Microsoft Teams will now let you use more workplace apps directly in meetings – The Verge

Microsoft is introducing the ability to integrate popular workplace apps like Asana into meetings on its Teams collaboration platform. Teams meetings were previously limited to chats and channel communications, but now users can integrate 20 new apps into their meetings. For instance, you can discuss and modify a project built in Asana with others directly within a Teams meeting.

The new apps for meetings join the more than 700 already available in the Teams App Store, Microsoft said.

The company is also making its Power Platform — which provides low-code tools to build and deploy apps, chatbots, and workflows — available right within Teams. The Power Apps app for Teams is a maker studio where users can manage app data and connections, and build and modify app interfaces.

Its Power Automate app for Teams has a workflow designer and templates to help users automate routine tasks, and its Power Virtual Agents app for Teams lets users build, deploy, and manage low-code bots.

In addition, Microsoft is making its Dataverse for Teams, a low-code data platform, generally available for use in Teams to help admins control the data used to build apps and other processes in Teams.

Microsoft Teams now has 115 million daily active users, an uptick of more than 50 percent from just six months ago. Although Teams is more of a Slack competitor, it has added a slew of new videoconferencing features to capitalize on the number of people working from home due to the pandemic to better compete with Google Meet, Zoom, and others. Microsoft added a Together Mode that allows participants to sit virtually next to each other, and it has made more third-party apps available for use during Teams meetings.