What Is Reflection in Viva Insights in Microsoft Teams?

Before the pandemic, commuting to work used to be a tedious, time-consuming, and tiresome endeavor. Now, we have the “luxury” of working and jumping into meetings in a heartbeat, with only a couple of taps; that, too, from the comfort of our homes. However, despite the contrasting evidence, we’ve never been quite as unhappy or exhausted before. The fatigue we’re addressing isn’t due to physical labor, of course. It’s due to mental exhaustion. And solving it has become a million-dollar question in the industry.

Microsoft Team, which is one of the leaders of the remote working industry, is taking a proactive approach in relieving stress, offering productive tools to combat exhaustion. Its latest effort comes in the form of ‘Reflection’ — a feature we’ll be taking a detailed look at today.

What is Reflection in Microsoft Teams?

Reflection, which is being integrated into the Viva Insights platform, would take regular feedbacks after your workday and keep a discrete journal to uncover patterns. The feature is rolling out as early as next week (and would be available as a separate app inside the Viva Insights application.

The Reflection feature is sort of like a mood journal for Microsoft Teams users. By keeping track of your feelings — happy or sad, whatever the emotion you may be experiencing — you can identify the underlying causes. That way, you would be able to focus on exactly what makes you feel better.

How to get Reflection in Microsoft Teams

If you’re impressed with the feature and wish to see it come to life inside your Microsoft Teams Organization, you’ll need to make sure that the administrator has an Exchange Online account. Without it, you won’t be able to add the ‘Microsoft Teams’ feature. If you’ve already verified and met the prerequisite, it’s time to add the Insights app to your Teams account. Simply look for the app and hit ‘Add for me’ to attach it to your account.

The Reflection tab, which is set for a late April launch, would be available inside the Insights app, completely free of cost.

Related: How To Update Microsoft Teams

Will your colleagues or superiors have access to your Reflection data?

Even if you don’t own the Microsoft Teams Organization, rest assured that the Reflection data is for your eyes only. No one would have access to your data, no matter how high they’re sitting on the corporate hierarchy. The Insights app even clarifies its stance about data privacy, boldly writing ‘For your eyes only’ under the ‘How are you feeling?’ banner.

What’s next for Reflection?

As we’ve seen, Reflection can actually help you identify your moods and maybe draw a parallel to the circumstances that may be causing them. And while it’s important to keep a track of your moods, the feature, in its current form, doesn’t do much else to help. Thankfully, Microsoft has already thought about this little limitation and is already working with Headspace to make meditation mainstream inside the application. The feature is set to roll out this year itself, and we believe it’ll take Microsoft Teams’ initiative to a new level.

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