What’s new: Power Apps February 2024 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. This month we’ve got a great set of updates for Makers, Admins, and users across Power Apps, Dataverse and Copilot.
Trust
- Access Dataverse audit log using Synapse and Power BI is now generally available.
- Announcing preview for blocking unmanaged customizations
Maker Productivity
- Building new apps and tables with Maker Copilot is now available in 8 languages worldwide
- Power Platform Prompts Library
- Add new Power Platform Dataflows to Solutions
- Call SQL Server stored procedures directly in Power Fx
End User Productivity
- Draft with Copilot in canvas apps
- General Availability for Shared Device Mode for Power Apps on iOS
- Introducing Copilot assistance for filling forms in model-driven apps
Trust
Access Dataverse audit log using Synapse and Power BI is now generally available.
To comply with auditing requirements, security officers or internal auditors can use their own Synapse workspace to access Dataverse audit data. They can use Power BI to create and monitor for auditing events.
You can enable auditing in each Dataverse environment to audit all user access requests, environment configuration changes, and record updates. You can create your own Synapse workspace and pull auditing data from Dataverse following the instructions in the article, Create an Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse with your Azure Synapse Workspace. Dataverse audit log will start flowing into your own Synapse workspace. You can use Power BI and create audit reports by connecting to this Dataverse Synapse workspaces.
Learn more at Access Dataverse audit logs using Synapse workspace | Microsoft Learn
Announcing preview for blocking unmanaged customizations
We are excited to announce public preview of capability to block unmanaged customizations. This is an environment setting that allows Power Platform system administrators to prevent unmanaged customizations in Microsoft Dataverse environments. By blocking any unmanaged customizations and import of unmanaged solutions, you can ensure that any changes to your environment, specifically your test and production environments, are only going through approved application lifecycle management (ALM) processes that have reliability, safety, and auditing.
Learn more at Announcing preview for blocking unmanaged customizations | Microsoft Power Apps
Maker Productivity
Building new apps and tables with Maker Copilot is now available in 8 languages worldwide
We are excited to announce that the Build apps through conversation capability is now available in 8 languages on make.powerapps.com. Copilot in Power Apps is an AI companion that guides you through the app creation process, from the backing data to the app design. The feature is available for all makers regardless of license.
Copilot is now available in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Learn more at Building new apps and tables with Maker Copilot is now available in 8 languages worldwide | Microsoft Power Apps
Power Platform Prompts Library
Explore a collection of prompts that you can use in Power Apps Copilot, Power Automate Copilot, Power Pages Copilot and AI Builder
Learn more at powerplatform-prompts/prompts at main · pnp/powerplatform-prompts · GitHub
Add new Power Platform Dataflows to Solutions
Power Platform Dataflows (PPDF) had been used to bring data into Dataverse for apps and solutions, however, they had not been the native part of Power Platform solutions. User could only add an existing PPDF to a solution and PPDF had not been exported and imported as part of the solution. With this new feature, we have made PPDF to be a first-class citizen of Solution.
When you include your dataflows in a solution, their definitions become portable, making it easier to move them from one environment to another, saving time required to author the dataflow.
Learn more at Dataflows in solutions – Power Query | Microsoft Learn
Call SQL Server stored procedures directly in Power Fx
We are excited to announce that you can now directly call SQL Server stored procedures in Power Fx. You no longer need to call a Power Automate Flow to use a stored procedure. This feature is in preview and currently in all regions. This makes development of Power Apps for SQL much easier. And your apps will be faster. The ability to call stored procedures for the SQL connector directly is an extension to the existing tabular model and gives users access to tables, views, and stored procedures. This feature extends our ongoing support of SQL Server as a primary development target for Power Apps.
Learn more at Call SQL Server stored procedures directly in Power Fx (Preview) | Microsoft Power Apps
End User Productivity
Draft with Copilot in canvas apps
We are excited to introduce the Public Preview release of Draft with Copilot for canvas apps used in a browser. With no app or configuration changes needed, Copilot will now work alongside users to help them draft well-written text for the text input fields within their apps. Draft with Copilot will be gradually rolling out to premium users in the US region over the next few weeks.
Learn more at Copilot now helps users draft text input in canvas apps | Microsoft Power Apps
General Availability for Shared Device Mode for Power Apps on iOS
We are excited to announce the General Availability (GA) of Shared Device Mode (SDM) for Power Apps Mobile App on shared iOS devices This now compliments the already released for Android devices, completing the SDM feature availability for Power Apps mobile.
This will allow you to configure Power Apps running on iOS 14 or higher devices to be more easily and securely shared by employees. Employees can sign-in once and get a single sign-on (SSO) to all apps that support this feature, giving them faster access to information. When they’re finished with their shifts or task, they can sign out of the device through any SDM supported apps, which will also sign them out of all apps supporting this feature, and the device is immediately ready for use by the next employee with no access to previous user’s data.
Learn more at Announcing General Availability for Shared Device Mode for Power Apps on iOS | Microsoft Power Apps
Introducing Copilot assistance for filling forms in model-driven apps
Are you tired of manually entering data into forms? It is time-consuming, error-prone, and can be a frustrating experience today. What if there was a better way? We’re excited to announce Copilot assistance for form filling in model-driven Power Apps. This new feature uses AI to generate suggestions for fields in main forms, making it easier and faster for you to enter data. Say goodbye to tedious data entry and hello to a more efficient and accurate way of filling out forms.
Form fill assistance uses AI to generate suggestions for fields in main forms, based on how you use the app, what information is already in the form, and your common data patterns. You can simply accept the suggestions that suit your needs. And don’t worry, nothing gets saved until you confirm it.
Learn more at Copilot assistance for form filling in model-driven apps – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn
We’ve also released new, and made updates to some of our documentation – see a summary before of some of the key updates:
Please continue sending us your feedback on features you would like to see in Power Apps. We hope that you enjoy the update!
