Glossary

Common terms and definitions used in Microsoft Teams developer documentation.

A

Term	Definition
Action command	A type of message extension app that uses a pop-up to collect or display information. See also: Message extension; Search commands
Access token	An access token enables a client app to securely call protected web APIs. Access tokens are used by web APIs to perform authentication and authorization. See also: Identity token. For more information, see Access token.
Adaptive Cards	An actionable content snippet added to a conversation by a bot or message extension. Use text, graphics, and buttons with these cards for rich communication. See also: Task module
Administrator consent	An administrator can grant consent for the application on behalf of all users in the organization. It helps avoid the need for user consent. SSO; Consent dialog; User consent For more information, see Configure your tab app in Azure AD and Configure your app in Azure AD
App Catalog	A site that stores SharePoint and Office apps for an organization's internal use. See also: SPFx
App manifest	The Teams app manifest describes how the app integrates into the Microsoft Teams product. Your manifest must conform to the manifest schema.
App package	A Teams app package is a zip file that contains the App manifest file, color icon, and outline icon.
App permission	An option in a Teams app to enable device permissions. It's available only when the manifest file of the app declares that the app needs device permissions. See also: Device permissions
App scope	An area in Teams where people can use your app. Apps can have one or many scopes, including personal, channels, chats, and meetings. A Teams app can exist across scopes.
App tray	An application tray located on the bottom bar of a Teams mobile app. It collects all apps that are open but not currently used or active. See also: Teams Mobile
Application ID	The application ID, or client ID, is a value the Microsoft identity platform assigns to your application when you register it in Azure AD. The application ID is a GUID value that uniquely identifies the application and its configuration within the identity platform. See also: GUID; Client ID; Application ID URI; Subdomain ID
Application ID URI	The globally unique URI used to identify this web API. It's the prefix for scopes and in access tokens, it's the value of the audience claim. Also referred to as an identifier URI. See also: Token exchange URL; Configure your bot or message extension app in Azure AD.
Azure resource	A service that is available through Azure that your Teams app can use for Azure deployment. It could be storage accounts, web apps, databases, and more.
Azure Active Directory	Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service. It helps authenticated users access internal and external resources.
Authentication	The process to validate a user's identity to access your app. See also: Identity providers; SSO
Authentication flow	The way a user is authenticated to use your app. For Teams apps, we recommend using Single Sign-on (SSO) using Azure Active Directory (AD); but an alternative is to use a third-party IdP. See also: SSO; Identity provider

B

Term	Definition
Blazor	A free and open-source web framework that enables developers to create web apps using C# and HTML. It's being developed by Microsoft.
Bicep	A declarative language, which means the elements can appear in any order. Unlike imperative languages, the order of elements doesn't affect how deployment is processed.
Bot	A bot is an app or service that executes programmed repetitive tasks. See also: Conversational bot; Chat bot
Bot Builder SDK	It's an open source SDK hosted on GitHub to help build dialogs within your Node.js- or C#-based bot.
Bot Emulator	A desktop application that lets you test and debug bots, either locally or remotely.
Bot Framework	A rich SDK used to create bots using C#, Java, Python, and JavaScript. If you have a bot that is based on the Bot Framework, you can modify it to work in Teams. Bot Framework Token Service; Bot Framework Schema
Bot handle	A bot handle is a unique identifier for your bot. A bot handle represents a bot's registration with the online Azure Bot Service. This registration is associated with an HTTP webhook endpoint and registration with channels. See also: SSO; Bot resource; Azure AD
Bot Framework Schemas	Bot Framework Schemas are specifications for JSON data. They define the shape of the data and can be used to validate JSON. See also: Bot Framework
Bot Framework Token Service	It's a feature of Bot Framework that facilitates a bot app to use the OAuth protocol for acquiring and storing access token. See also: Bot Framework; SSO; Access token; Identity token For more information, see Bot Framework Token Service
Bot ID	A unique identifier of your bot app that is generated at the time you register your app in Azure AD. See also: Bot handle
Bot resource	The Azure Bot resource (bot resource) allows you to register your bot with Azure Bot Services and to connect your bot to channels. See also: SSO; Azure AD

