Microsoft Teams: Apps now supported in group chats with external users

Updated July 10, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: We’re delighted to announce the upcoming release of support for apps in group chats with external users from outside your organization, fostering improved collaboration, interactivity, and productivity. This rollout applies to Teams for web, Teams for desktop, and Teams Mobile (Android and iOS).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 391640.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-May 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024 (previously late June).

How this will affect your organization:

After the rollout:

• Only the group chat host can add apps, but all members of the chat can use the added apps. External users cannot add, update, or remove apps.
• Your existing access policies (configured in the Teams admin center > Teams apps > Setup policies) and the external organization's access policies will be honored.
• Please note that this rollout only applies to group chats and not to one-on-one chats or channel chats with external users.
• External access and data handling by installed apps are governed by the app publisher's terms.

What you need to do to prepare:

If your organization chooses to disable external scenarios for Teams, you can opt out of the feature in this rollout from the Manage External Access page in at Teams admin center > Users > External access. Learn more: Manage external access in Microsoft Teams.

You might want to notify your users about this new capability and update your training and documentation as appropriate.

We will update this comm before rollout with revised documentation.