In the last few months, we have commented on Microsoft’s increasing efforts towards opening up its Teams ecosystem as much as possible. The company has increased interoperability with hardware players like Cisco, Avaya, etc., even in competing areas like business telephony. As Microsoft MVP, Tom Arbuthnot, pointed out when discussing Microsoft Teams’ September update, “The more options and the more capacitive it is, the better for the customer, and the better for Microsoft.”
So, it makes sense to extend this same philosophy to the software world as well. In July, Microsoft announced that Teams will now support third-party app integrations during meetings for the very first time. Here’s how it works:
- A supported app will be available as a tab when sending out meeting invites
- Attendees/users can interact with the app before the meeting is initiated
- During the meeting, participants can fetch apps right into the ongoing call and display app information on a dedicated pane
- The app will also be available as a non-intrusive button tucked away in the meeting controls bar
This feature will streamline collaboration hugely. Meeting participants will no longer need to share their screen every time they want to demonstrate an application’s capabilities or draw data from the app into the Teams meeting. As Teams becomes an integral part of our collaboration workflows, the extension of app integrations from chats and channels to live meetings is an incredibly useful upgrade.
So, which are the apps currently slated for arrival on Teams meetings?
Microsoft suggests that 20+ partner applications are currently in the pipeline for October. This includes long time Microsoft partners like HireVue, ServiceNow, PagerDuty, and Buncee First, followed by newly certified third-party application providers. These integrations are powered by a newly available set of APIs and SDK capabilities that make it possible for developers to obtain Microsoft Teams certification.
Some of the other providers showing interest in July include Polly, Open Agora, ICIMS, and Miro, suggesting what lies ahead for a richer Teams meeting experience.
However, there are concerns around security and stability when new app integrations enter the picture. To address this, Microsoft is constantly working on its app permissions policies that let admin roles govern which apps (Microsoft, third-party, or custom) are available for installation and usage. Intelligent permission policies will allow organisations to improve their meeting experiences in three ways.
- Reduce back and forth/screenshot sharing, with apps directly visible on the meeting screen
- Gather real-time, recorded feedback using integrations like Polly (an in-meeting polling tool)
- Cut down the time wasted in switching between multiple applications
With so many of us facing app fatigue (55% of remote employees must switch between two or more platforms only to complete their daily tasks), third-party integrations are always welcome. This announcement, on the occasion of Microsoft Ignite 2020, takes us one step closer to building a centralised productivity hub using Teams.
Clearly, Microsoft is pulling out all the stops – in the race to creating that almost perfect collaboration app – in these WFH-first times!
