Apps, Integrations & Extensions in Teams

Teams is not just chat and meetings — it is a place you can bolt other tools onto, so the work happens where the conversation already is. Instead of bouncing between a dozen browser tabs, you bring the task board, the whiteboard, the survey, and the sign-off process into the channel. This module covers the most useful built-in apps and how to pin and arrange them so they are always a click away.

Tabs: pinning a tool to a channel

At the top of every channel is a row of tabs — starting with Posts and Files. Hit the + and you can add more: a specific document, a website, a Planner board, a Whiteboard, a Form. A tab is a permanent shortcut for the whole team, so the project plan or the team dashboard is always in the same spot. Adding the three or four tools a channel actually uses, as tabs, turns a chat room into a proper workspace.

Tasks: Planner and To Do

The Tasks app (which brings together Planner and your personal To Do) lets a team track who is doing what. Add a Planner board as a tab and you get cards you can assign to people, give due dates, and move across columns like “To do,” “Doing,” and “Done.” It is a lightweight project tracker living right next to the conversation, so nobody has to ask “what’s the status?” — they just open the tab.

Whiteboard and Loop for thinking together

Whiteboard is an infinite digital canvas for sketching, sticky notes, and diagrams — perfect for brainstorms, whether live in a meeting or async afterward. Loop (the same living components from Module 5) lets you embed editable tables, checklists and notes that stay in sync everywhere they appear. Both turn a flat conversation into something people can build on together.

Forms and Approvals: structure on demand

Forms lets you create a quick poll, quiz, or survey and drop it straight into a channel — handy for picking a date, gathering feedback, or running a sign-up without a spreadsheet. Approvals is a small but mighty app for sign-offs: request an approval, route it to the right person, and get a clear, recorded yes-or-no. Instead of “did you approve that budget?” buried in chat, there is an auditable record of who said yes and when.

Rule of thumb: if you find yourself constantly linking out to the same external tool, add it as a tab. Bring the work to where the talking happens, not the other way around.

Spot it: the right app for the job

Read each situation and decide for yourself, then tap a card to flip it and check your answer.

Sort the apps

Drag each item into the bucket it belongs to — or tap an item, then tap a bucket. Hit Check placement when you’re done.

How to use it

Look at how your channel actually works and pin the three or four tools it leans on as tabs — usually a Planner board, a key document, and maybe a Whiteboard. Use Forms for any quick poll or survey instead of a messy chat thread of replies. Route real sign-offs through Approvals so there is a clean record. And keep it lean: a channel with twenty tabs is as confusing as one with none. Useful phrases: “I’ve added a Planner tab so we can track this.” “Vote in the Form I pinned up top.” “Send it through Approvals so we have it on record.” A well-tabbed channel quietly does the work of half a dozen separate apps.