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The Teams Companion App puts your service threads inside Microsoft Teams for your own technicians — notifications when you’re assigned a thread, ticket updates in-line in a channel, and full thread management without leaving Teams.
This guide connects the Companion App to your own Microsoft 365 tenant, for your service team. To deploy a Teams app to a customer’s tenant, use the Teams Service App instead — they are different apps with different audiences.

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What you get

  • Notifications when you’re assigned as owner of a thread.
  • Custom Flows that route threads to a Teams channel you choose.
  • Real-time updates: replies, internal notes, status and board changes, as they happen in your PSA or Inbox.
  • Thread management: collaborate internally, sync notes to the PSA, reply to the customer, and change status, priority, board and contact from Teams.

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Before you start

You need administrator credentials for your company’s Microsoft 365 environment, and access to the Microsoft Teams admin center.

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Connect Microsoft 365

1

Open the Microsoft 365 & Teams integration

In the Thread Admin Panel, go to Integrations → Microsoft 365 & Teams app.
Microsoft 365 and Teams app tile on the Integrations page of the Thread Admin Panel
2

Click Connect

Connect button on the Microsoft 365 and Teams integration panel
3

Choose Connect with Microsoft Teams

Connect with Microsoft Teams option in the Thread Admin Panel
4

Sign in as an administrator

Sign in to your company’s Microsoft 365 environment with administrator credentials.
Microsoft Online sign-in page requesting administrator credentials
5

Accept the requested permissions

Review the permissions the app requests and click Accept. The full list is documented in the Microsoft Teams app permissions reference.
Microsoft consent screen listing the permissions requested by the Thread Teams app
6

Land on the setup instructions

After consent you’re redirected to the Teams app setup instructions.
Teams app setup instructions shown after granting Microsoft consent

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Upload the app to your tenant

1

Download the manifest

Download the Teams Companion App manifest from the setup instructions screen. Upload it as a .zip — do not extract it.
2

Open the Teams admin center

In the same browser session, sign in to admin.teams.microsoft.com and go to Teams Apps → Manage Apps.
Manage Apps page under Teams Apps in the Microsoft Teams admin center
3

Upload the .zip

Choose to upload a custom app, then select the .zip you downloaded.
Upload custom app dialog in the Teams admin center with a zip file selected
4

Confirm the app was added

Confirmation that the Thread app was added to the Teams tenant

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Add it to a setup policy

Uploading makes the app available; a setup policy installs it for your users.
1

Open Setup Policies

Close the New app added prompt, then go to Teams Apps → Setup Policies and select Global (Org-wide default).
Global org-wide default setup policy in the Teams admin center
2

Add the Thread app

Under Installed apps, click Add apps, search for “Thread”, select it and click Add.
Add apps panel with the Thread app selected for the setup policy
3

Optionally pin it, then save

You can pin Thread to the Teams app bar, though it isn’t required. Click Save.
Pinned apps list in the Teams setup policy with Thread added
The app appears faster in Teams on the web. Give the desktop client up to 24 hours.

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Add the app to a team

Adding the app to a team is what lets you route threads to that team’s channels and interact with the bot from inside it.
1

Find the app in Manage Apps

In the Teams admin center, go to Teams Apps → Manage Apps and search for the Thread Companion App you just installed.
Thread Companion App located in the Manage Apps list
2

Click Add to a team

Type the team you want to add it to.
The team matters more than the channel — when you build a Flow in Thread you can create new channels under that team from inside Thread. The bot cannot interact with private channels.
3

Choose whether to post about Thread, then save

Decide whether to announce Thread in the channel, then click Save.
4

Confirm the integration

The integration now shows as connected on the Admin Panel integrations page.
Thread Admin Panel integrations page showing the Teams integration connected
You can now create a Flow in Inbox and get notified about those threads in Teams.
Thread notification for a service thread posted in a Microsoft Teams channel

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FAQ

Repeat Add the app to a team for each team you want. You only need to add the app to a given team once — after that the bot can reach any public channel created under it, and you can create new channels under that team from Thread’s Flow builder.
You associate the Companion App to a team Microsoft 365-side, not from Thread. In the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Teams Apps → Manage Apps, find the Thread Companion App you uploaded, and click Add to a team. Once the app is attached to that team, the bot can reach any public channel under it, and you can create new channels under that team from Thread’s Flow builder. The bot cannot interact with private channels.
The Companion App uses the same manifest-based install as the Teams Service App, so the Teams admin-center mechanics are the same — the difference is that the Companion App is internal to your own tenant, so there’s no per-customer step in Thread Admin.To remove it:
  1. In the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Teams Apps → Manage Apps and search for the Thread Companion App.
  2. Open the app, then click Actions → Delete.
  3. If you also want to stop the app being auto-installed for users, open Teams Apps → Setup Policies → Global (Org-wide default) and remove Thread from Installed apps before you save.
To redeploy, download a fresh manifest from Integrations → Microsoft 365 & Teams app in the Thread Admin Panel and follow Upload the app to your tenant and Add it to a setup policy again. Give the Teams desktop client up to 24 hours to pick up the new version.
Check your permissions in the Teams admin center. The permissions Thread requests, and why, are listed in the Microsoft Teams app permissions reference.

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Next step

Choose which ticket updates post to a channel so the channel stays useful rather than noisy.