Use app centric management to manage apps
Important
All organizations don't have app centric management (ACM) feature available. If you were not using custom permission policies and you weren't an enterprise customer, we migrated your organization to use this feature. If you are using custom permission policies or you are an enterprise customer, then you will soon be able to migrate to ACM feature on your own. For timelines, see Message Center post MC688930 or Microsoft 365 roadmap item 151829.
If you see policies on the permission policies page, continue to use app permission policies to control user access to apps. If the ACM feature is available in your org, you will see the following message on the policy page.
App centric management functionality introduces a new way to control how you control access to Teams apps for users and groups. It replaces app permission policies. This functionality lets you specify which users and groups can use each app and you can control it on a per-app basis.
When you start using this functionality, we retain your existing app access that you defined using permission policies. Users continue to have access to only those apps that you allow for them.
You can manage access to apps for individual users, supported groups, or everyone in the organization. You have complete control over who can or can't add and use apps in your organization. You can also control the access to new apps that we publish to Teams app store.
How is app centric management different than permission policy
Previously, when using permission policies, you determined access to apps using the following three settings:
- Org-wide app setting for third party apps: It applies at an org-level and controls if all third party apps are available for every user or not.
- App status: It applies at an app-level as allow or block and controls if it's available to any user or not.
- Permission policy: It applies at a user-level and controls if a specific user is permitted to use an app or not.
App centric management feature simplifies these settings. Each app contains its access definition using a list of users and groups that you assign to the app. It lets you manage each app individually based on your user's needs and organization's compliance and risk posture.
When using this functionality, you determine access to apps using one of the following options for each app:
| New option | What is the app availability | How does it map with previous settings |
|---|---|---|
Everyone |
Available to all org users | Same effect as allowing an app and global (Org-wide default) app permission policy allowing all users to use it. |
Specific users or groups |
Only the users and groups that you select can use the app. The supported group types are security groups, Microsoft 365 groups, dynamic user membership groups, nested groups, and the distribution lists. | Same as using a custom app permission policy to restrict the use of app to selected users or groups. |
No one |
Not available to any user | Same as a blocked app. |
The method to allow users access to an app changes with this functionality. In the past, to allow access to a user, you'd add the app as an allowed app in a policy and assign that policy to the user. Using this functionality, you just modify the availability of an app to let selected users use it. Also, you don't have to create multiple policies for different combinations across allowed apps and permitted users.
Migrate to app centric management
Previously, we automatically migrated organizations that weren't using any custom policies. Admins can now do an on-demand migration. Understand the difference between the two types of migration.
| Considerations | Assisted migration | Automatic migration |
|---|---|---|
| Who does it | Administrator | Microsoft |
| Requirement | Org uses one or more custom policies | Org uses only the default global policy |
| Nature of migration | Guided UI in admin center | Automatic, without admin intervention |
| Existing app access | No change | No change |
To migrate, follow these steps:
We strongly recommend that you prepare for the migration. To do so, take inventory of the apps that you have in the custom permission policies and identify the groups that can represent the current app permissions policy assignments. During the migration, you're required to provide the users and groups for these apps as the existing app permission policy assignments aren't carried forward in their current state.
Log into Teams admin center and access Teams apps > Permission policies page and select Get started.
Select policies that you want to migrate. The page displays all the policies that have users assigned to them. Select Next. Unselected policies can’t be migrated later.
Verify the app availability for the users on the next page. In the following three tabs, it shows a list of apps from your Org-wide app settings and the app permission policies that you choose to migrate.
- Available to everyone: List of apps allowed for everyone in your organization.
- Available to specific users and groups: List of apps that are selectively allowed for at least one org user or a supported group.
- Available to no one: List of apps that nobody in the org can use.
In each tab, you can modify the app availability to one of the three app availability types, as necessary. Apps that are not present in all selected policies will appear in the “Available to specific users and groups tab. It must be assigned to one or more user or group before you can proceed. The existing user assignments from app permission policies aren't transferred and aren't applicable here.
Tip
If you see almost all the apps as available to specific users and groups, you likely have policies that have conflicting apps availability. For example, a policy that allows all apps and another policy that blocks all apps. In such a scenario, we recommend that you uncheck the policy that leads to a conflict and select the apps that are in use from the list.
You can validate the changes on a per-app or a per-user basis. Select a tab and type the name of the app or the user.
On the final review UI, you can see the apps, their availability, and the Org-wide app settings that apply after the migration. You can download this information as a CSV file to evaluate further. Once assured, select Start migration and follow the prompts.
During migration, you can save a draft of the migration progress using the Finish later option. Also, you can cancel and delete the saved draft using the Reset all changes option.
Note
The existing Manage apps UI gets disabled when you start the migration. If you aren't ready to proceed or want to make change to the exiting permission policies, open the wizard and select the Reset all changes option. You can restart the migration again.
After migration, your blocked apps continue to remain unavailable to users. Such apps show as unblocked now but are assigned to No one in the Available to column on the Manage apps page. It means that org user can't use the app, just as you intended before.
