Power Apps June 2025 update brings greater flexibility for makers

Microsoft has released the June 2025 Power Apps update, introducing a series of improvements designed to streamline app development and enhance reusability. These updates mark another step forward in empowering makers with more flexible, efficient, and collaborative tools.

Here’s what’s new:

• Enhanced Component Properties (ECPs) – Now Generally Available

  ECPs make it easier than ever to modularize and reuse logic within your app. Even better, these components can now be shared across apps using a component library—boosting consistency and productivity.

• UntypedObject Renamed to Dynamic

  The UntypedObject data type is now called Dynamic—a name that better reflects its purpose and aligns with C# connectors. No changes in functionality, just a clearer name.

• Audit Logs: Original Choice Label Preview

  You can now audit the original user-selected label for Choice data types. This means more accurate auditing, even when labels have been updated over time.

• Reduced Downtime with Improved Encryption Processing

  Dataverse environments using customer-managed encryption keys will now come back online sooner. Environments transition to an “Encrypting-online” state once critical storage services have applied the key—minimizing disruption.

• User Defined Functions (UDFs) – Public Preview

  Write once, use everywhere. With UDFs, you can define reusable formulas to streamline logic, simplify complex apps, and improve maintenance. From calculations to database updates—UDFs are a game changer.

AI in sales gets a boost from centuries of technology shifts

Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 team draws parallels between past tech revolutions—like cloud, mobile, and social—to outline strategic guidance for integrating Copilot and AI agents into modern sales practices. The piece highlights lessons in security, integration, and change management to help sellers realistically leverage AI without losing the human touch.

We've seen it before—major technology shifts that transformed the way sellers work:

• Cloud over on-prem

  The transition from on-premises to the cloud taught us the importance of scalability, seamless integration, and proactive change management—lessons that are just as critical when adopting AI.

• Mobile-first sales

  The rise of mobile apps empowered sellers to work from anywhere, at any time, showing that flexibility must go hand-in-hand with standardized tools and strong data security—principles that also apply to AI.

• LinkedIn and social selling

  The LinkedIn revolution proved that digital relationships can be just as powerful, teaching us to prioritize authenticity, deliver value through content, and measure what really matters—insights we should carry forward with AI.

Power Automate and Copilot Studio receive major DLP upgrades

Microsoft has unveiled a major set of enhancements to Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies in Power Automate and Copilot Studio. These updates mark a significant leap forward in governance, scalability, and control for organizations automating processes across cloud and desktop environments.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s new:

• What is DLP?
  Data Loss Prevention lets admins govern data access across Power Automate flows (cloud & desktop) and Copilot Studio agent flows.

• Flow-Level Enforcement
  DLP policies—managed in the Power Platform Admin Center—now automatically evaluate flows during editing and saving. If policies change, non-compliant flows can be suspended, and blocked connectors disabled.

• Trigger Blocking
  Admins can now block specific triggers, just like actions, offering more granular control over automation behavior.

• Endpoint Filtering (Public Preview)
  A powerful new preview feature lets you restrict browser automation in desktop flows to approved websites only—ideal for securing high-risk scenarios.

• Environment Variables for Endpoints
  Now you can define endpoints dynamically using environment variables in your policies:
  @environmentVariable("variableName") — simplifying solution migration.

Power Apps unlocks new customization potential with AI integration

Microsoft continues to push the boundaries of low-code innovation within the Power Platform. A new update empowers app makers to create more intelligent and tailored experiences in model-driven apps. This move builds on Microsoft's broader strategy to deepen AI integration across its business solutions.

Here’s what’s new:

• Agent APIs

Programmatically interact with Copilot Studio topics using two key methods:

- executeEvent: Trigger a topic based on a registered event and get a structured response

- executePrompt: Send a natural language prompt and receive a dynamic Copilot response

Both methods are available via Xrm.Copilot and PcfContext.Copilot.

• Agent Response Component

Easily add Copilot-powered responses into model-driven forms with a drag-and-drop component. It supports markdown, adaptive cards, images, and video—enabling rich, dynamic UI content.

