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MC796790Unified management of app and agent availability and installation in Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 app

Summary

Microsoft is unifying app and agent availability and installation management across Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 admin centers to ensure consistent policies. The rollout begins late September 2025 in phases, with full installation unification by September 2026. Admins can manage apps from either portal with synchronized settings.

More information

Updated September 25, 2026: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

What it is

Microsoft is rolling out a new feature to streamline how app and agent availability and installation is managed across Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Until now, IT admins configured availability and installation settings separately in both the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (MAC) and the Teams Admin Center (TAC), which led to mismatches. With this update, you’ll be able to unify availability and installation policies for apps and agents across both portals, making app management more consistent and efficient.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 393931, 485712 and 503105.

When this will happen: 

We will begin rolling out this feature late September 2025. Rollout timeline for phase 3 will be announced later.

A: Unify app availability across admin centers

1. Phase 1 – Default Tenant Unification of App/Agent Availability

We will begin rolling out this feature at the end of September 2025. This initial phase targets tenants that have never modified their organization-wide defaults, app availability, or block/unblock in either the Microsoft 365 admin center or the Teams admin center. At the end of this phase, agent and app manageability will be unified across both Microsoft 365 admin center and Teams admin center ensuring agent and Microsoft 365 apps availability policies are in alignment for all future administrative changes. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 393931.

2.Phase 2 – Modified Tenants Unification of App/Agent Availability

This phase targets tenants that have previously modified their organization-wide defaults, app availability, or block/unblock settings in either admin center. These tenants will be transitioned to a unified management experience across both Microsoft 365 and Teams admin centers.

  • For tenants with no agent or app availability differences across both admin centers, guidance will be provided to help maintain unified availability policy for all future changes.

For tenants with agent or app availability differences across both admin centers, a wizard in the Teams admin center will help identify affected agents and apps and guide through resolving discrepancies.

  • As part of this phase we will also enable administrators to manage Microsoft 365 certified SaaS applications within their tenant through org-wide settings for third-party apps. This has been rolled out completely for all tenants.
  • This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 485712 & 503105.

This phase has been fully rolled out to all tenants. Tenants can choose to align through the wizard experience available in Teams admin center.

Note: In this phase, no changes will be applied to org-wide settings or app-level settings without administrator action.

3. Phase 3 – Automatic Unification (Future)

Tenants that have not taken action to unify availability through the wizard experience released in Phase 1 and Phase 2 will have their availability automatically unified across MAC and TAC as part of this phase. We will inform customers of the timeline and additional details at least 60 days in advance before this phase begins.

B: Unify app installation across admin centers

In this phase, app and agent installation management is unified across the Teams admin center and Microsoft 365 admin center. Admins can manage supported app and agent installations from either portal, and changes remain synchronized across both admin centers.

No additional action is required by admins. Existing installation assignments will be synchronized across both admin centers for eligible tenants.

Eligible tenants: Any tenant that moved to the unified availability state as part of Phase 1 or Phase 2, or moves as part of Phase 3 in the future, will automatically receive this feature once unified.

Timeline: We will release this feature end of September 2026 for eligible tenants.

Important: App installation is no longer managed through Teams app setup policies. App installations previously made through app setup policies are not unified as part of this change.

  • This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 567883

How this will affect your organization

Before this rollout, managing Teams apps that also work in Outlook and the Microsoft 365 app was fragmented across two admin centers:

  • the Integrated apps and Agent apps pages in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and
  • the Manage apps page in the Teams admin center.

This sometimes resulted in inconsistent availability settings for the same app.

With Unified agent app management, admins can manage apps and agents from either the Microsoft 365 admin center or the Teams admin center. Availability settings will remain synchronized across both, ensuring a consistent management experience.

What you can expect:

  • You’ll gain a consolidated view of agent and Microsoft 365 app availability across both Microsoft 365 and Teams admin centers.
  • Changes made in either admin center to the agent and app availability will automatically apply across all supported hosts.
  • Organization-wide defaults for both admin centers will be in sync and govern app availability across Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 copilot app.

What you need to do to prepare

To ensure a smooth transition, review your tenant-level and individual agent/app settings (app allow/block & user availability) in both the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and the Teams Admin Center. If different departments within your organization manage these settings, we suggest coordinating efforts to complete the review collaboratively.

This update will be rolled out automatically by the stated date, and no immediate action is required. However, it's a good time to update any internal documentation related to agent and app management policies.

Learn more: Unified agent and app availability management across Microsoft 365 and Teams Admin Centers - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 

Version history

29 versions tracked

Updated 28 times since May 29, 2024. Microsoft 365 Message Center only shows the current version; this archive preserves tracked history.

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