In the last year, Power BI has been on a mission to empower every individual, team, and organization to seamlessly infuse data into their work in Microsoft Teams. We’re excited to announce we’re embarking on the next chapter of this effort by extending these experiences into Outlook and Office. In this blog we’ll share what you can expect, how to get ready, and the high-level timelines for when it will roll-out to users.
Note: The roll-out of these new capabilities has started for users enrolled in Microsoft 365 Targeted Release and Office Insiders programs. Outlook for Windows needs to be installed from the Beta Channel. The experiences are rolling out gradually. If you don’t see it in your Outlook or Office experiences don’t worry it has simply not been enabled for you yet. Learn more.
The value of using data everywhere you work, now in Outlook and Office
We’ve already seen how valuable adding Power BI to Microsoft Teams is to enable everyone in an organization to participate in a data culture.
Data culture is simply the practice of using data on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to generate impact. This is easier when up to date and trustworthy data is always one click away right where you already work.
Now, we’re starting to bring these highly engaging experiences to Outlook and Office. Outlook for Windows, Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Office.com are some of the most used tools by information workers today.
By providing experiences in Outlook and Office.com, users can focus more on their tasks, experience fewer expensive context switches, and find data at their fingertips in the flow of their work.
Importantly, organizations are empowered to distribute authoritative, trustworthy, and governed datasets even more broadly to their workforce. This accelerates efforts to build one source of truth in Power BI. It’s a critical step since data culture works best when everyone participates, no matter their skill level, their job role, or their seniority in the organization.
Using Power BI in Outlook
Email is a fundamental productivity tool for most workers. The Power BI app is becoming available in Outlook for Windows and Outlook for the Web (OWA). We’ll refer to both as Outlook.
In Outlook you’ll find Power BI in the apps list and open the same fully featured and highly interactive experience as you see in Microsoft Teams.
When you write or reply to emails, you’ll also have the messaging extension. This lets you quickly answer questions with rich cards. With a built-in recently viewed items experience and search, it helps you find and share data when replying to emails. In a future update, links you paste in Outlook email will be transformed into these cards as well (sometimes called unfurling).
Using Power BI in Office
Office.com is a launch point for your work. It brings together content, activity, and now apps to help you complete tasks and stay focused. Naturally, the Power BI app is becoming available in Office.com as well.
In Office, you’ll find Power BI in the apps list and open the same fully featured and highly interactive experience as you see in Microsoft Teams.
On the Create page, you’ll find a fast way to jump start your report creation in Power BI alongside other core productivity tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
How do I get these experiences?
During the preview period, the experiences are rolling out using Microsoft 365 Targeted Release program and the Office Insiders program.
To try the experiences, join Microsoft 365 Targeted Release to try the Power BI app for Outlook for the web and Office.com. To try the experiences in Outlook for Windows, join the Office Insiders program and install Outlook for Windows from the Beta Channel.
The apps experiences in Outlook and Office will roll-out progressively. With the initial release, 20% of users will have the capability. It will roll-out to all users in Targeted Release and Beta Channel in the coming months.
The Power BI app for Teams, Outlook, and Office is a single app. If you have the app installed in Microsoft Teams, it will automatically be available to you in Outlook and Office once the experiences roll-out to you. Additionally, if you install the app from the store experience in Outlook or Office, it will appear in all three experiences.
The Power BI app in Outlook and Office is governed by Teams Admins and Power BI Admins. Teams Admins can allow the Power BI app using Teams Admin center. The Power BI Admin can choose how the app is promoted and installed from the Power BI service using Power BI admin settings. These control points also control the app in all three experiences. It is not possible to allow the app in Teams but not allow it in Outlook or Office.
How to: Set up the Standard or Targeted release options – Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs
How to: Join the Office Insider Program (microsoft.com)
What are the differences between the Power BI app in Teams, Outlook, and Office?
In short, it’s the same app with the same planned capabilities. The Power BI app for Microsoft Teams is in General Availability and continues to be fully supported for production use. All its capabilities are available today.
The Power BI app is in preview in Outlook and Office. There are several experiences, most notably export, file download, and the paste or enter data manually options that are coming soon. There are plans in place to enable all these features in the coming weeks and months. If you need these features, just use the globe icon to open the item in the web browser and complete your task.
The Power BI app is the same across Teams, Outlook, and Office. The app is installed and updated from a single unified Office store. This means that users who have the Power BI app installed in Teams will also see that app in their Outlook and Office.
We’re looking for feedback!
As we release this preview of the Power BI app in Outlook and Office, we’re excited to hear from you how you’d like these experiences to evolve. Leave a comment or head over to https://ideas.powerbi.com to leave a feature suggestion.
Next steps
Microsoft Teams apps designed for Microsoft 365 coming to Office and Outlook
Ignite 2021: Building apps for collaboration in a hybrid world – Microsoft 365 Developer Blog
Manage access to Teams apps across Microsoft 365 – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs
Set up the Standard or Targeted release options – Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs