Extending Microsoft Teams Using Custom Apps and Microsoft 365

Microsoft Teams can be extended using apps from the Teams app store, as we have seen in the previous chapter, but it can also be extended with custom apps built for your business specifically. In this chapter of the book, you will learn how custom apps can be enabled on your tenant and how you can use other tools from the Microsoft 365 ecosystem to extend the default functionalities.

If you are using SharePoint, Power Apps, or Power Automate, you will also learn how to integrate these three platforms with Microsoft Teams.

In this chapter, we are going to cover the following topics:

• Working with custom apps
• Installing custom apps
• Blocking Microsoft Teams apps
• Extending Microsoft Teams using SharePoint
• Extending Microsoft Teams using Power Automate
• Extending Microsoft Teams using Power Apps

Working with custom apps

Organizations are all different and have their own rules and internal processes. However, even though the Microsoft Teams store provides an awesome way of extending the platform, it will not be able to cover all the requirements of different organizations.

To overcome this problem, Microsoft Teams allows you to upload custom apps built by developers for your organization. This way, you will be able to extend the platform according to your specifications.

Enabling custom apps

Custom apps must be enabled by the administrator and, in this section, we will see how it can be done:

1. Start by opening the Microsoft Teams admin center at https://admin.teams.microsoft.com.
2. On the vertical menu, expand Teams apps and then click on Manage apps.
3. Click on the Org-wide app settings button as highlighted in Figure 10.1.1.

   Figure 10.1.1: Org-wide app settings

4. Toggle the option Allow interaction with custom...

Installing custom apps

Now that you know how to enable custom apps and how to give permissions to the right users to upload them, it is time to learn how the installation process works.

The process described in this section uses a pre-built custom app from Microsoft to install Viva Connections on Microsoft Teams. To learn more about this solution, have a look at Chapter 7, Employee Experience in Microsoft Teams using Microsoft Viva. If you want to know more about how to build custom apps for Microsoft Teams, have a look at Chapter 11, Building Your Own App for Microsoft Teams Using the Developer Portal.

If you are a user with permissions to upload custom apps, do the following:

1. Open Microsoft Teams and click on Apps.
2. At the bottom-left of the window, click on Upload a custom app.
3. On the menu, choose whether you want to upload it globally for all the users in the tenant or just for you and your teams:

   Figure 10.2.1: Uploading a custom...

Extending Microsoft Teams using SharePoint

SharePoint is one of the key components of the Microsoft Teams structure and has been around since 2001, meaning that many organizations have their information systems on this platform.

The SharePoint apps described in this section come pre-installed on Microsoft Teams and are available to be used in all types of teams and channels.

Using out-of-the-box SharePoint integrations

As explained in the first chapter of the book, each team on Microsoft Teams is built on top of a SharePoint site that is used to store information shared by the team. While SharePoint can be used purely to store documents, you can also take advantage of the powerful features of the platform, such as the custom pages, news, or lists, to create complex information systems.

To bring content stored on SharePoint to Microsoft Teams, you can use the out-of-the-box apps highlighted in the following screenshot:

Figure 10.3.1: SharePoint applications...

Extending Microsoft Teams using Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate (formerly known as Microsoft Flow) is a tool that allows us to create automated workflows without writing code. It has more than 300 connectors divided between the free and the premium plan.

Most of the connectors from Microsoft 365 are included in the free plan and you can use them as part of your existing subscription without extra costs.

One of the free integrations available is Microsoft Teams, with which you can automate processes for you or your teams. In this section of the book, you will learn how easy it is to set up a workflow using Power Automate and how workflows can be managed from the Microsoft Teams context.

Power Automate scenario: Paul, the blog manager

Paul is the company's WordPress blog manager and does all the posts and scheduling. To reach a broader internal audience, Paul wants each post to be promoted on the general channel that all the users have...

Extending Microsoft Teams using Power Apps

Power Apps is a platform that empowers everyone to build business applications without writing code. With a simple and intuitive layout, it allows every user to build more and to achieve more. Microsoft Teams wants to embrace the power of apps created by users and allows you to use them on the platform. This way, we can say that every Power Apps app is also a Teams app.

This section of the book does not cover the creation of an app; it only shows you how you can integrate an existing app into Microsoft Teams.

Let's now take a look at a scenario to understand this better:

Power Apps scenario: Adele, the event manager

Adele is responsible for all the events at the company and has a budget to manage during the year. To help her with all the events and with the visualization of how much is being spent on each one, Adele has created a Power Apps app based on the data she already has from all the events...

Summary

In this chapter, you have learned how to extend Microsoft Teams in a more advanced way using the tools and platforms that are included on the Microsoft 365 platform. We also demonstrated, through the use of scenarios, how you can integrate the collaboration and communication areas of a modern workplace by building custom apps without writing code.

In the next chapter, we will continue to explore the options available to extend Microsoft Teams, and you will learn how to create a personal app from scratch without writing code.