Microsoft moved SharePoint Copilot Apps into public preview in early July, shipping as part of SharePoint Framework (SPFx) 1.24. Instead of Copilot only returning text answers, developers can now build real interactive apps — approval panels, incident triage flows, live dashboards — that run directly inside the Copilot conversation canvas. End-user rollout targets full worldwide availability by July 20; the developer experience and Copilot Workbench are already live.
What actually changed
SPFx historically let developers build web parts and extensions for SharePoint and Teams. Copilot Apps extend the same component model into the Copilot canvas itself: ask Copilot something conversationally and get a fully interactive UI component — a filterable grid, a multi-step form, a live chart — dropped directly into the chat, without leaving the conversation. Copilot stops being a question-answering layer and starts being a surface where real business processes execute. SPFx supports React, Angular, Vue, or plain TypeScript, and the same component reuses across Copilot, SharePoint, and Teams from a single build. SPFx 1.24 also brings React 18 support, closing a long-standing gap for teams that had been stuck on React 17 compatibility.
What development teams should do now
Start with the Copilot Workbench, not a production build. Use this window to prototype and validate component behavior before committing to a timeline that assumes GA-level stability — this is public preview, and Microsoft has flagged the working name and APIs as subject to change.
Prioritize components with genuine reuse value across SharePoint, Teams, and Copilot. Favor approval flows, status dashboards, or intake forms your organization already needs in more than one surface.
Plan the React 18 migration separately from the Copilot Apps rollout. These are related but distinct upgrades — bundling them risks debugging two sets of platform changes at once.
Where this fits Microsoft's longer strategy
This follows the same pattern Microsoft used with Teams apps and Power Platform: open a surface where users already spend their day to third-party and internal developer extension. The difference here is that Copilot Apps are explicitly action surfaces, not just information displays — an approval panel lets a user complete a business process without switching to a separate line-of-business app. Organizations with existing Power Platform investment should ask their Microsoft account team directly how the two extension surfaces are meant to coexist long-term; Microsoft hasn't clarified that yet.
Conclusion
SharePoint Copilot Apps is Microsoft's clearest move yet toward treating Copilot as an application platform rather than a chat feature. Both this and React 18 support are still public preview — treat this as the moment to prototype and build institutional familiarity, not commit production timelines against APIs Microsoft has explicitly flagged as subject to change.