C

Term	Definition
Call bot	A bot that participates in audio or video calls and online meetings. See also: Chat bot; Meeting bot
Capability	A Teams feature you can build into your app for interacting with app users. An app capability is used to extend Teams to fit your app needs. An app may have one or more core capabilities, such as tab, bot, and message extension. See also: Device capability; Media capability
Chat bot	A bot is also referred to as a chatbot or conversational bot. It's an app that runs simple and repetitive tasks for users such as customer service or support staff. See also: Conversational bot
Channel	A single place for a team to share messages, tools, and files. You can use a channel for teamwork and communication. See also: Conversation
Client ID	The client ID, or the application ID is a value the Microsoft identity platform assigns to your application when you register it in Azure AD. It's a GUID value that uniquely identifies the application and its configuration within the identity platform. See also: Application ID; GUID; Subdomain ID
Client secret	A secret string that an app uses to prove its identity when requesting a token. Also, it can be referred to as application password. See also: Microsoft app password
Cloud resources	A service that is available on cloud through internet that your Teams app can use. It could be storage accounts, web apps, databases, and more.
Collaboration app	An app with capabilities for a user to work in a collaborative workspace with other users. See also: Standalone app
Compose Extension	A property in app manifest (composeExtensions) that refers to message extension capability. It's used when your extension needs to either authenticate or configure to continue. See also: App manifest; Message extension
CommandBox	A type of context in app manifest (commandBox) that you can configure to invoke a message extension from Teams command box.
Connection Name	The name of OAuth connection that you configure for enabling SSO connection for your bot resource. See also: OAuth connection
Connector	It lets users subscribe to receive notifications and messages from the web services. Connectors expose the HTTPS endpoint for the service to post messages to Teams channels, typically in the form of cards. See also: Webhook
Consent dialog	The process of a user granting authorization to an application to access protected resources on their behalf. An admin or user can be asked for consent to allow access to their organization or individual data. See also: SSO; Authentication flow; Administrator consent; User consent
Conversation	A series of messages sent between your Microsoft Teams app (tab or bot) and one or more users. A conversation can have three scopes: channel, personal, and group chat. See also: One-on-one chat; Group chat; Channel
Conversational bot	It lets a user interact with your web service using text, interactive cards, and task modules. See also Chat bot
Customer-owned apps	An app created by you or your organization that is meant for use by other Teams app users outside the organization. It can be made available on Teams store. See also: Store validation guidelines; Microsoft store; LOB apps; Personal apps; Shared apps

D

Term	Definition
Deep linking	In a Teams app, you can create deep links to information and features within Teams or to help the user navigate to content in your app.
Delegated permission	They're used by apps that have a signed-in user present. For these apps, either the user or an administrator consents to the permissions that the app requests and the app can act as the signed-in user when making calls to Microsoft Graph. See also: SSO; Permission; Scope
Department of Defense (DoD)	DoD environments deliver compliance with Department of Defense Security Requirements Guidelines, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS), and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Developer Portal for Teams	The primary tool for configuring, distributing, and managing your Microsoft Teams apps. With Developer Portal, you can collaborate with colleagues on your app, set up runtime environments, and much more.
Developer Preview	A public program for developers that provides early access to unreleased features in Microsoft Teams. It lets you explore and test upcoming features for potential inclusion in your Microsoft Teams app.
Deploy	A process to upload the backend and frontend code for the application. At Deployment, the code for your app is copied to the resources you created during provisioning. See also: Provision
Device capabilities	Built-in devices, such as camera, microphone, barcode scanner, photo gallery, in a mobile or desktop. You can access the following device capabilities on mobile or desktop through dedicated APIs available in the Microsoft Teams JavaScript client library (TeamsJS). See also: Capability; Media capability; Location capability
Device permission	A Teams app setting that you can configure in your app. You use it to request permission for your app to access and utilize a native device capability. You can manage device permissions in Teams settings. See also: App permissions
Dev environment	A type of development environment that Teams Toolkit creates by default. It represents remote or cloud environment configurations. A project can have multiple remote environments. You can add more dev environments to your project using Teams Toolkit. See also Environment; Local environment
DevTools	Browser's DevTools are used to view console logs, view or modify runtime network requests, add breakpoints to code (JavaScript) and perform interactive debugging for a Teams app. The feature is only available for desktop and Android clients after the Developer Preview has been enabled.
Dynamic search	A search feature for Adaptive Cards that is useful to search and select data from large data sets. It helps to filter out the choices as the user enters the search string. See also: Static search

