Overview of app management and governance in Teams admin center

• Applies to:

  Microsoft Teams

In the Teams admin center, we provide a few dedicated pages to manage your apps with granularity and complete control. You manage apps for your organization in the Manage apps page in the Teams admin center portal. Use the URL https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/policies/manage-apps to view and govern all Teams apps that are available in your organization's app catalog, define access to apps using policies, cater to prominent use cases for app management, and more.

To use Teams admin center, you must have a Global Administrator or Teams Administrator role. For details, see Teams administrator roles and Microsoft 365 administrator roles.

App developers extend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 by creating plugins, for example, Microsoft Teams message extension or a Power Platform connector. These plugins increase user productivity across daily tasks and workflows. Admins manage plugins for Copilot in the Integrated apps section of the Microsoft 365 admin center.

App management use cases and the available interfaces

The options to accomplish most of app management use cases are available in Teams admin center. In addition, some options are available in other portals or different pages in the Teams admin center.

App management tasks that are supported in admin center are in the table below.

App management use cases	Link to the interface	Documentation
Control which apps are available to users in your organization by allowing and blocking apps. You can also upload and approve custom apps. After managing apps on this page, you can use app permission and app setup policies to configure what apps are available for specific users in your organization's app store.	Manage apps in Teams admin center	Current article
App permission policies control what apps you want to make available to Teams users in your organization. You can use the Global (Org-wide) default policy and customize it, or you can create one or more policies to meet the needs of your organization.	Permission policies	Manage app permission policies
App setup policies control how apps are made available to a user with the Teams app. Use the Global (Org-wide default) policy and customize it or create custom policies and assign them to a set of users.	Setup policies	Manage app setup policies
You can develop and upload custom apps as app packages and make them available in your organization's app store.	Org-wide app settings in Manage apps	Manage policy setting for custom apps
You can customize the Teams app store with your organization's logo, custom background, or color.	Customize store	Customize your organization's app store
The Teams app usage report provides information about which apps in use, active users, and other app usage information.	Usage reports	Teams app usage report
Your users can add apps when they host meetings or chats with guests. They can also use apps shared by guests when they join meetings or chats hosted externally. The data policies of the hosting user's organization, and the data sharing practices of any third-party apps shared by that user's organization, are applied.	External access	App behavior depending on types of users
With guest access, you can provide access to applications and other Teams functionality to people outside your organization, while maintaining control over your corporate data.	Guest access	Guest access in Teams
Teams update policies are used to manage Teams and Office preview users who can see prerelease or preview features in the Teams app.	Teams update policies	Teams public preview

App management tasks that are supported on other portals are in the table below.

App management use cases	Link to the interface	Documentation
Manage licenses and subscriptions of third-party apps in Microsoft 365 admin center	Microsoft 365 admin center	Manage third-party app subscriptions
Audit Teams app events on Microsoft Purview compliance portal.	Audit	Teams activities
Applications can be granted permissions to your organization and its data by three methods: an admin consents to the application for all users, a user grants consent to the application, or an admin integrating an application and enabling self-service access or assigning users directly to the application. Verify the Graph permissions for apps. Verify the permissions that users provided or that the admins delegated.	Microsoft Entra admin center	Review permissions granted to applications

Simplify app rollout and adoption based on organization needs

As an admin you can't just allow apps and authorize users to use the apps, you can also make app rollout and app adoption much smoother for the admin team and for your organization's users. To facilitate friction-free app rollout and adoption, Teams provides conceptual guidance and suggestions to app developers so that developers can enable admins to drive adoption. Also, Teams admin center provides various features that help you evaluate apps, allow apps, auto-install apps, pin apps for users, and so on.

We recommend a few approaches below that can cater to your organization’s need and the recommendations are based on the following guiding principles:

• Respect and support IT and security requirements around app permissions, access, and availability across all options.
• Improve app adoption so that the authorized users can use the app in Teams as soon as the app is required and continue their work efficiently.
• Don’t interrupt or burden the users who aren’t using the app.

