Is the only way to turn off the Newsfeed tile in the SharePoint 2016 and Office 365 app launchers by activating Yammer?

Question

I have a two part question. The first part relates to SharePoint 2016 and the second relates to Office 365:

1. I'd like the ability to globally remove the Newsfeed link in the applauncher for all users in SharePoint 2016, but the only way I have found is to activate Yammer. Now I'd like the ability to remove the Yammer link for all users :-(. I don't see a way to do that.

2. I'm also interested in doing the same for SharePoint Online. I see that there I can activate Yammer which changes the tile from Newsfeed to Yammer. Then in O365 I can remove the Yammer license for individual users which will remove the Yammer tile for them. Is this the appropriate way to do this for users in SharePoint Online?

Answer 1

In SharePoint 2016 Onprem, if you are already Nov 2016 pu level then you can use custom tiles feature...which allow u add or remove tiles from waffle. This feature is web app level settings.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt790697(v=office.16)

Another option is use css and hide it. Read this https://thomasdaly.net/2017/02/24/branding-hide-newsfeed-onedrive-andor-sites-from-the-waffle-for-sharepoint-2016/

Read this answer as well: Customize SharePoint 2016 App Launcher Tiles

Answer 2

I found there is a post from Microsoft forum. I haven`t tested this as we have already Yammer enabled at my organization level.

But you can give it a try see these steps helpful without enabling Yammer.

The option to hide Newsfeed was removed under Show or Hide Options. You can choose to Use Yammer.com service to hide Newsfeed if your organization does not have Yammer license. However, by doing this, users still can access Newsfeed via URL. So, you follow the steps below to disable Newsfeed activities.

1. Sign in to Office 365 with your work or school account.
2. Go to the SharePoint admin center.
3. Select user profiles.
4. Under My Site Settings, click Setup My Sites.
5. In the Newsfeed section, select or clear the Enable activities in My Site newsfeeds check box.
6. Click OK.

Check here for the complete post.