammer has added a lot of functionality that improves compliance, security, and overall administration to streamline its network management. Many of these features require what is known as Native Mode, and all new Yammer networks are configured this way by default.

Trinity’s Yammer is not in native mode at present and so Microsoft will soon upgrade it to allow our Yammer network to be fully integrated with Microsoft 365, providing us with the richest Yammer experience possible today, as well as eDiscovery through the Microsoft Purview compliance portal for administrators of the service. This enables us to collaborate safely and securely within our Yammer network and also provides other benefits, such as the ability to host Live Events in every Yammer community and simplify file administration through SharePoint.

When will Native Mode Yammer migration upgrade start?

Microsoft will begin migrating us from 12th January 2023, and continue the upgrade through the start of 2023. We cannot opt out of this upgrade and once started, the migration process is irreversible. Once Trinity’s Yammer has begun or completed migration, it cannot go back to non-Native Mode (legacy Yammer).

How will this affect Trinity’s Yammer?

In Native Mode, Trinity’s Yammer network will no longer have the following features:

  • Network-level guests
  • Email blocked lists
  • Secret groups (There are no secret groups in M365; all groups must be public or private.)

Yammer Native Mode is achieved when all Yammer users are in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), all groups are Microsoft 365 groups, and all files are stored in SharePoint Online. In Native Mode the Yammer network only uses features that allow users, groups, and content to be compatible with and mapped to their counterparts in Azure AD and Microsoft 365 and we can't add features that would take the network out of Native Mode.

What do you need to do to prepare?

Users are not required to take any specific action but are encouraged to read this article in full. The change does not affect the Yammer end user experience.

Trinity’s M365 Global Administrator has run an alignment report to identify gaps (see below) in our current network alignment with Native Mode and will back up Trinity’s Yammer data.

What will happen to Trinity’s Yammer users, files & groups during migration?

Users

  • Trinity’s alignment report shows “mapped” and “unmapped” users.
  • Trinity has 4,591 Yammer users “unmapped” who will no longer be able to access the service.
  • These are users that are not associated with a current College IT Account.
  • The vast majority of these have a Yammer state of ‘Pending’ which means pending activation in Trinity’s Yammer. These users were invited to Yammer but never signed up for the service.

Files

  • All files previously uploaded to Yammer will be migrated to SharePoint.
  • When files are moved to the SharePoint document library, only the latest version is moved over, and the version history is not copied.
  • Files within private messages will be deleted and will no longer be accessible or recoverable.
  • New files cannot be uploaded in private messages in Yammer.

Groups

  • All external groups will be converted to internal groups and non-Trinity members will be removed.
  • Private unlisted groups will no longer be supported and 15 currently unlisted groups will become listed in Trinity’s Yammer, but will remain private.
  • The alignment tool will connect all of our aligned groups to Microsoft 365. Groups without owners who have Microsoft 365 group creation rights will have the Global Admin added to the group as the owner as part of the migration process.
  • Unconnected groups will become Microsoft 365 connected and Microsoft 365 Group naming policies will be bypassed when these existing Yammer groups become Microsoft 365 connected.