PowerApps in Teams - This might be a game changer

If you follow me, there's a good chance you use Microsoft Teams. And if you don't, there's still a good chance you do. You probably don't use Power Apps as much - it's still a niche in the Microsoft 365 world, though growing all the time.

What's going to change all that is the fact that the two platforms have come together. You can now build PowerApps specifically for Teams, making use of Teams functionality and extending your other tools. It even includes the capabilities to create your own database right inside Teams.

This morning I jumped in and built an app that allows members of a leadership team to contribute agenda items for a meeting. This may have been motivated by my having to update a word document! The app allows me to create a meeting, show it in a list down the side of the screen and then - after sharing it in a Team channel - anyone in the team can add an item for the meeting.

OK, it's not the most sophisticated app you'll ever see. But that's kind of the point. This meets a specific need in the business and simplifies a process (no more creating new agenda documents every week, and no more struggling to find the right one), and I put it together and published it in under an hour. By the way, this is a test environment, nothing you see in the image relates to a real business!

It would be fairly simple to start extending the app using connectors to Planner, for example, to assign tasks to people. Or use Teams to notify people when a new item is added. Outlook to get the meetings in people's calendars. And of course, because it's in Teams it's mobile and available everywhere.

People tell me they don't use Teams because they have {insert what you think is a competitor to Teams... Slack? Zoom? Google Hangouts?}. Can they build apps in minutes, share them with the team and get you productive immediately?

Teams is not just a chat app, it's not just video. Bringing it together with Power Apps is going to change the way we work.

If you'd like to talk about how to do something like this, drop me a message. I'm always interested!