What’s new: Power Apps July 2023 Feature Update

Welcome to the Power Apps monthly feature update! We will use this blog to share a summary of product, community, and learning updates from throughout the month so you can access it in one easy place. We’ve got a great set of updates across security, Power Fx, Collaboration and modernization of the end user experience.

We are continuing to improve and simplify the platform, with updates in Trust, Maker and End User Productivity as well as new video and doc contents to help you adopt and optimize Power Apps within your organization.

Trust

• General Availability of adding Access Team templates into solution

Maker Productivity

• Direct Power Fx Dataverse actions support now in preview
• Cards for Power Apps is generally available (GA)!
• Introducing copresence in the Canvas Studio: access canvas apps together!! 
• New Power Apps home page now in public preview with Copilot eligibility expansion

End User Productivity

• Model-driven app Aug 2023 monthly release
• Show or hide your mobile notification area when running apps on Power Apps mobile
• Modern control updates in June 2023

Trust

General Availability of adding Access Team templates into solution

We are happy to announce that you can include Access Team templates into your solution. This allows you to export your Access Team templates from one environment and import it into another.

Access Team template allows you to create teams of users who can access records of a certain table with specific access rights. For example, you can create an access team template for the account table and specify the Read, Write, and Share access rights on the record for the sales team. The sales team members are dynamically added to access the record on the account form.

These are system-generated Access Teams which are dynamically formed and dissolved. The access rights can be updated at anytime on the Access Teams template. You can create multiple Access Teams templates with different access rights on a form, for example, you can have an Access Team with Read only access rights and another Access Team with Read, Write and Share access rights.

Learn more at Access team templates can be added in a solution | Microsoft Learn

Maker Productivity

Direct Power Fx Dataverse actions support now in preview

We are excited to announce direct access to Dataverse actions in Power Fx formulas as Preview feature (default on.) As a part of the Power Fx language, authors can now directly invoke a Dataverse action within a formula. A new Power Fx ‘Environment’ language object that authors can add to their app enables access to Dataverse actions. It is available with Power Apps release version 3.23022.

The new Environment object and a Dataverse action bound to a button.

In addition to calling unbound actions, authors can now access bound actions as well. Previously there was a limit of two call levels. This restriction is now lifted. For documentation details on how to use this feature, please see the Power Apps documentation on how to Work with Dataverse actions in Canvas Apps. See also the formula language features that enable working with Untyped objects.

Learn more at Connect to Microsoft Dataverse – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

Cards for Power Apps is generally available (GA)!

Cards for Power Apps is an easy way to build and share interactive, embeddable, data-driven, lightweight micro-experiences that bring context and actions directly into Teams conversations. Now, they are generally available for you can use them for your business processes like actionable views of a Dataverse record, gathering responses from your team, doing audits or approvals, accelerating decision making, and more!

Learn more at Cards for Power Apps overview – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

Introducing copresence in the Canvas Studio: access canvas apps together!! 

We’re thrilled to announce the General Availability launch of copresence in the Power Apps Studio, a game-changing feature for collaboration on canvas apps. We have removed the blocked access dialog experience, so makers will not be blocked from entering the Power Apps Studio to edit a canvas app when another maker is already doing so. Now, makers can access and be present within a canvas app together. Copresence only supports one editor at a time, but other makers will enter the canvas app as readers in read-only mode which allows readers debug code, review screens, and interact with comments all together in the same session. Best of all, you do not have to do anything to turn this feature on as it is enabled on by default for your ease of use.

Whether you’re brainstorming ideas, troubleshooting, or simply fine-tuning app elements, Copresence empowers you to better harness the collective power of your team, unlocking a new level of synergy and creativity. Check out our official documentation to learn more about this exciting feature and how you can make the most of it to transform your team’s Power Apps development experience. We can’t wait to see how you take app development to new heights.

Learn more at Experience Copresence in Canvas Studio | Microsoft Learn

New Power Apps home page now in public preview with Copilot eligibility expansion

We are excited to announce that the new Power Apps home page is now generally available for all users. The new home page features a modern design that offers an intuitive and user-friendly experience. The new layout showcases the latest AI Copilot app creation flow, plus simplified “Start from” options, making it easier than ever for you to start creating apps to solve your business needs. We are expanding the Copilot Build apps through conversation (preview) capability, to all makers in the US region. Previously the Copilot-enabled entry point was only available to users in an environment with Dataverse permissions. Now, makers in the US will be able to use Copilot to describe their app, customize the backing Dataverse table, and then create the app. For more information on environments see: Sign in to Power Apps – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

Learn more at Build apps through conversation – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

End User Productivity

Model-driven app Aug 2023 monthly release

Power Apps team released new updates for modernization on canvas and model apps. Canvas updates include the release of a modern slider control & key improvements on critical controls that include new properties, consistency, and increased maker friendliness for text, spinner, and TabList. Model apps updates include updating read-only UI for controls and the release of a modern option set control, modern date picker control, and a modern duration control.

