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Overview

This guide will walk you through the process of upgrading your Legacy Teams App deployments. You can check to see if you have Legacy Teams apps deployed by navigating to Thread Admin Panel > Clients. If you see the following banner, you need to upgrade all Teams apps before March 31st, 2026, or they will could functioning for your clients**.**
We are now past the deadline and Microsoft can and will choose to depreciate the legacy app at any time. If you do not Upgrade your app, you could lose service at ANY TIME.
Thread Admin Panel banner prompting a legacy Teams app upgrade
You need to upgrade your legacy teams Apps because Microsoft is deprecating older authentication methods due to security vulnerabilities. The new Teams app includes several new features that will improve your client experience:
  • Full SSO - Clients will no longer need to sign in with their Microsoft Credentials when opening the application the first time.
  • Auto-Update Capability - You shouldn’t need to update your apps again; they will stay up-to-date automatically.
Below is step by step guild on how to update your Teams apps.

Preliminary Steps

1

Open an incognito browser session

Open a separate browser session in incognito mode to ensure you sign into the correct Microsoft Teams environment.
2

Sign in to the Thread Admin Panel

Sign in to the Thread Admin Panel and Navigate to the Clients tab.
Clients tab in the Thread Admin Panel
If you have lots of Legacy Apps to upgrade we recommend exporting list to CSV to share the upgrade work to multiple people. The csv will give you Client Name and direct link to App Deployment page of that client.
Exporting the list of legacy apps to CSV

Deployment Process

1

Open the client's App Deployment page

You can click on the Legacy Service Bot from the Clients page or use the direct link from the csv if you downloaded it.Both ways will end you up on the following page below:
Client App Deployment page for the Legacy Service Bot
Legacy Service Bot deployment details
2

Click Update Now

Click on Update Now button You will get the following pop-up just warning you that if you do the upgrade during your clients business hours they may lose the ability to use the Teams Support app for a few hours.
Update Now confirmation pop-up warning of possible downtime
We recommend doing this outside of business hours
3

Click Continue

Click Continue you will see the screen below:
Screen shown after clicking Continue on the upgrade
4

Copy the Magic Link and authenticate

Click “Copy link” next to the Magic Link and paste it into a new tab in your current incognito browser session. When you navigate to the Magic Link, you’ll be prompted to authenticate with an Administrator account in the customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant. Enter the username for that account and click Next.
5

Enter the password and complete MFA

Enter the password and complete any required MFA (multi-factor authentication).
Microsoft 365 password and MFA prompt
6

Grant permissions for the bot

You will be prompted to grant permissions for the bot. Click Accept.If this step was successful, you will see a confirmation screen similar to below:
Prompt to grant permissions for the bot
Confirmation screen after granting permissions
7

Open the Teams Admin Center setup policies

Navigate to the Teams Admin Center ( https://admin.teams.microsoft.com) -> Teams apps -> Setup policies.
Teams Admin Center setup policies page
8

Select the Global (Org-wide default) policy

Click Global (Org-wide default). The Global policy will apply to all users in the environment, but if you want to limit who in your customer’s environment can use and interact with the application, you can set up your own policy assignment here. Follow our guide on How to roll out the Teams Service app to specific users here.
Global (Org-wide default) setup policy
9

Add the app under Installed apps

Under the Installed apps section, click the Add apps button
Add apps button under the Installed apps section
10

Find and add the installed app

An Add installed apps sidebar will appear. Search for the app based on the Teams app name you defined when building your custom teams app. Find the app, click Add and Add again at the bottom of the panel.
Add installed apps sidebar searching for the custom Teams app
11

Add the app under Pinned apps

Under the Pinned apps section, click the + Add apps button.
Add apps button under the Pinned apps section
12

Pin the app and save

Search for the app based on the Teams app name you defined when building your custom teams app. Find the app, click Add and Add again at the bottom of the panel.You will see the app under Pinned apps. If you want the app to feature prominently in your users Teams, you can move it up or down and click Save when done.
Custom app listed under Pinned apps
Saved pinned app order in the setup policy
Congrats you have upgraded your Legacy Teams app in your customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant. After a short wait period, your end users are ready to start using Messenger.
It may take time for the app to show up in users’ Teams environment, due to Microsoft internal publishing process. Allow up to 24 hours for these changes to complete.