Org needs	Admin actions	Impact	Benefits	Supported app types
Priority apps that are a must-see and must-use for a department or the org.	Install and pin apps using setup policy applied to users.	App icon shows in app bar for authorized users.	High visibility, faster adoption, and longer retention by users. No actions needed for end-users.	All apps
Apps that are good-to-have for a department or the org	Install apps via setup policy but don't pin it.	App shows at the bottom of or in the overflow of the app bar.	Reduced barrier to add app for users and doesn't change their app bar.	All apps
Priority apps for a team	Include the apps in a custom team template.	Apps show in the header of the team that's created using this template.	Reduced barrier to add app for users and doesn't change their app bar but applicable only for a team.	Microsoft apps
Apps already in use outside Teams, for example web apps	Automatically install the apps using Auto install approved apps feature.	If users use the app outside of Teams, it gets added to their Teams client and shows in the app bar. Permissions or data access doesn't change from admin perspective.	Align with the user intent to use the app in Teams or outside Teams without no extra user action required.	Applicable for only these apps

Allow or block apps

As an admin, you control access to all types of apps that are used across all context by all your users. Teams provides granular controls to configure access for each app and for each user.

To allow an app, all the following settings must be done. To block an app, block it via any one of the following settings.

• Org-wide app settings: Use this setting to allow use of third-party apps in your org. You control the specific apps that are allowed and used.
• Allow an individual app: Use this setting to allow a specific app in your org. You control which users can use a specific app and which users can use apps.
• App permission policy: Use policies to allow all or allow specific users to use an app. You decide access on a per-user and per-app basis.

The Manage apps page is where you allow or block individual apps at the org level. The page displays all the available app and their current org-level app status. To allow or block an app, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Teams admin center and access Teams apps > Manage apps.
2. Select Org-wide app settings and allow the use of third-party apps.
3. On the Manage apps page, locate an app and select it.
4. Select Allow or Block option.

To allow an app for specific users, see app permission policies.

When a developer publishes an app to the Teams store, some apps may need an admin to configure the app. Before an admin allows such an app, it shows as Blocked by publisher in the admin center. After following the publisher's guidance to set up the app, you can make it available to users by allowing it.

Allow access to an app for users and groups

As an admin, you use one of the following methods to define access to apps for your users:

• App permission policies if you use policy-based method to define app access.
• App assignment if you use app centric management to define app access.

Stop app usage and remove app

As an admin, you can delete custom apps from your organization's store but can't remove the third-party apps that are available in the Teams store. To prevent app addition and usage by users, you can block an app for everyone or use permission policy to stop selected users from using an app. You can't remove or uninstall the apps that are already added by users. Blocking the apps prevents users from using it.

Blocked apps may still have access to data from the teams that the apps were added to. To turn off app data access, a Global Administrator, an Application Administrator, or a Cloud Application Administrator must turn off user sign-in in the Microsoft Entra admin center.

Manage org-wide app settings

Use org-wide app settings to control whether users with an F license get the tailored frontline app experience, whether users can install third-party apps, and whether users can upload custom apps in your organization.

1. On Manage apps page, select Org-wide app settings. You can then configure the settings you want in the pane.

   

2. Under Tailored apps, turn off or turn on Show tailored apps. When this setting is on, users with an F license get the tailored frontline app experience. This experience pins the most relevant apps in Teams for frontline workers. To learn more, see Tailor Teams apps for your frontline workers.

   This feature is available for F licenses. Other license types will be supported in the future.

3. Under Third-party apps, turn off or turn on these settings to control access to third-party apps in your organization:

   • Allow third-party apps: This setting controls whether users can use third-party apps. If you turn off this setting, your users won't be able to install or use any third-party apps and the app status of these apps is displayed as Blocked org-wide in the table.

     Note

     When Allow third-party apps is off, outgoing webhooks are still enabled for all users, but you can control them at the user level by allowing or blocking the Outgoing Webhook app through app permission policies.

   • Allow any new third-party apps published to the store by default: This setting controls whether new third-party apps that are published to the Teams app store become automatically available in Teams. You can only set this option if you allow third-party apps.

