{"id":22877,"date":"2024-09-10T08:31:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T15:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoft365dev\/?p=22877"},"modified":"2024-09-10T10:29:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T17:29:32","slug":"how-asynchronous-link-unfurling-increases-your-microsoft-teams-apps-visibility-and-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoft365dev\/how-asynchronous-link-unfurling-increases-your-microsoft-teams-apps-visibility-and-adoption\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase your Microsoft Teams app\u2019s visibility and adoption with asynchronous link unfurling"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key to viral growth for your Microsoft Teams app hinges on users sharing content from your app within group chats, meetings, and company-wide posts in Teams channels. Widespread sharing boosts engagement among your existing users and captures the attention of potential new users. As they see their coworkers benefiting from your app and enhancing productivity, they\u2019re more likely to install the app themselves, contributing to a virtuous cycle of adoption and usage across the entire organization.<\/p>\n

To amplify this cycle and improve user experience, an effective strategy is to boost the visibility and clickthrough rates of shared links from your app by leveraging link unfurling, now enhanced with asynchronous capabilities!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Link<\/a>Link unfurling: enriching shared links with your app\u2019s content <\/em><\/p>\n

Link unfurling enriches hundreds of thousands of links shared by Teams users daily by automatically adding an interactive content preview, showcasing your app\u2019s value and increasing the likelihood of users engaging with the link.<\/p>\n

With zero-install link unfurling, viewers can preview content without having installed your app, boosting discovery of its capabilities and motivating new users to click the link and install your app for deeper engagement with the content shared by their trusted colleagues.<\/p>\n

New asynchronous capabilities make link unfurling more effective<\/h2>\n

“Asynchronous link unfurling in Microsoft Teams has revolutionized how Atlassian apps deliver content. This feature enables users to experience smoother, faster conversations without delays from loading links, significantly boosting engagement and productivity within our Teams-integrated apps.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 Muthukumar R., Principal Product Manager, Atlassian<\/p>\n

Link unfurling has greatly boosted app visibility, and new asynchronous features enhance its efficacy, eliminating the need for users to wait in the compose box for the link to unfurl before sending messages.<\/p>\n

Previously, users needed to wait for their link to unfurl in the message compose box prior to sending the message. Now, with asynchronous link unfurling, links automatically unfurl after the message has been sent, greatly increasing the number of links unfurling.<\/p>\n

\"AsynchronousAsynchronous link unfurling: unfurling a link in a sent message<\/em><\/p>\n

If you already have link unfurling built into your Teams app, asynchronous link unfurling abilities are enabled by default. So, sit back and enjoy a drink as you show your boss a bump in app visibility and installs without any additional development effort.<\/p>\n

If you have not enabled link unfurling yet, the good news is it is easy to implement improving your user experience and boosting your app\u2019s adoption today.<\/p>\n

How to get started<\/h2>\n

Determine what type of link unfurling you need<\/h3>\n

With link unfurling for Teams, flexibility is key. Whether your app requires authentication, installation or not, link unfurling allows you to provide a seamless experience for your app\u2019s users.<\/p>\n

How do we do it? When a user shares a link in Teams, we first check to see if we can match it to a Teams app to generate a specified preview for it and handle the authentication flow as needed by your app. If the link doesn\u2019t map to a Teams app, then we create a preview of your web site through basic or rich actionable previews.<\/p>\n

This illustration shows you a quick view of the different options available for utilizing link unfurling:<\/p>\n

\"A To learn more about how to implement link unfurling previews using your Teams app, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Teams app developers: use zero-install link unfurling for your app<\/h3>\n

With zero-install link unfurling, whenever one of your links is shared in Teams, your app can automatically unfurl it, showcasing its value and capabilities directly within the conversation, even if the user hasn’t discovered or installed your app before.<\/p>\n

The zero-install link unfurling experience is governed by all Teams admin security policies, which means that if an app is blocked at the tenant level, zero-install link unfurling won\u2019t preview it.<\/p>\n

To utilize zero-install link unfurling with your app follow 3 main steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Prepare your app, opt-in via manifest\n