E

Term	Definition
E5 developer account	E5 developer subscription for building apps to extend Microsoft 365. It includes 25 user licenses, including the administrator, for development purposes only. See also: Microsoft 365 account
Endpoint address	It's used in Developer Portal to configure SSO for a bot app. It's the endpoint where messages are sent to your bot. See also: Bot handle; Messaging endpoint; OAuth connection; SSO
Entry point	An access point, such as team, channel, and chat, for a Teams app where users can use your app.
Environment	A feature in Teams Toolkit that lets you create and use multiple development environments for your app project. There are two dev environments that Teams Toolkit creates by default, local environment and dev environment. See also: Local environment; Dev environment

F

Term	Definition
First-run Experience	A First-run Experience (FRE) is a user's introduction to your product. The FRE helps users to get started with the functions, features, and benefits of the product and influences users to come back and continue using your product.
Fully qualified domain name (FQDN)	A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) represents a domain name of a host or IP address(es).

G

Term	Definition
Government community cloud (GCC)	GCC environment provides compliance with federal requirements for cloud services. It includes FedRAMP High, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS), and requirements for criminal justice and federal tax information systems (CJI and FTI data types).
Government community cloud (GCC) High	GCC high environments deliver compliance with Department of Defense (DoD) Security Requirements Guidelines, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS), and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). See also: Department of Defense (DoD)
Graph API	A RESTful web API for Microsoft Graph that enables you to access Microsoft Cloud service resources. See also: Microsoft Graph Explorer
Group chat	A chat feature where a user is able to chat with a bot in a group setting by using @mention to invoke the bot. See also: One-on-one chat; Chat bot
GUID	The GUID, also knows as the application ID or client ID, is a value the Microsoft identity platform assigns to your app when you register it in Azure AD. The GUID value uniquely identifies the app and its configuration within the identity platform. See also: Application ID

I

Term	Definition
Identity provider	An entity that stores and provides credentials to the user. It also allows users to register themselves. See also: Authentication
Identity token	An identity token is used for authenticating app users. It's used by an application to verify if the app user is as per the declared identity. See also: Access token For more information, see ID tokens.
Incoming Webhook	It lets an external app share content in Teams channels. These webhooks are used as tracking and notifying tools. See also: Webhook; Outgoing Webhook
In-meeting app experience	A stage of Teams meeting lifecycle. With the in-meeting app experience, you can engage participants during the meeting by using apps and the in-meeting dialog box. See also: Meeting lifecycle

L

Term	Definition
Link unfurling	A feature used with message extension and meeting to unfold links pasted into a compose message area. The links expand to show additional information about the link in Adaptive Cards or in the meeting stage view.
LOB apps	Line of business (LOB) applications are internal or specific within an organization or business. It's custom to the organization that created it. Your organization can make LOB applications available through Microsoft store. See also: Store validation guidelines; Teams store; Personal app; Shared app; Customer-owned app
Local environment	A default development environment created by Teams Toolkit. See also: Environment; Dev environment
Local workbench	The default option to run and debug a Teams app in Visual Studio Code that is created using SPFx. See also: Workbench; Teams workbench
Location capability	A device capability that you can integrate with your app to know the geographical location of the app user for an enhanced collaborative experience. This feature is currently available only for Teams mobile clients only. See also: Capability; Media capability; Device Capability; Teams Mobile
Low code apps	A custom Teams app built from scratch using Microsoft Power Platform that requires little or no coding, and can be developed and deployed quickly.

