Did you ever just want to take your Power Apps app and turn it into a mobile app? Well, now you can…

We are delighted to announce that wrap for Power Apps – empowering makers to create secure, custom-branded, standalone Android and iOS enterprise mobile apps with Power Apps – has reached general availability (GA).

Build enterprise mobile apps with Power Apps

It has always been possible to create Power Apps applications for mobile end users but running an enterprise app in a mobile web browser doesn’t provide the native mobile experience that your end users are accustomed to with the many high-quality Android and iOS mobile apps they use every day.

The Power Apps mobile app for Android and iOS enables rich native mobile experiences, such as barcode scanning, dark mode, NFC tag reading, and even Mixed Reality (MR) controls. But custom branding options are limited, having all your apps in one place isn’t suitable for every scenario, and one-size-fits-all Intune governance limits the diversity of apps that can be deployed together.

Wrap for Power Apps is the next step, integrating low-code enterprise apps with Power Apps mobile technology to produce secure (Intune managed) enterprise mobile apps with rich native mobile experiences and seamless end-to-end branding suitable for customer-facing frontline worker scenarios.

Get started

To get started wrapping your first Android or iOS app based on one or more Power Apps canvas apps, check out the how-to instructions in the online documentation.
Important. Wrap is an optional feature that is not installed to all environments by default. You can install it using Power Platform admin center, under Resources > Dynamics 365 apps > Wrap for Power Apps.

We hope you love this amazing new capability of Power Apps and can’t wait to hear your feedback. Happy wrapping!

The post Announcing general availability of wrap for Power Apps appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Thank you for your patience! We are delighted to announce that the wrap public preview – enabling you to create mobile apps with Power Apps – is now open. Power Apps is now officially a Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP/MXDP) stuffed with great new capabilities:

• Low-code mobile app creation – we build the app for you!
• Seamless end-to-end branding from home screen icon to app UX
• Embed multiple Canvas apps into a single mobile app
• Distribute your app natively to meet end users where they are
• Enterprise governance with Intune for individual Canvas apps

Getting started

To join the preview, please check out the Important notes below, then follow the steps in the online documentation to get started.

Important notes

1. This preview is initially available only in North America (NAM) environments (we are working to light up additional regions soon).
   • If you don’t have a NAM environment already, you can create one.
     • Set Region=“United States” and Create a database for this environment=Yes.
2. The wrap feature is not installed to environments by default.
   • To use the wrap feature, you need to install it to your environment.
     • The package to install is named “Wrap (preview) for Power Apps”.
3. This is a preview feature available under the Preview Terms and Conditions.
   • N.B. Preview releases are NOT for PRODUCTION use.
   • Please use, evaluate and provide feedback on the feature.
   • Please pilot it with real end users and provide their feedback too.
4. Feedback can be sent directly to me lknibb@microsoft.com.
   • Your feedback will help us stabilize and improve the feature toward its General Availability (GA) release.
   • When the feature reaches GA, you can take a production dependency on it.
5. If you encounter an error while using wrap:
   • Check that you have followed the steps in the how-to and signing (Android, iOS) documentation
   • Check the FAQ in case it’s a known issue (this will be updated regularly)
   • If you don’t find a solution, create a support request

We hope you love this amazing new capability of Power Apps and can’t wait to hear your feedback. Happy wrapping!

The post Announcing Public Preview of wrap for Power Apps appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Figure 1: Power Apps is getting MAD skills

With this great new feature, Power Apps is truly becoming a Mobile Application Development (MAD) platform, stuffed with new capabilities:

• Low-code mobile app creation – we build the app for you!
  
• Seamless end-to-end branding from home screen icon to app UX
  
• Embed multiple Canvas apps into a single mobile app
  
• Distribute your app natively to meet end users where they are
  
• Enterprise governance with Intune for individual Canvas apps
  

You will be able to sign-up for Power Apps mobile apps (preview) on December 1, 2021. Watch this space and feel free to leave a comment below!


