Microsoft Teams Administration Cookbook

Chapter 7. Extending Microsoft Teams

As an extensible platform, Teams enables you to create add-ons and apps. A Teams app, for example, will already be in the client where users spend a large part of their time, minimizing the need for them to switch to run the app. Working inside Teams, you can leverage the existing collaboration tools and all the different ways that users may consume Teams (desktop, mobile, web, and so on).

Let’s say you want to improve the Teams user interface with additional views of the different features; create chatbots that use Teams as a platform for chat, voice, and video; or automate processes. As you’ll see in this chapter, there are different ways you can extend Teams, and different tools you can use to do so.

7.1 Building a Chatbot

Problem

You need to create a chatbot to receive return item requests from customers and provide them with the phone number of the return service.

Solution

You will add the Power Virtual Agents app from the Teams app store and create your chatbot directly inside one of your teams.

In the Teams client, click the search bar (in the upper part of the client) and search for Power Virtual Agents. Click the Power Virtual Agents icon and select Add on the next screen (as shown in Figure 7-1).

Figure 7-1. Adding the Power Virtual Agents app

Power Virtual Agents will be added to the list on the left side of the client (you may ...