During its Build 2021 conference, Microsoft today announced that Teams’ crucial APIs, Teams Store, and collaborative apps tools are now open for developers that build for Microsoft Teams.
Since the company announced third-party apps into Teams last year, developers have created tools to benefit from Microsoft’s powerful workflow app.
According to The Verge, developers will soon be able to build apps that plug into the Teams meeting canvas with in-app purchases or subscriptions and even create separate apps that get access to Team’s real-time video audio streams.
Apps built for Teams will work across all platforms, including macOS and iOS. Microsoft is also launching a preview that will allow developers to share apps more directly into the meetings area in Teams. Integration with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code is also easier to make now.
“If you can build web apps, you can build extensions into Teams chats, channels, and meetings,” explains Jeff Teper, head of Microsoft 365 collaboration, in an interview with the Verge. “You can build once, run, deploy anywhere.”
According to The Verge, later this summer, the company will allow third-party apps to access real-time audio and video streams from Teams. Developers will also be able to sell their own subscription within their Teams apps, but the company didn’t specify whether you take a cut on sales.
Recently, Microsoft Teams roll out support for “friends and family” to use the app for meetings with their close ones rather than just being a business application.
“Somebody could build a completely custom application that is different than the Teams UI and that app can interoperate with Teams via voice, video, or chat,” explains Teper. An example could be a hospital that wants to build a connection from their telehealth app into Teams to enable video calls.
The Microsoft Build 2021 conference started today and will go until May 27. It’s another 100% digital event that comes right after Google I/O and precedes Apple WWDC 2021, which starts in less than two weeks.
