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Microsoft Teams’ Superpowers Get More SuperMicrosoft Teams’ Superpowers Get More Super

During last week’s Build conference, Microsoft announced new development capabilities for Teams.

Kevin Kieller

May 12, 2019

5 Min Read
Microsoft Build logo

More than 6,000 attendees, including more than 500 student-aged developers, gathered in Seattle last week to learn how to better leverage the Microsoft set of tools to deliver business solutions.

 

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While many in the UC community wrongly think of Teams as the next version of Skype for Business, I’ve always described it first and foremost as a platform -- a platform that allows developers and non-developers to streamline business processes. This is what I’ve referred to as Teams’ superpower.

 

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Teams is designed to be deeply configurable and extensible so that it can serve as a “universal hub” while simultaneously honoring a philosophy that each team is unique in how it works and delivers results.

 

The Teams Shifts app for frontline workers, shown at right, is an excellent example of how extensible Teams is based on use case. With the app, workers can view their upcoming shifts, see who else is scheduled, and request time off while managers can create, update, and manage shift schedules for teams.

 

At Build, Microsoft announced many new capabilities for the Teams platform that should make developing specialized Teams applications even easier:

 

1. Improved application distribution, configuration, and permissioning

Microsoft announced improved ability for IT administrators to control which specific applications are available and their order of appearance in the app bar, regardless of whether built by Microsoft, third-party, or your own organization’s developers.

 

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IT admins also can control who in your organization can interact with specific applications and integrations. You can similarly limit access to applications built by your organization. Global policies can block certain applications from your tenant.

 

Applications from partners will soon support per-seat licensing. This will allow organizations to purchase and deploy applications to specific employees only.

 

Associated with this, Microsoft is streamlining the app certification process to more transparently highlight security, data handling, and compliance practices. This includes incorporating information from the Microsoft Cloud App Security catalog and any Cloud Security Alliance STAR (CSA STAR) information for partner applications.

 

2. Better Bots

A bot appears just like a team member who you’d interact with in a conversation, except it is always available, 24x7, and is always represented by a hexagonal avatar.

 

The Microsoft Bot Framework simplifies building conversational AI experiences for Teams, as well as other platforms.

 

Bots for Teams can now interact with users inside of 1:1, group, and meeting chats. Users communicate with a bot via rich text or pictures and a bot can respond to users, or provide proactive notification based on external events using rich text, pictures along with cards, and emojis.

 

3. Single Sign-On for Apps

From a user experience perspective, Teams apps will soon be able to use single sign-on (SSO). This will allow retrieval of an access token from Azure Active Directory without requiring a user to log in again when the app launches from within Teams.

 

4. Apps on Mobile Devices

Message extensions, channel tabs, personal apps, and task modules will soon be available on iOS and Android mobile devices so that all app features work on all devices (at present only app bots work on mobile devices).

 

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5. New Microsoft Graph APIs

The Microsoft Graph is an application programming interface (API) that unifies access to the full Microsoft 365 suite of services. Developers consume data through a single public endpoint (https://graph.microsoft.com) using REST calls or software development kits, which are available for almost every development platform. For Teams, Graph offers access to team, channel, and user information and allows processing automation.

 

The Graph API already had allowed developers to create teams, add members, create channels, pin tabs, install apps, and archive and delete teams.

 

New Graph API capabilities for Teams announced at Build include:

  • The ability for trusted applications to now read 1:1 and group chat messages in addition to channel messages. This could be used to summarize, analyze, or archive conversations.

  • The ability to create, read, update, and delete shift schedules in the Shifts app. This could be used to support integration with other workforce apps and to automate schedule management.

  • Additional properties that allow you to create deep links to channels and teams as well as retrieve the email address for a channel, enabling the ability to connect channels with existing workflows.

Additionally, Teams Graph APIs are now available for government customers in the GCC High and DoD clouds.

 

6. New Developer Documentation and Training Materials

Microsoft continues to expand and enhance documentation and training materials for developers who would like to leverage the Teams platform. At Build, it launched a new Teams Dev Center:

 

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This dev center includes access to new interactive training videos and to a number of reusable, low-code application templates. As a first example template, Microsoft created a custom stickers app. (As I noted in my most recent Taming Teams article, the ability to create custom emojis/gifs/stickers is in the top 20 suggestions for Teams on UserVoice.com with more than 3,400 votes.)

 

Teams is much more than the next version of Skype for Business. Leveraging Teams’ superpowers of extensibility and programmability to automate and simplify business processes in your organization is the best way for you to become a superhero.

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My team and I spend our time helping organizations succeed planning, implementing and operating communications and collaboration systems, most often within the Microsoft ecosystem, including Skype for Business, Skype Online and Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams specifically enables new opportunities but also brings with it new obstacles and pitfalls. If you have specific questions please comment below, send me a tweet @kkieller, or message me on LinkedIn.

 

(Note on photo above: Kai is my loyal five-year old Siberian Husky. Promise is a six-month old golden retriever being trained as a psychiatric service dog. You can follow Promise @_thegoldenpromise.)

About the Author

Kevin Kieller

Kevin Kieller is a globally recognized Unified Communications, Collaboration and technology analyst, strategist, and implementation leader. He is part analyst and part consultant, which ensures he understands both the "big picture" and the real-world realities.

Kevin and the team he created helps organizations select and successfully implement leading collaboration, communication and cloud technologies, focusing on delivering positive business outcomes. He helps vendors generate awareness and demand, position their products, often leveraging his unique understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem.

Kevin leads the elite BC Strategies Expert group and is part of the No Jitter technical analyst team where he covers Microsoft Teams, Copilot, UC, Collaboration, and AI for productivity. He presents regularly at Enterprise Connect and keynotes many other events focused on technology effectiveness.

He has led the development of many technology strategies for medium and large organizations, served as Bell Canada's lead UC strategist, developed new practice offerings for Softchoice, and advised hardware and software companies interested in expanding within, or competing against, the Microsoft ecosystem.

Kevin is comfortable interfacing at both the most senior (CxO) levels and getting "his hands dirty" helping technical teams.

Kevin has conceived, designed and overseen the development of software products and cloud-based services in the business, educational and recreational areas which have been used by millions of people in over 17 countries worldwide. A long time ago he created an award-winning game for the Commodore 64 and ever since has been committed to delivering business value through technology.