Your Microsoft Teams call might be about to get a whole lot more interesting

Microsoft Teams
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft Teams users will now have access to low code tools through the new Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents apps, the company has said. The coronavirus pandemic has created a situation where individuals are no longer asking, “What is Teams?” and are instead continually looking for the platform to deliver new features.

The added functionality comes with more people working remotely and, as a result, requiring easy access to resources natively within the Teams app. 

Businesses will soon be able to collaborate on app development and instantly share their creations with the rest of their organization through the Teams app store.

“The new Power Apps app for Teams allows users to build and deploy custom apps without leaving Teams,” a Microsoft blog explained. “With the simple, embedded graphical app studio, it’s never been easier to build low code apps for teams. You can also harness immediate value from built-in teams app templates like the great ideas or inspections apps, which can be deployed in one click and customized easily.”

I've got the power

Using the Power Platform, Microsoft wants customers to build Teams apps that are specific to their business. With the new platform, anyone can build apps, workflows and chatbots regardless of their coding experience.

In addition to Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents, Microsoft has also launched Dataverse for Teams, a new relational datastore that will provide the key business data that organizations need to build new low code apps.

Microsoft knows that it has a battle on its hands to come out on top in the video conference space. Although Teams has seen its user figures rise dramatically since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, so too have its rivals. The addition of native low code app development could provide a key differentiating factor.

Via Venture Beat

Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.