Learn more at June 2023 modern controls update | Microsoft Power Apps

Show or hide your mobile notification area when running apps on Power Apps mobile

When running apps within Power Apps mobile, the device notification bar where battery life, clock, Wi-Fi signal, notifications, etc lived previously was always hidden by default. Now app makers can determine whether this area will be visible at the top of the screen or not by default.

Learn more at Install the Power Apps mobile app – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

Modern control updates in June 2023

In this month’s release, model-driven apps will default to showing all users a “Try the new look” toggle to enable the modern, refreshed look.

Learn more at Monthly release Aug 2023 – Release Notes | Microsoft Learn

Video, Learning and Doc Updates

See new videos released by our Power CAT and Cloud Advocacy teams, as well as our new Tik Tok channel!

	Power Platform is on TikTok! Power Platform is now on TikTok!  We have daily quick tips and series like Connector of the Week where you can learn more about all the Power Platform has to offer.
	Power Platform CLI Exposed: PCF In the next episode of the Power Platform CLI Exposed series, Diana Birkelback joins Daniel to show us all about the PCF command group, which enables you to work with Power Apps component framework.

We’ve also released new, and made updates to some of our documentation – see a summary before of some of the key updates: 

For Admins	Manage behavior settings (updates) View the Power Platform connector activity logs (updates) Create or edit a security role to manage access (updates) Audit security roles (updates) Manage your customer-managed encryption key (updates) Managed environment licensing (updates) Configure user security in an environment (updates) General availability deployment (updates) Tenant-to-tenant migration (updates) Enable Managed environments (updates) New Microsoft Dataverse storage capacity (updates)View information about plug-in steps (new) View license consumption for finance and operations apps (preview) (new) View license consumption for Power Apps and Power Automate (preview) (updates) Synchronization logic for appointments, contacts, and tasks (updates) PowerShell support for Power Apps (updates) Solution checker enforcement in Managed Environments (preview) (updates) Licensing (updates) Create a team template to control access rights for automatically created teams (updates) PowerShell support for Power Apps (updates) Control user access to environments: security groups and licenses (updates) Copy an environment (updates) Solution checker enforcement in Managed Environments (preview) (updates) About data encryption (updates) IP firewall in Power Platform environments (preview) (updates) FAQ for optional data sharing for Copilot AI features in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform (updates) Add users to an environment (updates) Create a team template and add to an entity form (updates) Manage the default environment (updates) Data loss prevention policies (updates)avior settings (updates) View the Power Platform connector activity logs (updates) Create or edit a security role to manage access (updates) Audit security roles (updates) Manage your customer-managed encryption key (updates) Managed environment licensing (updates) Configure user security in an environment (updates) General availability deployment (updates) Tenant-to-tenant migration (updates) Enable Managed environments (updates) New Microsoft Dataverse storage capacity (updates) Manage the default environment (updates) Create an internal Microsoft Power Platform hub (updates)
For Makers	Create Azure key vault for wrap in Power Apps (new) Choose finance and operations data in Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse (new) Environment variables overview (updates) Using multimedia files in canvas apps (updates) Importing and exporting data from Dataverse (updates) Find it with unified search (updates) Dataverse long term data retention overview (preview) (updates) Use the wrap wizard to build your mobile app (updates) Known issues with custom pages in a model-driven app (updates) AI Copilot overview (preview) (updates) Troubleshoot issues in the Power Apps mobile app (updates) Manage data retention policies (preview) (updates) Analyze system-generated logs using Application Insights (updates) Gallery control in Power Apps (updates) Add Chatbot control to a canvas app (preview) (updates) Import solutions (updates) Create a canvas app with data from an Excel file (updates) Use Dataverse low-code plug-ins (experimental) (updates) List of controls available for model-driven apps (updates) Create and edit tables using Power Apps (updates) Work with formula columns (preview) (updates) Set a data retention policy for a table (preview) (updates) Design a Power Apps canvas app by using Figma (new) Get started with Power Apps and SharePoint (new)
For Users	Run an app in a web browser (updates) Troubleshoot issues in the Power Apps mobile app (updates) Mobile offline capabilities and limitations (updates)
For Developers	Power Platform CLI July refresh (updates) Dataverse Web API reference (updates) Bulk Operation messages (preview) (new) Sample: Web API Use CreateMultiple and UpdateMultiple (preview) (new) Elastic table sample code (preview) (updates) Grid OnRecordSelect event (Client API reference) (updates) Create a Custom API with solution files (updates) Dependent Assembly plug-ins (preview) (updates) Formula, calculated, and rollup columns (updates) Column definitions (updates) Table relationship eligibility (updates) Form OnSave event (Client API reference) in model-driven apps (updates)

Please continue sending us your feedback on features you would like to see in Power Apps. We hope that you enjoy the update!