Weekly Update 20 October 2025 – Dev Program Updates, App Suspension, Copilot Studio, MCP in Teams Channel Copilot

Exciting new capabilities and enhancements for M365 Developer Program – October 2025

The Microsoft Teams JavaScript client library (TeamsJS) supports app suspension for Teams apps extended to run across other Microsoft 365 applications.

What’s new in Copilot Studio: September 2025

In Development: Microsoft Teams: Channel agent to 3P MCP tool orchestration in Teams channels

You can also listen to the audio-only version here: Thoughtstuff Podcast – Tom Morgan on Teams Dev: Weekly Update 20 October 2025

Find all my videos at thoughtstuff.co.uk/videos. You can also subscribe to the audio-only version of these videos, either via iTunes, Spotify or your own podcasting tool.

Transcript (AI-generated)

Hello and welcome to another weekly update. I hope you’re doing well. Quite a few things to get through this week, so let’s get straight into it.

Microsoft 365 Developer Program Updates

There’s a new blog post on the Microsoft 365 Developer Program. If you’ve followed it over the past few years, you’ll know it’s had a rocky time – it went away and is slowly returning.

The big news: if you’re an ISV or a partner, there’s now an easier onboarding route. More importantly, you can now purchase Copilot licenses from your developer sandbox tenant. That’s been a huge ask from people working on extensions – having a real-life setup makes development easier. It’s not free, but the key thing is that it’s now possible.

You’ll also be able to link your tenant to your Visual Studio subscription to keep it active, which is a great quality-of-life update. Additionally, there’s a Copilot Starter Pack coming that will make it even easier to get started.

App Caching Now “App Suspension”

App caching in Microsoft Teams, where your app could save state when the user navigates away, has now evolved into “App Suspension.” This is being extended across other Microsoft 365 products, not just Teams.

There’s a new Learn entry detailing how it works. Previously, there were registerBeforeUnload and registerUnload events; now, you use lifecycle handlers like ‘notify’ and others. This allows more flexibility and cross-platform consistency.

If users are returning and have to restart from scratch, this technology lets them pick up where they left off. Consider updating your code if you haven’t yet adopted it.

Copilot Studio Enhancements

A detailed blog post describes what’s new in Copilot Studio. Most notably, the public preview of web automation capabilities is here. If you’ve been waiting for automation features where APIs aren’t feasible and web scraping is needed – this is for you.

Also, WhatsApp is now a native channel within Copilot Studio. Many might have assumed it already was, but it’s new here and makes Copilot Studio the only enterprise-grade AI assistant platform with native WhatsApp deployment.

Whether you’re a low-code builder or a pro dev, it’s important to see how the line between those roles is changing. Copilot Studio capabilities are expanding, potentially saving effort in projects where pro code isn’t necessary.

Roadmap Spotlight: Channel Agent in Microsoft Teams

Interesting item in the Microsoft 365 roadmap: a new Channel Agent for Microsoft Teams. This seems to be the Copilot specifically for Teams channels, and it will support integration with select third-party MCP servers like GitHub, Asana, and Atlassian.

When users ask a question, the agent can pull information or execute tasks by collaborating with these tools—and show its process transparently.

However, I’m slightly concerned the phrase “select third-party MCP servers” implies a restricted allow list curated by Microsoft. Ideally, admins should designate what’s allowed, and developers should be able to specify custom endpoints. We’ll keep watching how this unfolds and whether it becomes more open. It’s slated to roll out beginning January 2026.

Final Thoughts

Definitely a busier week than last—likely since Ignite is approaching and roadmap items often emerge just before these events.

This week’s takeaways: review your app suspension implementation, dive into the Copilot Studio updates, and watch the evolution of MCP agent capabilities in Microsoft Teams. Thanks, and see you next time!