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Deploying CloudRadial Chat to a Client's Microsoft Teams

Evan G
  • Updated

A Teams Client Channel puts CloudRadial Chat directly inside your client's Microsoft Teams environment. Their end users find the app in their Teams apps, open it, and start chatting: no portal logins, no browser tabs, just a conversation inside the tool they already use all day.

Each client requires its own Teams Client Channel and its own app deployment. The app is generated with a manifest specific to that channel's configuration, uploaded to the client's Teams Admin Center, and made available to their users. The client's Global Administrator (or someone with equivalent permissions) needs to grant consent during setup.

This is more involved than setting up a UCP or web widget channel, which is why the onboarding wizard starts you with those. Teams deployment is best tackled after you've verified your PSA connection and basic chat flow are working.

Prerequisites

  • A CloudRadial Chat account with the onboarding wizard completed.
  • For the client's tenant: a Global Administrator (or equivalent) who can grant admin consent, and access to the Teams Admin Center to upload the app.

Step 1: Create the Client Channel

  1. Navigate to Channels in the sidebar.
  2. Click Add New Client Channel.
  3. Select Teams as the Client Channel type.
  4. Fill in the channel details: Channel name (required, used as the app name end users see in Teams), Responder (required, Dialog or ChatAI), Color icon (required, 192x192 PNG), and Brand color (optional hex code, e.g. #4464B3).

Note: Starter tier Partners use default "CloudRadial Chat" branding. Upgrade to Professional or higher to customize the app name and icon per client. The channel name is used as both the app name and description in the Teams manifest. The outline icon is hardcoded and cannot be customized.

Step 2: Get Admin Consent

The client's Global Administrator must grant permissions to the CloudRadial Chat app before it can be deployed to their tenant.

If you have Global Admin access to the client's tenant: click Get Approval URL on the channel page, open the URL in a browser session signed into the client's tenant with a Global Administrator account, then review and approve the permissions.

If you need the client's admin to grant consent: click Send Instruction Email on the channel page and enter the client admin's email address. They receive an email with the consent link and instructions. Once the admin completes consent, you can proceed with the manifest upload.

Important: the person granting consent must be a Global Administrator. If the admin uses PIM (Privileged Identity Management), they must activate their Global Admin role before visiting the approval URL. Conditional Access policies may also require consent from a compliant device.

Step 3: Download and Upload the Manifest

  1. Click Download Manifest on the channel page. This downloads a .zip file containing the Teams app package.
  2. In the client's Teams Admin Center, navigate to Teams apps > Manage apps.
  3. Click Upload new app and upload the manifest .zip file.
  4. The app appears in the organization's app catalog.

Step 4: Configure App Availability

In the client's Teams Admin Center, decide who can use the app. Allow for all users (every user in the tenant can find and install the app) or restrict to specific users or groups using Teams app permission policies. For bulk deployment, use Teams setup policies to automatically install or pin the app for users, or script bulk installation with the Teams PowerShell module.

How Authentication Works

Teams Client Channels use the client's Azure AD tenant for authentication. When a user opens the app:

  1. Teams provides the user's identity (name, email) and tenant ID automatically.
  2. Chat matches the tenant ID to the Client Channel to identify which company they belong to.
  3. Chat looks up the user in your PSA: first by Azure AD Object ID, then by email, then by display name.
  4. If matched, the user can create tickets, check status, and access features tied to their PSA contact.

If a user can't be matched to a PSA contact, they can still interact with Chat but tickets may not be associated correctly.

Updating the App

If you change the channel name, icon, or brand color in the Chat admin portal, you need to: download the updated manifest from the channel page, re-upload it to the client's Teams Admin Center, and users may need to reinstall the app to see the changes. The manifest version auto-increments when visual properties change.

Permissions Reference

CloudRadial Chat requests the following delegated permissions from the client's Azure AD during admin consent:

  • openid, profile, email: user identity and authentication.
  • offline_access: maintain session with refresh tokens.
  • User.Read: read current user's profile.
  • User.ReadBasic.All: read basic info for all users (names, emails).
  • Chat.Read.All, Chat.Create, Chat.ReadWrite.All, ChatMember.ReadWrite.All: read and create group chats for Live Chat and manage chat participants.
  • ChannelMessage.Read.All: read channel messages.
  • Group.Read.All, Team.ReadBasic.All, TeamMember.Read.All: read Microsoft 365 group info, basic team information, and team membership.
  • TeamsAppInstallation.Read.All, TeamsAppInstallation.ReadWriteSelfForChat.All, TeamsAppInstallation.ReadWriteSelfForTeam.All, TeamsAppInstallation.ReadWriteSelfForUser.All: check app installation status and install the app to chats, teams, and users.
  • AppCatalog.Read.All: read the app catalog.
  • Sites.Read.All: read SharePoint sites.
  • Files.ReadWrite.All: handle file attachments in Teams.
  • TeamsTab.Create: create tabs in channels.

Verification

Have a user in the client's tenant open Teams, find the app under Built for your org in the Teams apps section, install it, and send a test message. Confirm a ticket is created in your PSA with the correct company association.

Troubleshooting

Admin consent fails with "Need admin approval." The person granting consent isn't a Global Administrator. Either have a Global Admin complete the consent, or use the instruction email option to send the consent link to the right person.

Admin consent fails with 401 Unauthorized. Admin consent hasn't been granted yet, or the consent was incomplete. Have the Global Admin visit the approval URL again. If they use PIM, ensure the Global Admin role is activated before consenting.

Manifest upload fails in Teams Admin Center. Check that the color icon meets the requirements (192x192 PNG) and that the channel name doesn't exceed 30 characters. Try downloading a fresh manifest and uploading again.

App not visible to users after upload. The app may be blocked by a Teams app permission policy. In the Teams Admin Center, check that the app is set to "Allowed" and that the relevant users aren't subject to a policy that blocks custom apps.

Users can't find the app in Teams. After uploading to the Admin Center, it can take a few minutes or longer for the app to appear. Teams aggressively caches app data and there is no way to force a refresh. Users should look under Built for your org in the Teams apps section, not in the public app store.

Branding changes not showing. After updating the channel name, icon, or brand color, you must download the new manifest and re-upload it to the Teams Admin Center. Teams caches app data aggressively, so changes may not appear immediately. Users may need to uninstall and reinstall the app. To check whether the update has propagated, compare the version number of the installed app in Teams to the version shown in the Teams Admin Center.

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