Quickstart: Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform

Get started with the Microsoft identity platform by registering an application in the Microsoft Entra admin center.

The Microsoft identity platform performs identity and access management (IAM) only for registered applications. Whether it's a client application like a web or mobile app, or it's a web API that backs a client app, registering it establishes a trust relationship between your application and the identity provider, the Microsoft identity platform.

Tip

To register an application for Azure AD B2C, follow the steps in Tutorial: Register a web application in Azure AD B2C.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account that has an active subscription. Create an account for free.
• The Azure account must be at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
• Completion of the Set up a tenant quickstart.

Register an application

Tip

Steps in this article might vary slightly based on the portal you start from.

Registering your application establishes a trust relationship between your app and the Microsoft identity platform. The trust is unidirectional: your app trusts the Microsoft identity platform, and not the other way around. Once created, the application object cannot be moved between different tenants.

Follow these steps to create the app registration:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

2. If you have access to multiple tenants, use the Settings icon in the top menu to switch to the tenant in which you want to register the application from the Directories + subscriptions menu.

3. Browse to Identity > Applications > App registrations and select New registration.

4. Enter a display Name for your application. Users of your application might see the display name when they use the app, for example during sign-in. You can change the display name at any time and multiple app registrations can share the same name. The app registration's automatically generated Application (client) ID, not its display name, uniquely identifies your app within the identity platform.

5. Specify who can use the application, sometimes called its sign-in audience.

   Supported account types	Description
   Accounts in this organizational directory only	Select this option if you're building an application for use only by users (or guests) in your tenant. Often called a line-of-business (LOB) application, this app is a single-tenant application in the Microsoft identity platform.
   Accounts in any organizational directory	Select this option if you want users in any Microsoft Entra tenant to be able to use your application. This option is appropriate if, for example, you're building a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application that you intend to provide to multiple organizations. This type of app is known as a multitenant application in the Microsoft identity platform.
   Accounts in any organizational directory and personal Microsoft accounts	Select this option to target the widest set of customers. By selecting this option, you're registering a multitenant application that can also support users who have personal Microsoft accounts. Personal Microsoft accounts include Skype, Xbox, Live, and Hotmail accounts.
   Personal Microsoft accounts	Select this option if you're building an application only for users who have personal Microsoft accounts. Personal Microsoft accounts include Skype, Xbox, Live, and Hotmail accounts.

6. Leave Redirect URI (optional) alone for now as you configure a redirect URI in the next section.

7. Select Register to complete the initial app registration.

   

When registration finishes, the Microsoft Entra admin center displays the app registration's Overview pane. You see the Application (client) ID. Also called the client ID, this value uniquely identifies your application in the Microsoft identity platform.

Important

New app registrations are hidden to users by default. When you are ready for users to see the app on their My Apps page you can enable it. To enable the app, in the Microsoft Entra admin center navigate to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications and select the app. Then on the Properties page toggle Visible to users? to Yes.

Your application's code, or more typically an authentication library used in your application, also uses the client ID. The ID is used as part of validating the security tokens it receives from the identity platform.

Add a redirect URI

A redirect URI is the location where the Microsoft identity platform redirects a user's client and sends security tokens after authentication.

In a production web application, for example, the redirect URI is often a public endpoint where your app is running, like https://contoso.com/auth-response. During development, it's common to also add the endpoint where you run your app locally, like https://127.0.0.1/auth-response or http://localhost/auth-response. Be sure that any unnecessary development environments/redirect URIs are not exposed in the production app. This can be done by having separate app registrations for development and production.

You add and modify redirect URIs for your registered applications by configuring their platform settings.

Configure platform settings

Settings for each application type, including redirect URIs, are configured in Platform configurations in the Azure portal. Some platforms, like Web and Single-page applications, require you to manually specify a redirect URI. For other platforms, like mobile and desktop, you can select from redirect URIs generated for you when you configure their other settings.

To configure application settings based on the platform or device you're targeting, follow these steps:

1. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, in App registrations, select your application.

