Forum Discussion
Web Notifications API from Personal Tab app doesn't work
Thanks for the reply:
- As our app needs to be run in popped out window (it has WebRTC), it shouldn't matter if Teams has focus or not and whether our app is minimised or not. The whole point of our notifications is to tell the user something is happening so they go back to the app and do something about it.
- Our app already has a PWA manifest (although it's not a true PWA as it can't be run offline) and that is another way to install our app. Adding the ability to run inside Teams is a customer requirement that for us isn't right, but that's what they ask for. It's basically being treated like the OS (like a browser can be), where they want to house and run apps. It's bonkers really as the OS is designed for that and they could run our app in any browser or as a PWA, but that's what they all want, everything integrated into Teams. It's a passing fad I'm sure, but it's one we're all having to deal with.
Hello SGymerATComitFS,
Microsoft Teams personal tab apps, even when opened in a popped‑out window, still run inside a controlled WebView environment rather than a full browser, which limits support for APIs like the Web Notifications API. As a result, notifications may appear to work (permissions granted, no errors) but never surface as OS‑level desktop alerts. Because of these platform restrictions, real‑time scenarios like WebRTC alerts cannot reliably use browser notifications inside Teams. The recommended approach is to use a hybrid model—keep the app in Teams for UI and entry, but handle notifications and always‑on functionality in an external browser or PWA, or fall back to Teams‑native mechanisms like bot notifications when external options are not feasible.