Many organizations use modern collaboration in Microsoft Teams to enable faster decision making and action. Power BI is continually making it easier for organizations to roll-out Power BI experience in Teams, so users can discover and use data where they work. This helps people get notified faster, get richer link sharing experiences, and access all their data without leaving Microsoft Teams.
After a successful launch of automatic installation focused on new users, we’re excited to announce that we’re ready to expand automatic installation to active Power BI users, who meet the criteria as defined below.
To enable organizations to easily roll-out Power BI in Teams, we’re expanding automatic installation:
- Power BI will automatically install the Power BI app for Teams for users when they visit the Power BI service.
- Power BI admins can choose not to auto-install through the existing Power BI tenant setting.
- The automatic installation for new users is currently in effect (since November 2021 as previously announced).
- The automatic installation for active users will roll-out by the end of April 2022.
Let’s look at the details of this announcement.
Auto-install for Power BI app for Microsoft Teams
When the Power BI app for Microsoft Teams is installed, users get better experiences without leaving Teams including:
- Activity feed notifications for sharing, goals updates, and request access, which help users work faster and be more responsive without leaving where they collaborate
- Links sent in chat turn into preview cards making collaboration richer, helping users find reports more quickly in chats, channel conversations, and meeting chats
- Items open in Teams, so users don’t have to leave Teams to see their Power BI reports
- Users can use the Power BI app in Teams to quickly find data to use in decision making and reports they’re using in channels with the Power BI tab
- Users can quickly analyze their Teams usage analytics data to help improve their collaboration
- Users can create personal scorecards to track their impact and drive to results
These capabilities are available once the Power BI app for Teams is installed for a user. With automatic installation, we’re helping more users get these experiences. It also helps Power BI and Teams admins, since it reduces the need to create and manage Microsoft Teams app setup policies just to install the Power BI experiences in Teams for a user.
The Install Power BI app for Microsoft Teams automatically tenant setting enables Power BI admins to control the auto-install behavior. By default, the auto-install is enabled.
The automatic installation happens for a user under the following conditions:
- The Power BI app for Microsoft Teams is set to allowed in the Microsoft Teams admin portal
- The Power BI tenant setting Install Power BI app for Microsoft Teams automatically is enabled
- The user has a Microsoft Teams license
- The user opens the Power BI service (e.g. app.powerbi.com) in a web browser
- Once the change rolls out, the app is installed for new or existing users who meet the criteria
- Once Power BI installs the app for a specific user, it won’t install the app again. This means that if a user decides to uninstall the app, Power BI respects their choice.
When auto-install occurs, the following notification is shown in the Power BI service notification pane.
We’re excited to help users to collaborate faster, discover their data more easily, spend less time switching apps, and to reduce the effort required for organizations to roll-out Power BI in Microsoft Teams. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback and how we can continue to improve Power BI.
Questions and Answers
What happening today?
We’re pre-announcing auto-install of Power BI in Teams is expanding to include active users of the Power BI service. Previously auto-install occurred for new users. The existing Power BI tenant admin setting controls the expanded behavior, which enables Power BI admins to choose to opt-out of the automatic installation behavior.
When will these changes take effect?
By the end of April 2022, Power BI auto-install of Power BI in Teams will be enabled for all active users of the Power BI service who meet the criteria.
Which users will be affected?
If the Power BI tenant setting is enabled, the Power BI app for Microsoft Teams will be installed for users who meet the criteria specified in this blog post. Automatic installation will apply to new users and to active users who visit the Power BI service in a web browser.
When should I use a Microsoft Teams App Setup Policy?
Microsoft Teams app setup policies allow Microsoft Teams Admins to install an app for a target set of users. Since this applies to all users in the specified group, you can ensure everyone who needs Power BI has it, even if they’re not active Power BI users. It’s a great way to achieve workforce enablement that provides blanket coverage to support organizational goals for driving a data culture. Additionally, app setup policies can be used to pin the Power BI app in Teams to the Microsoft Teams left rail. This additional step makes data and analytics prominently available throughout your organization. It helps keep data top of mind and encourages more people to use data in their decision making. If you’d like to ensure blanket coverage and/or pin the Power BI app, use an app setup policy in the Teams Admin center.