Announcing: New Ways to Manage Teams Apps & Integrations for Your Organization
Published Mar 25 2019 09:00 AM 32.4K Views
Microsoft

We know that many of you feel overwhelmed with the abundance of workplace tools and applications available to you and your organization. To ease the burden of this overload, we created Microsoft Teams to give you a single hub for collaboration. Teams brings together all your tools, services, and content together in one place.

 

We are finding that many organizations who have begun using Microsoft Teams and have witnessed the transformational power of this hub for teamwork are also leveraging some of the 250+ available Teams integrations. We have also seen many organizations building their own integrations.

 

With that, last week we announced that we are making it easier to manage this integrated experience for your end users. This month we are beginning to roll out new and more flexible ways for you to manage how end users can discover, use, and develop these apps. Here’s a look at what’s new:

 

New capabilities to help drive adoption of specific apps & integrations

 

As an admin, you can use app setup policies to customize Microsoft Teams to highlight the apps that are most important for your users. You choose the apps to pin and set the order that they appear in the app bar. App setup policies let you showcase apps that users in your organization need, whether they were built by Microsoft, our partners, or your developers. You can also use app setup policies to manage how built-in features appear, inside of Microsoft Teams, for your organization.

 

App Setup Policies in the Microsoft Teams admin centerApp Setup Policies in the Microsoft Teams admin center

Developer Policy in App Setup PoliciesDeveloper Policy in App Setup Policies

Apps on Teams desktop app and iOS mobile appApps on Teams desktop app and iOS mobile app

 

Learn more about how you can create and assign app setup policies here.

 

Improvements to the way you manage existing app settings

 

You can now manage access to apps for individual users through App permission policy. This policy lets you control who in your organization can interact with specific apps & integrations. You can also limit access to apps built by your organization, letting you phase the app rollout.

 

In addition to user policies, you can define org-wide settings to block certain apps outright for your tenant.

 

Org-wide app settingsOrg-wide app settings

We’ve also now made it possible to control access to apps separately from the ability to develop and test custom apps within your organization, otherwise known as “side loading.” You can now assign policy over which users can upload custom apps, either to teams or for personal use. This will make it easier to enable your developers to build for Teams. Once the apps are ready, you can then publish them to the tenant app catalog and assign setup policy.

 

Automating policy assignment through PowerShell

 

Once policies are created in the Teams Admin Center, you can then bulk assign these policies to users and groups of individuals through the Microsoft Teams PowerShell cmdlets.


Microsoft Teams PowerShell

 

Getting ready for these changes

 

These policies will be rolling out in the coming weeks, starting with app setup policy. You will be able to manage these from the Teams apps section of the Microsoft Teams admin center.

 

New per-user assignment of app permission and side loading policies will be available once your organization is migrated over to the new admin center.

 

Exploring our available integrations

 

We just announced some of our latest integrations to help you work smarter, not harder. Have a look if you’re not sure where to start!

28 Comments
Iron Contributor

@Larry Jin great to see we have the ability to setup app policies. 

Btw, I wanted to test the it with PowerShell but the Microsoft Teams PowerShell link gives me a http 404 error. I think it is related to this GitHub issue: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/OfficeDocs-SkypeForBusiness/issues/1848

Copper Contributor

Awesome! Currently building a Teams app right now, so happy to see an easier way to manage access :man_dancing:

Microsoft

@Expiscornovus updated! Good catch

 

@spjpgrdAware awesome! :)

Copper Contributor

Just wondering when will this be available? @Larry Jin 

Silver Contributor

Yeah still don't see it. Coming weeks might mean months in MS jargon..

Microsoft

hi @wroot / @Joe Zhu this came out 20 days ago, so we still haven't hit the month mark yet :) As you can imagine, things are moving very quickly. 

Microsoft

The roll out to 100% for app setup policy is taking place now, and should complete very soon. Accounts that have side loading enabled will take a bit longer to migrate. The other two policies (permission and side loading) will then start rolling out in the weeks thereafter

Copper Contributor
Still don’t have this option in our teams admin center, I already disabled side load apps.
Microsoft

Hi @Joe Zhu I just sent you a private message to help unblock you

Copper Contributor

Thanks @Larry Jin 

Copper Contributor

We have app policy in our tenant now.  Thanks @Larry Jin 

I was wondering how long the new policy to take effect when I create a new policy?

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Larry Jin  Could you possibly unblock my tenant as well? Would get my three week support ticket closed! :) thanks 

Silver Contributor

I would like to be unblocked too if this is possible. Although i'm using Free Teams tenant to test a few things and maybe it is not eligible for this feature, although i see many other features in my Teams admin center.

Copper Contributor

I have the Teams Apps\Setup Policies but not the Permission Policies. Not sure if this is because we had most of the apps turned off or what. Can I get unblocked also?

Gold Contributor

Not in my tenant.  What's the procedure to get "unblocked"?

Microsoft

hi @Tony Derricott you tenant admin (likely your IT department) has the ability to block and unblock apps. If you give them a shout, they should (hopefully) release some of those restrictions for you.

Gold Contributor

Let me be more clear.  I am the tenant admin but do not see the menu option in my Teams Admin Center.

 

Microsoft

Ahh roger that. Have you seen this? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/admin-settings
Walks you through the process and here is your specific key link for turning on external app permisions: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/enable-features-office-365#external-apps.

Just an FYI, about a month ago we also enabled these permissions at a user level (before it was tenant level, only), giving you much more flexibility with App Setup Policies: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-app-setup-policies.

 

Finally, if you have security/compliance questions regarding any of these apps, much of that info is now publicly posted here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/teams-app-certification/all-apps?toc=/MicrosoftTeams/toc.json&bc=/m...