M

Term	Definition
Media capability	Native device capabilities, such as, camera and microphone, that you can integrate with your Teams app. See also: Capability; Device capability
Meeting bot	Bots that interact with Teams calls and meetings using real-time voice, video, and screen sharing. See also: Call bot; Chat bot
Meeting lifecycle	It spans from pre-meeting, in-meeting, and post-meeting app experience. You can integrate tabs, bots, and message extensions in each stage of the meeting lifecycle. See also: In-meeting experience
Meeting stage	A feature of meeting extension app. It's a shared space accessible to all participants during the meeting. It helps participants interact and collaborate with app content in real time. See also: Stage view
Messaging endpoint	It's the endpoint where messages are sent to your bot. See also: Endpoint address; Bot handle; OAuth connection; SSO
Message extension	Message extensions are shortcuts for inserting app content or acting on a message. You can use a message extension without navigating away from the conversation. See also: Search commands; Action commands
Meeting extension	An app designed to be used during the meeting lifecycle to make it more productive, such as whiteboard, dashboard, and more.
Microsoft 365 account	Microsoft 365 account includes 25 user licenses, including the administrator, for development purposes only.
Microsoft 365 client ID	See Client ID
Microsoft 365 channel	A feature of Teams message extension app that lets the users interact with it from Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 developer program	The Microsoft 365 Developer Program helps you build apps that extend Microsoft 365.
Microsoft App Password	A secret string that the application uses to prove its identity when requesting a token. Also, it can be referred to as application password. See also: Client secret
Microsoft Graph Explorer	The gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. It provides a unified programmability model that you can use to access data in Microsoft 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security.
Microsoft Teams	Microsoft Teams is a group collaboration software that can be used to help teams work together remotely.
Microsoft Teams Platform	The Microsoft Teams developer platform makes it easy for developers to integrate their own apps and services with Teams.
Microsoft Teams UI Library	Microsoft Teams UI Library helps you view and test individual Teams UI templates and related components in your browser.
Microsoft Teams UI Toolkit	Microsoft Teams UI Kit includes components and patterns that are designed specifically for building Teams apps.
Microsoft store	It's a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. it's also known as Windows store. Teams store
Multi-tenant app	A class of applications that enables sign-in and consent by users provisioned in any Azure AD tenant, including tenants other than the one where the client app is registered. See also: Single-tenant apps

O

Term	Definition
OAuth card	A card used by an app to represent a request to perform a sign-in via OAuth. SSO; TokenExchangeResource property
OAuth connection	It's configured as a part of bot resource configuration for SSO authentication after its registered on Azure AD. It contains details about the identity provider, client secret, and so on. See also: SSO; Connector name; Identity provider; Client secret; Azure Active Directory
Object ID	The unique identifier created by Azure AD portal when you register or update your app. It identifies the application object, which defines the application's identity configuration globally (across all tenants where it has access). See also: Application ID; Tenant ID; SSO
Connector for Microsoft 365 Groups	It lets you create a custom configuration page for your Incoming Webhook and package them as part of a Teams app. You can send messages primarily using connector cards for Microsoft 365 Groups and have the ability to add a limited set of card actions to them.
Outgoing Webhook	It acts as a bot and search for messages in channels using @mention. It sends notifications to external web services and responds with rich messages, which include cards and images. See also: Webhook; Incoming Webhook
One-on-one chat	A type of chat between a Teams personal bot app and a single user. See also: Group chat; Chat bot

