In many application scenarios, the use of toast notifications is essential to enhance user engagement by delivering relevant and timely information directly within the application. In PowerApps, in-app notifications allow makers to configure contextual and actionable notifications for users in model-driven apps.
Makers now have the option to add actions to the notification, which users can directly take from the notification card. In addition to the URL action type, which navigates to a specified web address, two new action types have been introduced.
The side pane action type allows the opening of a side pane within the app to load a defined form or custom page. This provides users with a seamless experience and easy access to specific information. The team’s chat action type enables initiating a Microsoft Teams chat session directly from the app notification. This feature leverages the embedded Teams functionality for Dynamics 365 apps, enabling sellers and agents to communicate within customer engagement apps such as Sales Hub, Customer Service Hub, and custom apps.
To support these scenarios, a new send app notification API has been introduced, allowing developers to incorporate in-app notifications using the client API (WebAPI) or .NET SDK, as they would with other Dataverse APIs. Moreover, to facilitate citizen makers in implementing in-app notifications more easily, new Power FX functions for the API have been introduced. These functions provide intuitive assistance and streamline the process of sending notifications.
For instance, let’s consider Evan, a citizen maker who aims to add in-app notifications to the Sales Hub app. Evan wants the assigned user to receive an in-app notification whenever a new task is created. To achieve this, Evan creates an automated plugin using the send app notification function. Within this plugin, Evan defines actions on the notification, allowing the user to open the task in a side pane and initiate a Teams chat with the account owner, which is linked to the account record. Evan utilizes Power FX with IntelliSense to assist in completing the automated actions.
Once the automated plugin is created, whenever a new task is assigned to Evan, he receives a notification within the Sales Hub app. From there, he can choose to view the task, which opens the record in a side pane and presents actions associated with the record. Additionally, Evan can start a Teams chat with the account manager, and this chat is linked to the customer account record, making it accessible within the customer’s timeline.
These new features offer additional functionality for contextual and actionable in-app notifications. They empower citizen makers to incorporate these features into their apps through low-code development.