We’ve had some big announcements across Power Platform come out of the Microsoft Build Conferences this week- from the addition of some new logos, the welcome of the 5th member of the Power Platform family, the ability to create an app from an image, and massive improvements to PVA.
New logos
Power Platform and Power Fx now have logos of their own.
Power Pages
Power Pages makes up the 5th tool on the Power Platform, and covers the capability of creating your own low-code/no-code website. This was previously known as Power Apps Portals, but is now available as a standalone product. With Power Pages, you’ll get some new templates to start from and more customisation capabilities (both no-code and pro-code).
Give it a go yourself! You can sign up for a free trial of Power Pages here: Microsoft Power Pages | Microsoft Power Platform
Check out this session from MS Build on demand for a deep dive into Power Pages.
Express Design
Turn design files and images into low code apps
How often do you map out your app screens on paper or somewhere else before you start building it? If you’ve already designed your app elsewhere, with express design in Power Apps you can simply upload it- whether it’s PDF, PowerPoint, paper form, screenshot of a legacy UI, picture of a hand-drawn app or a Figma design. In a few clicks, your design will be converted into a working Power App.
You can get started with this today at https://make.powerapps.com/. You’ll notice that there are two new options- start with Image or Figma.
Changes coming to Power Virtual Agents
Big changes coming to PVA! In this update announced at Build, we’ll soon be seeing the merge of PVA’s no-code interface with that of Azure Bot Framework Composer. You’ll no longer need to use each tool separately, as the pro-code capabilities of Bot Framework Composer will be available directly in PVA. This makes collaborative building easier between pro-devs and SMEs. Some of the features we’ll be seeing are: usage of Power Fx to manage variables, in-chat adaptive cards and images, quick replies, and telephony bots.
Read more about the changes coming to PVA here: What’s new: The evolution of Power Virtual Agents | Microsoft Power Virtual Agents
Rishona Elijah 