P

Term	Definition
People Picker	A native control in Teams platform to search and select people, which can be integrated in web apps, Adaptive Cards, and more.
Permission	While authentication and providing access token for app user, a client application gains access to a resource server by declaring permission requests. Two types are available, Delegated permissions and Application permissions. See also: Scope; SSO; Authentication flow
Personal app	A personal app is a Teams application with a personal scope. It focuses on interactions with a single user. It can be a conversational bot to engage in one-to-one conversations with a user or a personal tab providing an embedded web experience, or both. See also: Shared app; Static app
Power Virtual Agents	A no-code, guided graphical interface solution that empowers every member of your team to create rich, conversational chat bots that easily integrate with the Teams platform.
Proactive messages	A message sent by a bot that isn't in response to a request from a user, such as welcome messages, notifications, scheduled messages.
Provision	A process that creates resources in Azure and Microsoft 365 for your app, but no code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) is copied to the resources. It's a prerequisite to deployment. See also: Deploy

R

Term	Definition
Rate-limiting	A method to limit messages to a certain maximum frequency to ensure that number of messages are sufficient and don't appear as spam.
Redirect URL	A redirect URI is the location where the authorization server sends the user after the app has been successfully authorized and granted an authorization code or access token. It's also called or reply URL.
Role-based views	A feature of tabs where the tab experience may be different for users depending on their permission level.
RSC permission	Resource-specific consent (RSC) permission feature is needed by team owners to let a bot app receive messages across channels in a team without being @mentioned.

S

Term	Definition
Scope	Scopes are used to implement scope-based access control, for a client application that has been given delegated access to the resource by its owner. They're resource-defined strings (for example "Mail.Read", "Directory.ReadWrite.All"); managed in the Azure portal. See also: SSO; Authentication flow; Delegated permission; Permission
Search commands	A type of message extension app that lets users search external systems and include the search result into a message using a card. See also: Message extensions; Action commands
Sequential workflow	A workflow that lets a bot carry out a conversation with a user based on the user response.
Shared app	An app that exists in a team, channel, or chat where users can collaborate and interact. See also: Personal app
SharePoint site collection	A collection site for SharePoint apps. You need to have an administrator account for this site before you can deploy your SPFx-based app on the SharePoint site. See also: SPFx
Sideloading	A process where a Teams app is loaded to the Teams client to test it in the Teams environment before distributing it.
SidePanel	A feature of Teams meeting app that enables you to customize experiences in a meeting that allow organizers and presenters to have different set of views and actions.
Single-tenant app	Single-tenant apps are only available in the tenant they were registered in, also known as their home tenant. See also: Multi-tenant apps
SPFx	SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is a development model to build client-side solutions for Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
SSO	Acronym for Single sign-on, an authentication method in which a user needs to sign in to an independent service of a software platform (such as Microsoft 365) only once. The user is then able to access all services without having to go through authentication again. See also: Authentication; Scope
Static app	See Personal app
Stage view	A user interface component that lets you render the content that is opened in full screen in Teams and pinned as a tab. It's invoked to surface web content within Teams. It isn't the same as meeting stage. See also: Meeting stage
Standalone app	A single-page or large, and complex app. The user can use some aspects of it in Teams. See also: Collaboration aap
Standalone bot	A type of bot app. It's a single bot app or not part of a larger application. See also: Chat bot; Conversational bot
Static search	A method of typeahead search that lets users search from pre-specified values in the Adaptive Cards payload. See also: Dynamic search
Store validation guidelines	A set of Teams-specific guidelines for validating an app before it can be submitted to Teams store. See also: Teams store
Subdomain ID	It's the application ID URI that you registered when configuring scope for your app in Azure AD. See also: SSO; Application ID URI; Application ID