4. Under Custom apps, turn off or turn on Upload custom apps for personal use option. This setting controls whether users can upload custom apps or not. To learn more about custom apps, see how to manage custom apps.

5. Select Save. The settings take effect after a few hours.

Admin center settings may allow your users to collaborate with users from other organizations. To understand how apps work with external users in meetings, see Teams apps for external attendees.

Auto install approved apps based on admin approval

Auto install approved apps feature automatically adds approved apps in Teams client of the permitted users. The functionality respects all admin governance controls and only installs apps that the users have used although outside Teams. It reduces manual intervention to add an app and improves user productivity by preventing context-switching. To know more about the feature, see Auto install approved apps in Teams.

Manage org-wide app settings for Microsoft 365 Government

In a Microsoft 365 Government - GCC, GCCH and DoD deployment of Teams, all third-party apps are blocked by default. In GCCH and DOD clouds, the third-party apps aren't available. Additionally, in GCC, you see the following note about managing third-party apps on the app permission policies page in the Microsoft Teams admin center.

Use org-wide app settings to control whether users can install third-party apps. Org-wide app settings govern the behavior for all users and override any other app permission policies assigned to users.

For GCC clouds

1. On the Teams Apps > Manage apps page, select Org-wide app settings. You can then configure the settings you want in the panel.

   

2. Under Third-party apps, turn off or turn on these settings to control access to third-party apps:

   • Allow third-party apps: This option controls whether users can use third-party apps. If you turn off this setting, your users won't be able to install or use any third-party apps. In a Microsoft 365 Government - GCCH and DoD deployment of Teams, this setting is off by default.
   • Allow any new third-party apps published to the store by default: This option controls whether new third-party apps that are published to the Teams app store become automatically available in Teams. You can only set this option if you allow third-party apps.

3. Under Blocked apps, add the apps you want to block across your organization. For any third-party app you want to allow in your organization, remove the app from this blocked apps list. A blocked app isn't available to any user, regardless of app policies.

4. Select Save for org-wide app settings to take effect.

To allow third-party apps, either edit and use the global (Org-wide default) policy or create and assign an admin-created policy.

For GCCH and DoD clouds

1. Sign in to the Teams admin center and access Teams Apps > Permission policies. In GCCH environment, access https://admin.gov.teams.microsoft.us and in DoD environment, access https://admin.dod.teams.microsoft.us.

2. Select Org-wide app settings. Under Blocked apps, add the apps you want to block across your organization. All third-party apps are added to this list by default. A blocked app isn't available to any user, regardless of app policies.

   

3. Select Save for org-wide app settings to take effect.

Support information for apps

You may have queries about admin settings or configuration, user flows and app features, app troubleshooting, and more. You receive support information about apps from the following two different sources:

• We don't provide direct customer support for Teams apps but we provide the following value adds, useful information, platform features, and app quality checks to our customers:

  • We proactively check Teams apps for issues and inform the developer to update their app. Scenarios covered are related to app health, functional issues reported by users to Microsoft, security issues, and so on. For details, see Microsoft enforcement actions for published apps.
  • For Publisher Attested and Microsoft 365 certified apps, Microsoft provides the security and compliance information of apps.
  • Testing of all apps as part of its app validation program to ensure that all apps work as advertised. If apps don't work as suggested in the app listing, then we contact app developers to request either an update to the app or a removal of the app.
  • If app developers don't make the requested updates after a few reminders, we proactively remove the apps from Teams.
  • Certification to apps via its Microsoft 365 app compliance program to reassure that app are compliant with the industry-standard frameworks.

• App developers provide customer support, updates to the apps, security and compliance information, bug fixes, and so on. The app security and compliance information are available in the admin center in app details page as mentioned above. App developers publish app updates, bug fixes, and vulnerability fixes as per their business requirements, issue severity, and service agreements. For direct support requests and inquiry about app updates, contact the app developer at their website address available at the following two places:

  • App details page of the app in Manage apps page in Teams admin center.

    

  • Details + support tab of the app's AppSource page.

    

Related article

• Manage user requests to allow apps.