App Studio Deprecation
As government organizations started integrating their business applications into Microsoft Teams, our government customers have grown to love what App Studio offered and how it helped them bring in their business applications into Microsoft Teams.
From the familiar image above, the application, known as App Studio, has been deprecated for WW and GCC customers earlier this year.
“How can I build out my Teams apps without App Studio in GCC? How can I modify existing app manifests?”
New and improved!
Developer Portal Rollout
You’ll now be able to do much more with the Developer Portal for Teams app! Please note that this is a Teams application and not the website.
This article is intended for GCC and will highlight considerations for leveraging this app in the GCC environment.
Teams Developer Portal for GCC will allow developers to Configure, distribute, and manage Microsoft Teams apps.
Formerly App Studio, the Developer Portal can help wherever you are in your Microsoft Teams app development journey.
- Set up a new app or import an existing one.
- Configure your app’s capabilities and other important metadata.
- Edit app definitions and track manifest changes in real time.
- Enable app capabilities in one click.
- Get resources to help you build a high-quality app.
- Distribute your app to your org or the Teams store.
- Analyze your app’s usage, engagement, and other insights.
The portal also includes tools for designing custom virtual scenes, Adaptive Cards, and integrating with the Microsoft identity platform!
Important note: If do plan to leverage the Developer Portal website, you will not be able to create a new app or import and existing app. This is a known limitation for the Developer Portal webpage for GCC.
Teams Admins: How to enable
The Developer Portal for GCC app is currently listed as a 3rd party (3P) application. For Teams administrators, currently, the only way to currently access the Developer Portal for GCC app is by enabling Third-Party Applications in the Teams Admin Center and explicitly enabling the Developer Portal for GCC application for your tenant. Previous blog post for enabling 3P applications.
If 3P applications are not generally allowed in your organization, an option is to go into the Teams Admin Center > Teams app column > Permission Policies > Choose your pilot group or create a new and then ‘Allow specific apps and block all others.’ As an admin, you will have to specifically identify which 3P app that you are allowing in your organization.
If you received a warning that you must modify your Org-wide app settings, you will likely have to modify these settings located at the top-right corner under Teams apps > Permission Policies > click into your respective policy that you would like to modify > labeled Org-wide app settings.
Toggles you may want to consider are shown below.
The specific application that you’ll want to add via the ‘Status‘ toggle will be:
Features and Functionality
App and Tools Tabs
At the top of the app, you will notice two tabs, labeled App and Tools.
Within the App tab, you can create, register, and modify your Microsoft Teams applications.
Developer Portal Limitations
As Developer Portal for GCC is more robust than its predecessor, there are app features listed that are not functional due to GCC limitations. Currently, the ‘Connector’ app feature is not available in the Developer Portal in GCC.
We are continuing to improve and update this app. Please continue to check the Developer Portal page and your Message Center under the Teams Admin Center.
Summary
We are excited for our customers to use Developer Portal for GCC to create their applications! We do recommend trying it out and see our improvements from its predecessor. 
Please see our previous article, ‘Where to Start with Microsoft Teams Apps in Gov Clouds,’ as another reference for integration of non-Microsoft business applications into Teams.
For continued support, please reach out to your Customer Success Account Manager and Premier team.
