View and manage user requests

Apps are essential for productivity and collaboration in Teams. However, some apps may not meet your organization's security and compliance requirements. To ensure that users can only use apps that are approved by your organization, you can review them for approval and blocking.

The apps that are blocked in your organization may affect user productivity and collaboration. Users can't use blocked apps but can view such apps and app information in the Teams store. Teams lets users request an approval from admins to allow the usage of blocked apps. You can evaluate these apps and choose to approve blocked apps as well.

The app approval functionality provides you with a signal about the demand for an app within your organization. You can easily view the aggregate number of requests for each requested app. It helps you make an informed decision about which apps to evaluate for allowing.

Here are the options for handling user requests:

• When a user requests an app, the request is sent to the Teams admin center. You can view user requests and approve and deny requests.

  

• Admin center lets you optionally configure the user request experience that is best suited for your organization. You can provide a custom message for additional instructions that displays for each blocked app, and/or a custom URL that will route users to the external link.

  

View user requests in Teams admin center

You can view user requests in the Teams admin center from the following locations:

• Dashboard widget
• Manage apps widget
• All apps table (Manage apps page)
• User requests tab (App details page)

Dashboard widget

On your Teams admin center dashboard, the Review user app requests* widget displays requested apps.

1. Click See all app requests to land on the Manage apps page with the Most requested apps card.

   

2. Click See all app requests to view the list of requested apps.

*If you are unable to see the Review user app requests widget, you can add it to your dashboard by clicking the icon.

Manage apps widget

Any request from users for an app lands on a Most requested app card on your Teams admin center dashboard.

Select See all app requests to view the list of requested apps. You can sort the app list by name, app status or the number of requests. The list is sorted in descending order by default.

You can also click Review to start acting on the user request.

All apps table (Manage apps page)

On the Manage apps page, you can view the list of requested apps under the All apps table. The Filter by action option is set at All by default.

You can change the Filter by action option to Apps requests to view the list of requested apps. You can sort the app list by name, app status or the number of requests. The list is sorted in descending order by default.

When you change the Filter by action option to Apps requests, a new option appears. You can use this to set up a rule for a notification to be sent when a user requests an app. For more information, see Set up notifications for user requests.

User requests tab (App details page)

You can view the app requests and email contact of each requester of an app by going to the User requests tab in the app details page.

Set up notifications for user requests

On the Manage apps page, you can set up a rule to receive notifications when a user requests an app. A user can also trigger a similar flow from the Rules page.

To set up the notification, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to See all app requests. A list of requested apps appears, along with a notification To make it easier to see app requests, set up a Teams channel alert in Rules.

   

2. Select Set up alert. The Rules page appears with a list of existing rules.

   

3. Select Requests to use an app. The App requests rule page appears. Here you can set up the rule conditions to receive new app notifications in a Teams channel.

   

Once your rule is set up, you receive notifications in the specified Teams channel whenever a user requests an app. The notification includes the name of the requested app and the number of requests received for that app.

Act on the user requests to approve or deny available apps

After you evaluate an app, you can either approve or deny the requests.

Approve a single request

To approve a single request for an app:

1. On the Manage apps, Most requested apps card, select Review. The app details page appears with the User requests tab highlighted. This tab lists the names and email addresses of all requesters for the app.

   The available actions at this stage are Approve all and Deny all.

2. Select the available radio button for the request you want to approve. The available actions at this stage changes to Approve and Deny.

   

3. Select Approve to approve the request.

Approve multiple requests

To approve multiple requests for an app, repeat the above steps. However, select the available radio buttons for specific requests which you want to approve before selecting Approve.

Approve all requests

To approve all requests for an app or approve the app for the entire organization:

1. On the Manage apps, Most requested apps card, select Review. The app details page appears with the User requests tab highlighted. This tab lists the names and email addresses of all requesters for the app.

   The available actions at this stage are Approve all and Deny all.

2. Select Approve all. A popup appears with the options for you to approve all the requests or approve the app for the entire organization.

   • If you select Approve, all the app requests are approved and the available list is cleared.

     

     App availability changes to Select users and groups.

     

   • If you select Approve for the organization, the app is approved for all users in your organization and the available list is cleared.

     App availability changes to Everyone.

     

After you approve an app, the following happens:

• Users can see the Add option for the approved app in the Teams app store.
• Users get a notification on their Teams when their request is approved.
• The Users and groups tab will either show 'everyone' if approved for your org, or the general group that all users are added to once their request is approved.

Deny a single request for an app

To deny a single request for an app:

1. On the Manage apps, Most requested apps card, select Review. The app details page appears with the User requests tab highlighted. This tab lists the names and email addresses of all requesters for the app.

   The available actions at this stage are Approve all and Deny all.

2. Select the available radio button for the request you want to deny. The available actions at this stage changes to Approve and Deny.

   

3. Select Deny to deny the request.

Deny multiple requests for an app

To deny multiple requests for an app, repeat the above steps. However, select the available radio buttons for specific requests which you want to deny before selecting Deny.

Deny all requests for an app

To deny all requests for an app:

1. On the Manage apps, Most requested apps card, select Review. The app details page appears with the User requests tab highlighted. This tab lists the names and email addresses of all requesters for the app.

   The available actions at this stage are Approve all and Deny all.

2. Select Deny all. The options to select Deny or Cancel the action appears.

   • If you select Deny, all the app requests are denied and the list is cleared.

   

   • If you select Cancel, you can review all requests individually.

After you deny an app, the following happens:

• Users can see the Request approval option for the denied app in the Teams app store.
• Teams informs the requesters that their request has been dismissed.
• Users can again request the same app to be allowed, after a few hours of you dismissing requests.

Act on user requests to approve blocked apps

For apps which are blocked for an organization, in addition to approving requests, admins will need to unblock the apps to make them available and usable by users. If the request is approved, but the app remains in a blocked state, the user is unable to use the app.

Approve a single request for a blocked app

1. On the Manage apps, Most requested apps card, select Review. The app details page appears with the User requests tab highlighted. This tab lists the names and email addresses of all requesters for the blocked app.

   The available actions at this stage are Approve all and Deny all.

2. Select the available radio button for the request you want to approve. The available actions at this stage changes to Approve and Deny.

3. Select Approve. A popup appears with the options Approve and unblock and Approve and keep blocked.

   • Select Approve and unblock to approve the request and unblock the app for the user. User is notified on Teams.

   

   • Select Approve and keep blocked to approve the request but keep the app blocked for the user. End user notifications are withheld until the app is unblocked.

   

Approve all requests for a blocked app

The procedure and end result for approving all requests for a blocked app is similar to approving a single request for a blocked app. The only difference is that you select Approve all at step 2 instead of selecting a single request.

Receive user requests on your custom webpage

Teams provides a default message for users to request approval to an app. You can modify the default setting to add a custom message with instructions, org-specific URL, or both. The modifications are displayed for each app in Teams store.

To configure a custom message and redirect users to an org-specific URL, follow the steps:

1. Sign into the Teams admin center and go to Teams apps > Manage apps.

2. At the upper-right corner, select Org-wide app settings.

3. To display a custom message or instruction in Teams store, enter a text message in text field under User requests configuration. The field has a limit of 300 characters.

4. To provide an org-specific URL to collect user requests, follow the steps:

   1. Turn on the Redirect requests to external link toggle.

   2. Provide your org-specific URL.

      

5. Select Save.

If you choose to use this custom method to receive requests, the methods to evaluate apps and govern the requested apps remain the same.

Related article

• Overview of how to manage third-party apps