Summary
Microsoft announces a preview of app-building in Copilot Cowork starting September 8, 2026, with Copilot Studio following soon. Users with licenses can create, test, and publish apps using natural language and organizational data, governed by existing policies and managed via the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Microsoft 365 Message Center ID: MC1469329
Last Modified: September 9, 2026
Category: Plan for change
Tags: New feature
Status: Launched
Products & Platforms: Power Platform, Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365), Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Microsoft Message
We are announcing a preview of the new app-building experience in Microsoft Copilot Cowork. A corresponding experience in Microsoft Copilot Studio will follow within the next couple of weeks. These experiences make it easier for people to turn ideas into apps using natural-language guidance and generative AI.
Makers can create a working first draft through natural-language conversation, refine it, preview and test it, and then publish and share it. Apps can use organizational data through connectors permitted by your organization’s policies. Apps built in Cowork can be opened and further edited in Copilot Studio. Apps created through these experiences will be visible to administrators in the new Apps experience in the Microsoft 365 admin center, providing consistent governance and organization-wide visibility.
Rollout schedule
Rollout for Copilot Cowork will begin on September 8, 2026, and is expected to complete by September 14, 2026.
The corresponding experience in Microsoft Copilot Studio is expected to become available within the next weeks.
Impact on your organization
- The app-building experience in Copilot Cowork is available in preview through the Frontier Program to users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and access to Cowork.
- When the app-building experience in Copilot Studio becomes available, it will be enabled by default for eligible makers. During preview, administrators can turn the experience on or off in the Microsoft 365 admin center and scope access to specific security groups.
- Eligible users will be able to create and refine apps through conversation, preview and test them, and publish and share them with people or groups permitted by organizational policies.
- Apps use Microsoft Entra authentication and follow your organization’s existing connector, environment, data, security, compliance, and sharing policies. Published apps are visible in Apps > All apps in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Based on the organization’s governance policies, makers who create apps through these experiences are automatically routed to an isolated personal developer environment instead of the shared environment.
- The personal developer environment is protected from the start by secure defaults that administrators can adjust to meet organizational requirements. Applicable policies are enforced when each app is created, helping keep apps within the organization’s governance boundaries.
- For organizations that have not enabled environment routing, routing will be automatically applied to apps created through these experiences. This change does not affect other resources created in Power Platform or Copilot Studio.
Action required / Recommendations
- Complete Frontier Program onboarding for your organization and enable eligible app creators in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Apps > Overview.
- Review the default configuration and adjust the policies to match your requirements in Microsoft 365 admin center > Apps > Settings.
- Inform your maker community when each experience becomes available and share your organization’s requirements for building and sharing apps.
- Review the Copilot Credits requirements for building and running apps and configure usage-based billing as needed.
Learn more
- Get started with the Microsoft Copilot Frontier Program
- Build apps in Copilot Cowork documentation link
- Manage apps in the Microsoft 365 admin center
- Manage Copilot Cowork for your organization
- Copilot Credits Guide
- Understand usage-based billing and cost management for Copilot Credits