Copper Contributor

I have the same issue, I put in a ticket to Microsoft support and they said this:

 

This is Jacki with Office 365 Premier Support.  I am following up on ticket #14929384 regarding the Permissions policy not yet appearing in your TEAMS admin center.   

 

As far as I know this new feature has not yet rolled out to all of the tenants and I can confirm that it is not yet available in any of my test tenants.  I do have my organizational profile set to "Targeted release for everyone" and I have not yet received this new feature either.  If you have not yet set your targeted release options I would like to recommend you do to ensure you are getting the updates as soon as they are available. 

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/manage/release-options-in-office-365?redirectSource...

 

I know you were hoping to have an exact date on when this feature will hit your tenant, but unfortunately that is not possible.  I know you are looking forward to using this new feature so please make sure you do have the release options set up.   As an update gets closer to rolling out, it is communicated through your Office 365 Message Center.

Copper Contributor

@Larry Jin  When would we see Permission App Policies, in Teams Admin Center. Our organization tenant is on TAP. Is there any specific configuration we need to turn on to see the Permission App Policies? OR ---- Is there a Time Line for this to be available?


Copper Contributor

For months now support just keeps saying "its coming". Yet they keep rolling out other features.

 

In addition, I've seen it pop up in my tenant (I started to setup), two days later it was gone!  They can't explain that either. 

 

In the meantime, I get to manually roll out an app to 200 employees. 

Copper Contributor

Your request (15281816) has been updated. To add additional comments, please reply to this email.

Ameya (Microsoft)

Thursday, July 11, 2019 3:27 PM GMT

Hello Eric,

 

Good Morning!

 

Could you check and confirm, whether you're able to get the App Policies option or not in the Teams Admin Center?

 

Thanks & Regards, 

Ameya Sail.

Office 365 Ambassador.

Ameya (Microsoft)

Thursday, July 11, 2019 12:34 AM GMT

Hello Eric,

 

Greetings!

 

Thank you for updating me!

We will monitor the behavior for next  8-12 hours and check the status again. 

 

Thank you for being a part of Microsoft Family!

 

Thanks & Regards, 

Ameya Sail.

Office 365 Ambassador.

eric@dassle.us (BMA)

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 10:54 PM GMT

I went ahead and updated our release track.

 

 

 
 


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Ameya (Microsoft)

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 9:35 PM GMT

Hello Eric,

 

Greetings!

 

I would like to inform you that the option to manage App Policies In Teams Admin Center is still in rolling phase and not completely available globally for the Office365 tenants, which is expected to be rolled out by Next month. Still If you had that option, it could be due to testing phase.

 

Could you please try to put your tenant in First Release by following the steps mentioned below:

  1. Login to your Office Admin Center.
  2. From Left pane select "Settings".
  3. From the options select "Organization Profile".
  4. Under Release preferences Change the Release Track to "Targeted Release for Everyone" and click save.

Kindly update me the status.

 

Thanks & Regards, 

Ameya Sail.

Office 365 Ambassador.

Ameya (Microsoft)

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 6:17 PM GMT

Hello Eric,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Support.

 

My name is Ameya and I am one of the office 365 Ambassador, who will be working with you on this Service Request #15281816.

 

I tried calling you a few minutes back on +1 239.324.0735 but unfortunately you were not reachable.

 

Could you please help me with the screenshot of the Teams Admin Center?

 

Thank you for being a part of Microsoft family!

 

Thanks & Regards, 

Ameya Sail.

Office 365 Ambassador.

Microsoft

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 6:10 PM GMT

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Support - a support case has been opened for you. We will review the details you provided and get back to you as soon as possible.

For your reference:

  • Case #: 15281816
  • Created on: Wednesday, July 10, 2019 2:10 PM
  • Description: "App Policies" in the Teams Admin center was just there two weeks ago and now its gone. Prefer email contact if possible.

Remember, Microsoft will never ask for your password as part of any support interaction. Also, please don´t send any financial or personal information in email.

Thanks,
Microsoft Support

Silver Contributor

As often is with MS, they think it is better to announce features when they are not ready and then "coming soon" begins. It is puzzling that they don't consider this as bad PR. When i tell some customer about new features i always warn them that with Microsoft you might have to wait for a long time..

Microsoft

Hi @wroot and thank you for the feedback. Many of our customers like to know what's coming so they can strategically plan their business investments accordingly. While I fully get the frustration of the "coming soon," we'd love to hear your thoughts as to how we might do this better. 

Copper Contributor

@Jace Moreno  By the way, (I'm digging for the screenshot)  Microsoft actually announced this would be completed global by the end of May.  Came right into our admin center and I forwarded it to support.  So unlike Oleg_K, my frustration comes from you all announcing it would be done then never telling us there would be delays.  Throwing off a roll out we had planned. 

Silver Contributor

I have no problem with blog posts "this new feature will come at some point next year". But i just can't work with "we will start rolling this in a 1, 2, 3, etc." months and then you just have to wait, post in the forums, check daily. Customer should be informed directly when the feature is available for him. I understand this is harder to achieve with cloud services, but this is my main frustration with MS cloud. Uncertainty. I'm glad i quit my last job and don't have to do this constant guessing, checking on a daily basis.

Hi,

 

we have created app policy to Hide Team option in the Team client. Currently we don't have governance so everyone can create teams. If we give Team client to all the users there will be more team sites. we liked to setup below option

 

1. we liked to allow only chat and calendar except teams until governance is in place

2. They should not have option to create team site or join team group from the team client

3. in the app team policy we hide the teams, but they can go other options in more added apps

 

how we can control this....

Iron Contributor

Hello, seems very very inetresting. 

Is there a way to list all apps used in each group teams please? 

The purpose is to have a visibility on all apps installed on Teams and then customize a global policy with approved apps only   

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