Exploring Power BI In Microsoft Teams

In this article, we will be talking about the new Power BI experience in Microsoft Teams. During Ignite 2020, Microsoft announced that users can now use Power BI Service from teams without leaving the context of Teams. This feature is very useful for modern workspace users where we can use Microsoft Team as a centralized place where we can use consume Power BI inside the Teams.

Here, I’m going to discuss some of the interesting features of Microsoft Teams with Power BI.

Adding Power BI Application to Teams Left Navigation
Search any Power BI Reports using Teams Search
Share Power BI Report with Teams Channel or Individual Users
“Chat in Teams” for Power BI Reports and Dashboards
Add Power BI Report as a Tab in Microsoft Teams

So, now let’s get started!

Add Power BI Application to Teams Left Navigation

Open Microsoft Teams
From Left Navigation click on ellipses and search for Power BI.

Click on Add

This will add the Power BI application to the left navigation of teams.

Once the Power BI is added as an app we can see a similar UI like Power BI Service in Teams.

Search any Power BI Reports using Teams Search

We can search our Power BI reports, workspaces from a Teams search without leaving the Teams context.

Open Teams Search
Start the Search with @Power BI

This will ask to login.
Then this will populate all the reports, workspace, and dashboards based on the search term.

This will open the following card. You can either open or subscribe to the report without leaving the teams context here.

Share Power BI Report with Teams Channel or Individual Users

Open a Teams channel and click on New Conversation.

You will find the Power BI icon.

This will require signing in with Power BI Service.
Select any report.

That will post a card like this to Team's personal chat or channel.

“Chat in Teams” for Power BI Reports and Dashboards

Open any Power BI report in Microsoft Teams
We will have “Chat in Teams” option there.

Select the Teams channel and click on share.

If you want to highlight a specific visual for a chat in Teams, then click on ellipses and select “Chat in Teams”. That will highlight that visual and share that in Teams.

The shared report and Teams will be looking like the below screen.

If you try to open the same, it will open in the Teams context without leaving teams.

Add Power BI report and App as a Tab in Microsoft Teams

Open Microsoft Teams and click on the + icon to add a tab.

Select Power BI.

Expand workspace and select the report you want to add as Tab.

Click on Save.
This will add a Power BI report as a Tab.

Note

To access the Power BI report in Teams, users should have sufficient permission on Power BI Service and Teams as well. Also, the user should have an Active Power BI Pro License to view the report.

Conclusion

This is how we can leverage the Power BI capabilities within Teams without losing Teams context. Isn’t that amazing?

Happy Reporting!!