Add or modify app availability for users
To assign users or groups to an app, follow these steps:
In Teams admin center, go to the Manage apps page, search for the required app, and select the app name to open its app details page. You can't assign apps in bulk.
Select the Assignments tab.
Select Assign or Assign app.
Select the required option from Manage who can install this app menu. When assigning users or groups, search for the user or the group from the Search for users or groups menu. Select Apply.
To remove one or more users or groups from an app, select the rows and select Remove.
Note
The apps that you blocked previously, show as unblocked now but assigned to No one in the Available to column on the Manage apps page. It means that no org user can use the app.
Default settings for app availability
In addition to defining the availability of an app, you can also control the default app availability of any new apps. You can control it for each type of app. For new organizations, the default setting is set to let users install apps by default. For existing organizations, old settings are mapped to new access settings.
To change this default setting, access Manage apps page, select Actions > Org-wide app settings, and modify the required settings.
The Org-wide app settings apply to:
- All the new apps made available in Teams app store.
- All the existing apps that you didn't actively manage, that is, you didn't change the availability of.
The Org-wide app settings don’t apply to:
- All apps that have user assignment set to Specific users and groups and saved by you.
- All apps that were assigned to Everyone or to No one and saved individually.
- Any apps in blocked state.
Consider a scenario where you started using the feature and all apps were assigned to everyone. Now, you changed an app's availability to a specific group or users. After saving such an availability, if you change the Org-wide app setting titled Let users install and use available apps by default, then this particular app continues to be assigned to the specific group or users. Your change to the org-wide app setting applies only to those apps for which you didn't change the availability. Further, if you again change the Let users install and use available apps by default setting, the availability of all other apps are again impacted, except the app that you actively managed.
View apps in your organization
You can view all apps in the catalog and easily access the app availability from the Manage apps page. You can sort and filter using all three types of app availability. To know about the Microsoft-provided apps, see list of Microsoft created apps.
View all apps assigned to a specific user
On the Manage users page, select a user to open the user details page, and select the Apps tab. The tab lists the apps that the user has access to. To easily locate the type of access for an app, you can search for the name of the app.
Each app displays the type of its availability, which indicates how the user was assigned to the app: through availability to everyone, direct availability to a user, or through a group. The list shows only those apps that are assigned to the user and that are allowed in the organization for use. Apps assigned to no one and app that are blocked in the organization don't appear in this list.
You can remove app availability for a user. Select an app that is directly assigned to the user and select Remove. You can’t remove availability for a user if the app is available to everyone or to a group.
Mapping between old permission policies and new app availability
When your tenant's admin center receives this feature, the following updates are made to the app access. The access to apps doesn't change and the update only maps your existing permission policies to new availability.
| App permission policy and org settings earlier | Org-wide app settings while using this feature |
|---|---|
Global permission policy for Microsoft apps was Allow all or Global permission policy for Microsoft apps was Block an app(s), allow all others |
Allow users install available apps by default for Microsoft apps is set to on |
Global permission policy for Microsoft apps was Block all or Global permission policy for Microsoft apps was Allow app(s), Block all others |
Allow users install available apps by default for Microsoft apps is set to off |
Third party app setting in the Org-wide app settings was set to on; New third party app setting in the org-wide app setting was set to on; Global permission policy for third party apps was Allow all; or Global permission policy for third party apps was Block an app(s), allow all others |
Allow users install available apps by default for third party apps is set to on |
third party app setting in the Org-wide app settings was set to off; New third party app setting in the org-wide app setting was set to off; Global permission policy for third party apps was Block all; or Global permission policy for third party apps was Allow app(s), Block all others |
Allow users install available apps by default for third party apps is set to off |
Global permission policy for Custom apps was Allow all or Global permission policy for Custom apps was Block an app(s), allow all others |
Allow users install available apps by default for custom apps is set to on |
Global permission policy for custom apps was Block all or Global permission policy for custom apps was Allow app(s), Block all others |
Allow users install available apps by default for custom apps is set to off |
| App status earlier | Permission policy applied earlier | App availability when using this feature |
|---|---|---|
| Blocked | Blocked | No one can install |
| Blocked | Allowed | No one can install |
| Allowed | Blocked | No one can install |
| Allowed | Allowed | Everyone |
Considerations and limitations
After migration, your blocked apps continue to remain unavailable to users. Such apps show as unblocked now but are assigned to
No onein theAvailable tocolumn on the Manage apps page. It means that no org user can use the app as you intended before.After you switch to this feature, you can't access, edit, or use permission policies. Once your organization migrates, you can't revert the migration.
You can't define availability of apps in bulk.
PowerShell cmdlets for permission policies aren't supported in organizations that migrate to this feature. App centric management feature replaces permission policies. While the cmdlet seems to succeed, but the changes aren't applied to your org.
App availability to nested groups isn't supported in Teams admin center. If you assign an app to a nested group, the app is only available to the direct descendants.
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