T

Term	Definition
Tab	Tabs are Teams-aware webpages embedded in Microsoft Teams that point to domains declared in manifest. You can add it inside a team, group chat, or personal app.
Tab chat	A type of tab that lets a user have a focused conversation experience in dynamic tabs.
Task modules	A feature of Teams app to create modal pop-up for completing tasks, displaying videos, or dashboard. See also: Adaptive Card
Thread discussion	A conversation posted on a channel or chat between users. See also Conversation; Channel
Teams	Microsoft Teams is the ultimate message app for your organization. It's a workspace for real-time collaboration and communication, meetings, file and app sharing.
Teams identity	The Microsoft account or Microsoft 365 account of an app user that is used to log in to Teams client, web, or mobile app.
Teams Toolkit	The Microsoft Teams Toolkit enables you to create custom Teams apps directly within the Visual Studio Code environment.
TeamsFx	TeamsFx is a text-based command line interface that accelerates Teams application development. It's also called TeamsFx CLI.
TeamsFx SDK	TeamsFx SDK is pre-configured in scaffolded project using TeamsFx toolkit or CLI.
TeamsJS library	The TeamsJS library enables you to create hosted experiences in Teams. Starting with TeamsJS v.2.0.0, you can extend Teams apps to run in Outlook and Office.
Teams Mobile	Microsoft Teams available as a mobile app.
Teams store	A store landing page that brings apps to users in a single place. The apps are categorized by usage, industry, and more. An app must follow Store validation guidelines and obtain an approval before it's available to users via the Teams store. See also: Store validation guidelines; Microsoft store
Teams workbench	A workbench in Visual Studio Code used at build for Teams apps created using SPFx and Teams Toolkit. See also: Workbench; Local workbench
Tenant ID	The unique identifier of the tenant where your app is registered in Azure AD portal. Your app may be classified as a single-tenant or a multi-tenant app. See also: Single-tenant app; Multi-tenant apps
Token exchange URL	It's the application ID URI that is used for exchanging token. It's configured while configuring the OAuth connection for bot resource. See also: Application ID URI; SSO
TokenExchangeResource property	It's a property of OAuthCard class that gets or sets the resource to try to perform token exchange with. Teams refreshes the token if the TokenExchangeResource property is populated on the card. See also: OAuth card; SSO For more information, see Microsoft Bot Schema 4.0
TeamsSSOTokenExchangeMiddleware	This middleware exchanges the token if the activity name is signin or tokenExchange. It also ensures only one exchange request is processed. See also: SSO

U

Term	Definition
UI components	For Teams app development, you can use Fluent UI components to build your app from scratch.
UI templates	For Teams app development, you can use Teams UI templates to design your apps quickly.
Universal Actions for Adaptive Cards	A way to implement Adaptive Cards across platforms and applications. It uses a bot as a common backend for handling actions.
User consent	A user can authorize an app to access some data at the protected resource, while acting as that user. See also: Consent dialog; Administrator consent; User consent; Delegated permission; Configure your app in Azure AD.

V

Term	Definition
Virtual Assistant	A Microsoft open-source template that enables you to create a robust conversational solution.

W

Term	Definition
Website url	A property in the app manifest file (websiteUrl) that links the app to the website of the organization or landing page of the relevant product. It's a mandatory configuration for Teams mobile client. See also: App manifest; Teams Mobile
Web app	An app that runs on a web server. It can be integrated with Microsoft Teams Platform.
Webhook	It's a feature of a Teams app used to integrate it with external apps. See also: Incoming Webhook ; Outgoing Webhook; Connector
Web part	A UI component used to build a page or a site in a Teams app created using Visual Studio Code and SharePoint Framework. See also: SPFx
Workbench	Overall Visual Studio Code UI that encompasses UI components, such as title bar, panel, and more. See also: Local workbench; Teams workbench

Y

Term	Definition
YoTeams	A development toolkit for building Microsoft Teams applications based on TypeScript and node.js.