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It's incredible how quickly time flies - we're already more than halfway through the year! While it may signal the end of summer, there's still so much to look forward to, especially with the exciting new releases from Microsoft Power Apps. Let's dive into the highlights of the upcoming features in the 2023 release Wave 2, which will be rolling out between October 2023 and March 2024.
Power Apps is making significant investments in multiple areas as part of the Microsoft Power Platform 2023 release wave 2. Here are some highlights:
Copilot for makers and users
This innovative feature harnesses the power of AI and natural language to expedite app development. By leveraging Copilot, makers can build and modify apps more efficiently, work with data seamlessly, and enhance overall functionality. Users, on the other hand, can explore data and navigate apps using natural language, greatly enhancing the user experience.
Building modern apps
Power Apps is introducing updates that will modernize apps by default. These updates will lead to higher developer productivity and user satisfaction. Developers will have access to modern controls, responsive templates, and offline app capabilities. Users can look forward to a refreshed and modernized interface, simpler sharing options, and improved collaboration tools.
Enable enterprise scale
Power Apps is dedicated to empowering makers and administrators to implement low-code solutions at an enterprise level. Upgrades to Power Apps Studio will enhance monitoring and code management tools, providing makers with better visibility and control over their solutions. These improvements will streamline app development for larger and more complex projects.
These investments in Copilot, building modern apps, and enabling enterprise scale demonstrate Power Apps' commitment to delivering cutting-edge features and empowering users to create powerful and scalable solutions.
Some of our favorite upcoming features
Below are some of our favorite features to look out for. The full list of upcoming features is at the bottom!
Power Apps Canvas App Makers can easily unlock a wealth of useful and captivating layouts designed for common scenarios and enhanced with data-connected components. These layouts effortlessly adapt to different window sizes, ensuring a stunning experience for app users on any device.
Accessing these immersive designs is just a few clicks away for makers. With the latest update, screen layout templates come pre-configured with layouts for multiple form factors, empowering makers to swiftly create stunning apps for any device.
Public Preview: October 2023
Experience the enhanced look and feel of model-driven Power Apps. Power Apps has been updated the user interface to align with Microsoft Fluent Design System, offering makers a stunning range of controls and experiences to captivate users.
Revitalize your model-driven app with fresh layouts, themes, and colors. Users can opt-in by selecting "Try the new look". Once enabled, your app will incorporate the latest Microsoft Fluent Design-based elements. And remember, users can switch back to the previous version anytime.
Microsoft Fluent is a powerful, open-source design system that enables engaging product experiences, encompassing accessibility, internationalization, and top-notch performance.
Public Preview: August 2023 / General Availability: October 2023
Monitor is a widely used debugging tool that helps makers diagnose and resolve app issues. Gain insights into your canvas apps through its user-friendly interface. Microsoft is enhancing Monitor to streamline usability and empower makers to quickly identify and address problems.
Key areas Microsoft is focusing on to enhance the Monitor experience:
Improved discoverability: We'll make it easier to find and launch Monitor within Power Apps Studio.
Data quality enhancements: We'll consolidate duplicate log entries for easier troubleshooting.
Enhanced data relevance: We'll establish guidelines to ensure relevant and actionable data in Monitor.
UI improvements: Streamlining navigation in Monitor's tabular grid with sorting, highlighting, filtering, and search capabilities.
This will be an amazing elevated debugging experience for optimizing canvas apps with ease.
Full List of New & Upcoming Features
Building Modern Apps
Feature | Enabled For | Public Preview | Early Access | General Availability |
Quickly create dataconnected apps with rich, responsive layout templates | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | Mar 2024 | - | - |
Enjoy the new look and feel for model-driven Power Apps | Users by admins, makers, or analysts | Aug 2023 | - | Oct 2023 |
Copilot for Power Apps makers and users
Feature | Enabled For | Public Preview | Early Access | General Availability |
Write formulas from natural language or examples using Copilot | Users by admins, makers, or analysts | Oct 2023 | - | - |
Use Copilot to build and edit apps in Power Apps Studio | Users by admins, makers, or analysts | Oct 2023 | - | - |
Enable enterprise scale
Feature | Enabled For | Public Preview | Early Access | General Availability |
Set the solution context for customizations | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | Oct 2023 | - | - |
Debug canvas apps more quickly and efficiently with Monitor tool improvements | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | March 2024 | - | - |
Debug canvas apps more quickly and efficiently with Monitor tool improvements | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | March 2024 | - | - |
Experience improved named formula browsing in Power Apps Studio | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | March 2024 | - | - |
Resize and reposition the Power Fx editor within Power Apps Studio | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | March 2024 | - | - |
Resize and reposition the Power Fx editor within Power Apps Studio | Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | March 2024 | - | - |
Direct new makers to their own developer environments | Users by admins, makers, or analysts | Aug 2023 | - | Oct 2023 |
Power Apps can make direct calls to SQL Server stored procedures | Users, automatically | - | Jun 11, 2023 | Oct 2023 |
To learn more about the entire set of capabilities being delivered during the release wave, check out the release plan for Power Apps HERE.