Adding A PowerApps App To MS Teams

Introduction

Often times, we develop very nice PowerApps, but there is no easy way to browse through them. Users always prefer an easy access to the application, so multiple hops or long URLs to remember are not a good choice in such scenarios. With MS Teams becoming a center for all user collaboration needs, it is better to have your most useful PowerApps to be included in Teams Navigation as Pinned Apps.

In this article, I am covering how, as a Teams Administrator, you can add specific PowerApps applications to Pinned Apps.

Getting Started

This article assumes that you already have a PowerApps developed and available to add to teams. So, we will directly jump into the steps to download the PowerApps for Teams.

1. Login to Powerapps, navigate to “Apps” and select your app that you want to add to teams.
2. Click on ellipsis to open the context menu and click on “Add to Teams” to download the App as a Zip File.
   
3. In the panel that opens, click on “Download App”.
   
4. Save the zip to the desired location.

Uploading App to Teams

As a next step, we will now upload the downloaded zip file to Teams. This step will have to be completed by a Teams Administrator, so ensure you have appropriate rights or contact your Teams Administrator to complete these steps.

1. Navigate to here
2. In the navigation panel, go to “Teams Apps” -> “Manage Apps”
   
3. On the page, click on “Upload” -> “Select File”
   
4. Browse to the location of your zip file that was previously downloaded and select it to be uploaded
5. Once uploaded successfully, you would see that the App is visible in the list. Ensure that it is set to be “Allowed”, if not, click on “Allow” in the action bar to allow this app to be added in Teams
   
6. Now, in your team's client, go to “Apps” and you will find your PowerApp under “Built for <your tenant name>”
   
7. Click on the Tile, that will open a pop-window. Click “Add” to add the app to your Apps Navigation, or click on dropdown and select “Add to a team” to add the app as a Tab in selected Teams.

Add as a Pinned App (Optional)

As a Teams Administrator, you can also add an App as a Pinned App, that will be available in Teams Client in navigation option.

1. In the Teams Admin Center, go to “Teams Apps” -> “Setup Policies”
   
2. If we need this app to be available for all users in the Pinned Apps, then we should modify the Global App Setup Policy. Otherwise, we should create a new App Setup Policy and assign it to respective users.
3. In this article, I am modifying the Global App Setup Policy. So, in the App Setup Policies page, click on “Global (Org-wide default)”
   
4. In the page that opens, under “Pinned Apps”, click on “Add Apps”
   
5. Search for the app and click on “Add”.
   
6. Rearrange the app to desired position and click on “Save”.
   
7. Now, navigate to your Teams client and you will see your app in the Pinned apps. It might take some time to reflect on the client.
   

Conclusion

Now, the end-users will be able to access PowerApps from within Teams. This provides a user-friendly interface and smooth user journey for popular PowerApps in an organization. I hope you find this article useful. Happy learning!