Apps in MS Teams

Digital Workplace, MS Teams

How to Integrate Apps In MS Teams, Know The Secrets

Although MS Teams has robust functionality, it can’t be a one-fits-all solution for businesses. However, you can customize it for your work tasks by integrating apps in MS Teams.

Microsoft has over 700 apps in its app store that you can use to make your daily tasks easier, collaborate with colleagues, or automate workflows. 

Additionally, you can choose apps based on their inherent functionality, such as project management, industry specificity, document retention, and productivity. 

Moreover, MS Teams also allows you to build custom apps without any advanced app development knowledge. Likewise, you can build powerful virtual agents to offer information and AI-driven insights. 

However, before you shortlist your favorite applications, you need to know how to integrate apps in MS Teams and whether you need custom apps for your company. 

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Which Apps Can You Integrate With Teams? 

According to Microsoft, there are three types that can be integrated with MS Teams: 

  • SharePoint: If you want a SharePoint page to surface in MS Teams, it’s quite straightforward to do so. 
  • Standalone Apps: These are large, complicated, or single-page apps. You can integrate some aspects of these apps in MS Teams. 
  • Collaboration Apps: These are the apps that have been designed to work with the features that are present in Teams. 

How To Add Apps In MS Teams?

If you’ve never added an app before, worry not. The process is pretty simple. 

If you’re using Teams on Desktop, here’s how to add apps: 

Apps In Left-Hand Panel 

In the Teams dashboard, look for Apps in the left-hand panel. You’ll be directed to the collection of Microsoft apps. Scroll down the list or search under the relevant categories to find the app of your choice. 

Once you’ve located the app you want to integrate, click on it. You’ll see the description and functionality of that app on the screen. After you’ve read this, click the Add button, and you’re good to go. 

Do note that some apps require additional permissions from the collaboration or group owners. So, if you’re unable to add an app, get in touch with your team owner and tell them to do it for you. 

Add App In A Chat 

If you want to add an app in the chat or channel to work in collaboration with other members of your team, here’s how to do it: 

  • In the channel or chat, click on Add a tab (Plus sign on the top navigation bar). 
  • Then, look for the app you want to add. 
  • Click on it, and it will open in the chat. 

At the moment, MS Teams only allows you to add apps from your desktop. However, if you’ve already added an app, it will work similarly on your mobile device. You can look for your desired app in the More folder in any channel. 

Also, some apps might not be available for mobile devices, depending on the developers that have created them. 

Common Apps In MS Teams 

If you want to amp up the functionality of MS Teams, here are some popular apps to integrate today: 

Polly

Polly is a collaborative app that lets all team members share their ideas and reach a common solution or conclusion. You can create surveys in group chats or channels and allow all team members to vote on the question. 

The app shows you real-time analytics to determine what the final consensus is. Moreover, Polly also lets you vote anonymously, hide results, cast multiple votes, or schedule surveys. 

Trello 

Trello is a task management app that lets you create lists, boards, and tasks to boost productivity.  

You can add comments to the tasks and make any changes or additions as required. 

Wiki

Wiki is a repository app that you can use to share notes or create informative pages in your team. Since it has a smart text editor, you can use the app to edit the text while staying in the same window. 

You can also create an FAQ section to help team members with common queries. 

AttendanceBot 

It’s the perfect app for remote teams since it helps you track working hours. Furthermore, the app also keeps records of remote hours, sick days, vacation, shift planning, and paid time off. 

You can later export all your employees’ timesheets directly from the Teams app. 

Health Hero 

Your workforce’s mental and physical health is just as important as their productivity. Fortunately, MS Teams has an app for that too. Health Hero allows employees to partake in fun activities and fitness challenges. 

SignEasy 

If your daily work involves excessive paperwork, you definitely need this app. It lets you send documents in different formats, such as Word, PDF, and PNG. 

Moreover, you can add time and date with the signature line, too. 

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MailClark 

MailClark is a great app for workforces that use multiple communication channels. Instead of going to different platforms to check your notifications, simply get access to all of them in one place. 

The app lets you get notifications from Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, IMAP, and Outlook. In this way, you can easily centralize the communication channels. 

Custom-Built Apps 

If you’re unable to find an app that meets your requirements or need something overly specific, you can create a custom app that integrates with MS Teams. 

Microsoft Teams make this even easier by giving you ideas for app creation. Likewise, you can use one of the many low-code solutions from Teams to create an app that fits your requirements. 

Besides collaboration, you can also make apps for meetings, messaging, user help, and much more. 

Conclusion 

All in all, apps are definitely a great way to increase the overall functionality of MS Teams. Whether you need an app to keep track of your employees’ attendance or make communication easier, there’s something for you in the app store. 

But if you can’t find your desired app there, MS Teams is also flexible enough to integrate custom-build apps. So integrate apps in MS Teams or build one with little to no advanced coding knowledge. 

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