2. Under Manage, select Authentication.

3. Under Platform configurations, select Add a platform.

4. Under Configure platforms, select the tile for your application type (platform) to configure its settings.

   

   Platform	Configuration settings
   Web	Enter a Redirect URI for your app. This URI is the location where the Microsoft identity platform redirects a user's client and sends security tokens after authentication. Front-channel logout URL and implicit and hybrid flow properties can also be configured. Select this platform for standard web applications that run on a server.
   Single-page application	Enter a Redirect URI for your app. This URI is the location where the Microsoft identity platform redirects a user's client and sends security tokens after authentication. Front-channel logout URL and implicit and hybrid flow properties can also be configured. Select this platform if you're building a client-side web app by using JavaScript or a framework like Angular, Vue.js, React.js, or Blazor WebAssembly.
   iOS / macOS	Enter the app Bundle ID. Find it in Build Settings or in Xcode in Info.plist. A redirect URI is generated for you when you specify a Bundle ID.
   Android	Enter the app Package name. Find it in the AndroidManifest.xml file. Also generate and enter the Signature hash. A redirect URI is generated for you when you specify these settings.
   Mobile and desktop applications	Select one of the suggested Redirect URIs. Or specify one or more Custom redirect URIs. For desktop applications using embedded browser, we recommend https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient For desktop applications using system browser, we recommend http://localhost Select this platform for mobile applications that aren't using the latest Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) or aren't using a broker. Also select this platform for desktop applications.

5. Select Configure to complete the platform configuration.

Redirect URI restrictions

There are some restrictions on the format of the redirect URIs you add to an app registration. For details about these restrictions, see Redirect URI (reply URL) restrictions and limitations.

Add credentials

Credentials are used by confidential client applications that access a web API. Examples of confidential clients are web apps, other web APIs, or service-type and daemon-type applications. Credentials allow your application to authenticate as itself, requiring no interaction from a user at runtime.

You can add certificates, client secrets (a string), or federated identity credentials as credentials to your confidential client app registration. It's recommended to use certificates from a trusted certificate authority (CA) where possible.

Add a certificate

Sometimes called a public key, a certificate is the recommended credential type because they're considered more secure than client secrets. For more information about using a certificate as an authentication method in your application, see Microsoft identity platform application authentication certificate credentials.

1. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, in App registrations, select your application.
2. Select Certificates & secrets > Certificates > Upload certificate.
3. Select the file you want to upload. It must be one of the following file types: .cer, .pem, .crt.
4. Select Add.

Add a client secret

Sometimes called an application password, a client secret is a string value your app can use in place of a certificate to identify itself.

Client secrets are considered less secure than certificate credentials. Application developers sometimes use client secrets during local app development because of their ease of use. However, you should use certificate credentials for any of your applications that are running in production.

1. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, in App registrations, select your application.
2. Select Certificates & secrets > Client secrets > New client secret.
3. Add a description for your client secret.
4. Select an expiration for the secret or specify a custom lifetime.
   • Client secret lifetime is limited to two years (24 months) or less. You can't specify a custom lifetime longer than 24 months.
   • Microsoft recommends that you set an expiration value of less than 12 months.
5. Select Add.
6. Record the secret's value for use in your client application code. This secret value is never displayed again after you leave this page.

For application security recommendations, see Microsoft identity platform best practices and recommendations.

If you're using an Azure DevOps service connection that automatically creates a service principal, you need to update the client secret from the Azure DevOps portal site instead of directly updating the client secret. Refer to this document on how to update the client secret from the Azure DevOps portal site: Troubleshoot Azure Resource Manager service connections.

Add a federated credential

Federated identity credentials are a type of credential that allows workloads, such as GitHub Actions, workloads running on Kubernetes, or workloads running in compute platforms outside of Azure access Microsoft Entra protected resources without needing to manage secrets using workload identity federation.

To add a federated credential, follow these steps:

1. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, in App registrations, select your application.

2. Select Certificates & secrets > Federated credentials > Add credential.

3. In the Federated credential scenario drop-down box, select one of the supported scenarios, and follow the corresponding guidance to complete the configuration.

   • Customer managed keys for encrypt data in your tenant using Azure Key Vault in another tenant.
   • GitHub actions deploying Azure resources to configure a GitHub workflow to get tokens for your application and deploy assets to Azure.
   • Kubernetes accessing Azure resources to configure a Kubernetes service account to get tokens for your application and access Azure resources.
   • Other issuer to configure an identity managed by an external OpenID Connect provider to get tokens for your application and access Azure resources.

For more information, how to get an access token with a federated credential, check out the Microsoft identity platform and the OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow article.

Next step

Configure an application to expose a web API