UPDATE (Dec 1, 2021): sign up for the preview here

Low-code mobile app creation

With Power Apps mobile apps (preview) there’s no need to install Xcode or Android Studio, we build the mobile app packages for you! Start with an existing Canvas app or build a new app from scratch to create your first mobile app with Power Apps.

Here’s how it works:

1. In Power Apps Studio, create a new mobile app project referencing one or more Canvas apps.
   
2. Add mobile app metadata, icons, and branding resources to your project, and kick off a build.
   
3. When the build is complete, go to App Center on your mobile device to install your app.
   

You can directly install the mobile app onto your local device for testing or download APK and IPA files for distribution to end users.

Seamless end-to-end branding

When you build a mobile app with Power Apps, you can differentiate your app by customizing the look and feel from home screen icon to in-app UX.

Figure 2: end-to-end customization throughout the experience

The user experience is bootstrapped by the Power Apps mobile platform which handles sign-in. Control is passed to your embedded Canvas app(s) providing the UX and business logic for your mobile app. Your Canvas app becomes the mobile app with consistent branding and theming throughout.

Embed multiple Canvas apps

You have multiple Canvas apps that work together as a collection for the same group of end users? No problem! You don’t need separate mobile apps to deliver these natively. Power Apps mobile apps (preview) supports embedding multiple Canvas apps using a central “hub” app.

Figure 3: illustration showing the “Hub” UX pattern

Choose one of your Canvas apps to be the primary app serving as the central hub for your mobile app. Use the PowerFx Launch(…) function to navigate to secondary apps and from secondary apps back to the hub app.

Distribute your app natively

Meet your mobile end users where they are by delivering native mobile apps through your preferred channel. This makes it easy for your mobile end users to discover and use your app, removing the need to install the Microsoft Power Apps “Player” app for Android or iOS or share Canvas app links by email.

Figure 3: Installation from App Center

Generated mobile apps are yours to distribute (we don’t do it for you – yet). Distribution options include popular tools such as Microsoft Endpoint Manager or similar 3^rd party MDM solutions; and private enterprise app stores like Microsoft App Center, Apple Volume Purchase Program, and Managed Google Play.

Enterprise governance with Intune

The Power Apps mobile platform is integrated with Microsoft Intune, so you can already protect org data when running Canvas apps in the Power Apps Player.

Power Apps mobile apps (preview) inherits this capability and since each generated mobile app is unique, you can manage Intune app protection policies on a per-mobile app basis. This enriches Power Apps mobile security and unblocks mobile scenarios by providing greater flexibility over enterprise governance with Power Apps.

Coming soon!

With the launch of Power Apps mobile apps (preview), we are bringing Mobile Application Development to Power Apps, empowering developers to create secure, fully-branded corporate mobile apps, that can be natively distributed to meet mobile end users where they are. This is another great feature making Power Apps the most complete low-code app platform.
Sign-up for Power Apps mobile apps (preview) on December 1, 2021. Watch this space and feel free to leave a comment below!

The post Create mobile apps with Power Apps (preview) appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Power Apps already offers robust, camera-based barcode scanning when running in the Power Apps Mobile app for iOS and Android, but barcodes are often only useful in clean, well-lit consumption scenarios.

Standard NFC and HF-RFID tags provide alternatives to barcodes for dirty or low-visibility scenarios, and are widely supported by iOS and Android devices with built-in NFC Reader hardware.

Power Fx now supports reading NFC and HF-RFID tags when running in the Power Apps Mobile app for iOS and Android. See the new Power Fx ReadNFC function documentation for details.

Capabilities

• Read the first record from a NFC standards-compliant tag
• Text and URI datatypes are supported
• Record type information also provided

Examples

With( ReadNFC(),
      If( Not IsBlank( Text ),
            Notify( "Read Text: " & Text ),
          Not IsBlank( URI ),
            Notify( "Read URI: " & URI ),
          Notify( "Didn't read Text or URI" )
      )
)

For more examples, see the function documentation.

Feedback

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on the new function. Use the in-app feedback feature to send us your ideas.

The post Read NFC tags with Power Apps on iOS and Android appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.