M365 Changelog: Create and use approval templates in the Teams Approvals app

MC246003 – Updated May 18, 2021: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Tenant admins and team owners will have access to out-of-the-box templates in the Teams Approval app with this update.

Templates make it easier for end users to create and submit an approval request. The Approvals app, which is available as a personal app for all Microsoft Teams users, provides a simple way to bring auditing, compliance, accountability, and workflows to both structured and unstructured Approvals in Teams.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81408 

When this will happen

Approval app templates will be generally available beginning at the end of May (previously mid-May) and expect to complete by mid-June (previously end of May).

How this will affect your organization

Teams admins and owners can quickly create an approval template by selecting from out-of-the-box templates or by creating one from scratch templates within the Approvals app.

They access Template management via the overflow menu […]. This animation illustrates the template creation flow:

Capture

What you need to do to prepare

Tenant admins or team owners will need to create and publish templates within the Approvals app. 

You might want to notify your users about this new capability and update your training and documentation as appropriate. 

Learn how to manage the Teams Approvals app in your tenant .