Today I launch my series on the updates and new features for Release Wave 2 for 2024 for the Power Platform. This first post is all about Power Apps and I am taking you through the features and functionality we expect to see released between October 2024 and March 2025 specifically within the Power Apps space.
The PDF file also includes information about Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, Power Virtual Agents, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration, and data integration.
The Microsoft Power Platform features coming in the 2024 release wave 2 have been summarized in a separate release plan as well as a downloadable PDF
New Power Apps Grid features
Power Apps now has several new grid enhancements that improve users' ability to interact with data within views. These features make it easier for users to view, group, and act on data, enhancing overall productivity.
Grouping and Aggregation: Users can now group data by a single column and apply aggregation functions like sum, minimum, maximum, and average. These features are available by default on read-only grids.
Column Customization: Columns can be reordered through drag-and-drop or menu actions. Users can also set specific column widths using pixel values.
Enhanced List Mode: The grid’s list mode has been updated with new UI styling, making it easier to differentiate field importance. Sorting capabilities have been improved with a new header and sort icon.
Select All with Infinite Scroll: Users can now select up to 1,000 records using the select-all option, even with infinite scroll enabled.
These improvements are designed to give users greater control over the rows of data, making grids more intuitive and flexible in model-driven apps. Above is an example of where I am using the group function to identify records by quarter, but I regularly use the owner, approval and other status fields.
Modern Refreshed Look for Model-Driven Apps Now Always On
Users will now permanently experience the modern, refreshed look in model-driven apps. This update improves usability by aligning the interface with the latest Microsoft Fluent design system, featuring updated fonts, colours, borders, and shadows for a cleaner, more refreshed user experience. The "New Look" extends from the navigation, onto views and into forms as well.
The previous option to "Try the new look" has been removed, as the modern design is now always enabled, ensuring all users benefit from this improved, streamlined interface to accomplish their tasks more quickly.
Power Platform Environment Settings App
The new Power Platform Environment Settings app delivers a modern, secure, and extensible experience for managing application settings, replacing the legacy web client. This update creates a unified platform for admins to manage settings while maintaining the same security and extensibility features of the previous system.
Key highlights include:
Incremental rollouts will begin with the replacement of the legacy settings app, ensuring any existing customer-created extensions and solution imports are preserved.
Links to advanced settings across the platform will redirect to the new app.
Admins can temporarily disable this redirection during the rollout phase through the Power Platform admin centre.
This new app enhances performance and accessibility, streamlining the settings management experience for administrators.
If you want to retain the classic view, you can access the environment admin, and under Settings, Feature, you can disable the redirection. I have personally been reverting all my environments currently, as certain features and options simply do not work in this new app.
Field Suggestions from Copilot in model-driven apps
Yet more Copilot functionality has been added to Power Apps to help users in building forms and views for model-driven apps. Copilot now suggests relevant columns based on the Dataverse table schema and the context of the view or form, helping users get started quickly and enhancing creativity during the app-building process.
This feature, automatically enabled for users, speeds up form creation and overall productivity by providing these tailored suggestions. With no additional setup required if Power Apps Maker Copilot is activated, users can immediately benefit from this time-saving tool in their model-driven apps.
Use Copilot to build and edit apps in Power Apps Studio
Not a new capability but certainly an improvement on what already exists. But Power Apps has now expanded Copilot's capabilities yet again, meaning users can build and edit apps using natural language with more accuracy and better results. This improved feature simplifies the app development process, making it easier for users to create apps without needing deep technical knowledge.
With Copilot in Power Apps admin centre, users can now perform tasks like adding screens and controls, modifying properties, and linking to data by simply typing commands such as:
Add a button to my header
Change my container to align the centre
Connect my gallery to my account table
In my initial testing of this feature, it is a lot more accurate. Or maybe I am just getting better at writing my prompts. The main improvement seems to be it remembers your history of prompts so I don't find myself repeating things, like "for this main screen....." or "for this app change....."
Summary
This release brings a selection of usability improvements, AI-powered features, collaboration, and integration capabilities. These updates make the platform more accessible to low-code users while providing the depth and customisation options needed by professional developers.
With these new features, Microsoft continues to position Power Apps as a must-have platform in the modern digital transformation toolkit. Whether you're building for mobile, desktop, or integrated systems, the possibilities with Power Apps have never been greater.
Hope you all enjoyed this post on the Power Apps Release Wave 2 for 2024 updates I will continue this series with some additional content specifically related to the remainder of the Power Platform in the coming weeks. Take Care, Speak Soon!
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