💡 The CoLab Admin must also be a Teams Admin for the connection to succeed and the integration work as expected.
Ensure your team never misses another notification by installing the CoLa integration for Teams, which will seamlessly push vital notifications into your Teams environment.
In this article, we'll go over the steps to install the CoLab app for Teams, starting with downloading the app from CoLab, installing it on Teams, and ensuring the app is connected.
Before You Begin
Use a dedicated service account for this integration.
The CoLab app for Microsoft Teams requires a Microsoft account with a valid Teams license to maintain the connection. We strongly recommend using a dedicated service account (sometimes called a bot account or integration account) rather than a personal user account.
⚠️ Important: Do not use an account that relies on on-demand privilege elevation (e.g., accounts where admin rights are granted temporarily via PAM tools, PIM, or similar). When elevated permissions expire, the integration will lose access and stop functioning. The service account must hold the required permissions permanently and consistently.
Downloading the integration from CoLab
To install a custom app into Teams, you need a .zip file for the app.
To get this, navigate to your Settings & Admin panel.
Head to the Integrations page and select the Microsoft Teams integration tile.
This will bring you to a Microsoft Teams Connect Portal page. Download the app's .zip file from the link in the Connect Portal description.
Install the integration
💡 Important reminder: the CoLab Admin must also be a Teams Admin for the connection to succeed and the integration work as expected.
In the Teams Administration Dashboard (https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/dashboard), Select Teams apps > Manage apps
In the top right corner of the screen, select the Actions dropdown > Upload new app. Select the previously downloaded .zip file.
Once the CoLab app has been added, search for it in the table of All apps to make sure it was properly added.
Blocked apps
It is possible, based on company policy, that the App status might be Blocked. The app must be Unblocked to be used.
If Blocked, follow the steps in the Microsoft Teams documentation to unblock it.
To learn more, the Managing apps Microsoft Teams documentation can be found here.
Ensure your integration is fully connected
Select the CoLab app to view its settings. On the About page, copy the App ID - this will be used to confirm your connection in CoLab. Note that this is not the External App ID - we specifically need the App ID itself.
⚠️ A Global Administrator may need to consent to the permissions for the app. This can be verified in the Permissions tab. If shown, please contact your Teams app Global Administrator. Ensure the account used for this integration holds the required permissions permanently — accounts using time-limited roles (e.g., via Microsoft Entra PIM) will lose access once the elevated role expires.
In CoLab, navigate back to Settings & Admin > Integrations and back into the Microsoft Teams tile.
Click Connect within the modal. This will redirect you to a Teams page confirming the connection, which will close automatically.
Once connected, the Connect portal will show two settings under the Configuration tab.
App ID (required): Use this field to paste the previously-copied
App IDhere from your Teams settings.Allow automatic installation (optional):
If Yes is selected, when a user receives their first CoLab notification through Teams, the CoLab app will install itself for individuals that have yet to install it manually. Only those who receive CoLab notifications will have this happen.
If No is selected, only those users who opt in and install the integration through Teams will receive notifications through the Teams integration.
We recommend allowing automatic installation where possible for the smoothest user experience.
After the installation is complete, you can receive CoLab notifications in Teams.
🧠 Users receive notifications through Teams based on their notification preferences for in-app notifications.