Bringing vision to apps: .NET MAUI introduces multimodal intelligence

Microsoft is making it easier for developers to integrate vision intelligence into their apps with the latest advancements in .NET MAUI. By combining AI and multimodal input, developers can now create richer, image-aware experiences beyond traditional text-based interactions.

Here’s how you can let users capture or select images—and have AI extract actionable data to create projects and tasks in your app:

• Step 1: Launch the Camera

  From the floating action button on the MainPage, users can tap the camera icon, instantly navigating to the PhotoPage. Here, the MediaPicker API handles photo capture and selection.

• Step 2: Handle Media Input

  The PhotoPageModel manages image input using the EventToCommandBehavior triggered by the PageAppearing lifecycle event.

• Step 3: Capture or Select Based on Device

  Decorated with [RelayCommand], the PageAppearing method dynamically decides whether to launch the camera or file picker—using .NET MAUI’s cross-platform APIs like DeviceInfo and MediaPicker to abstract away platform differences.

• Step 4: Display and Interact

  Once the image is received, it’s displayed alongside an optional Editor for user instructions. The prompt is built using StringBuilder, and an instance of IChatClient (from Microsoft.Extensions.AI) handles both text and image data using ChatMessage, which combines TextContent and DataContent.

New .NET 10 sample shows how to create image descriptions using local AI

Microsoft has released a new .NET 10 sample that demonstrates how to generate alternative text for images using C# and local AI models. This new capability allows developers to create accessible and SEO-friendly applications without relying on cloud services. By combining local inference with simple code, it’s now easier than ever to enhance user experience in a privacy-first way.

Here’s what you need to know:

• What is Alt Text?

  Alt (alternative) text helps screen readers describe images to visually impaired users. It also boosts SEO and improves overall user experience.

• Use Local AI Models with Ollama

  Ollama supports vision-capable models like gemma:3, llama3.2-vision, and mistral-small3.2 ideal for analyzing image content and generating rich, natural-language descriptions.

• Run C# Like a Script

  With .NET 10, you can now run C# files directly using dotnet run. This makes it easy to script tasks like image processing and automation.

• See It in Action

  Save your code as alttext.cs, then run it with dotnet run alttext.cs followed by your image path. Ensure Ollama is running and that the image path is valid.

• Pro Tip:

  If your image is large, resize it before encoding. It’ll reduce request size and speed up model inference.

New Power BI Copilot features: broader chat experience and more narrative visuals

Copilot in Power BI continues to evolve with fresh updates aimed at making data exploration even more intuitive. These enhancements build on Microsoft's vision to simplify the way users interact with and gain insights from their data. With each update, Power BI is moving closer to delivering a more conversational and intelligent analytics experience.

Here’s what’s new:

• Ask questions directly in chat: Use natural language to ask questions about your report—and get answers backed by actual visuals from your data.

• Smarter email subscriptions: Copilot now adds a dynamic summary at the top of subscription emails, highlighting key trends, KPIs, and patterns—so you get insights at a glance.

• Narrative visuals in exports: Exported PDFs and PowerPoint files now include Copilot-generated narrative visuals through the “Export as screenshot” feature.

Explore in Power BI just got a major usability boost

Power BI continues to refine the data discovery experience with significant updates to the Explore feature. These latest enhancements focus on making Explore more accessible and flexible, so users can dive into insights faster than ever. Whether you're using Copilot or navigating reports, Explore is now easier to reach and more powerful to use.

Here’s what you need to know:

• What is Explore? Explore is a lightweight, focused experience that lets users quickly adjust visuals — filter, sort, add data, change visual types — and dig into underlying data, all without the complexity of full report building.

• New entry points: You can now launch Explore from Copilot-generated visuals and from visuals in your reports.

• Expanded access: All users with view permissions on supported Fabric artifacts can now use Explore by default — empowering business users, especially those without edit access, to gain quick insights and perform ad hoc analysis.

• Visual calculations: Create custom calculations directly within your exploration by selecting New Visual Calculation in a matrix or visual — unlocking even more possibilities for analysis.

Power Apps launches Enhanced Component Properties, UDF preview & 'Dynamic' rename

The Power Platform team is rolling out new capabilities that make it easier for makers to build powerful, maintainable apps with greater flexibility and reuse. These updates reflect Microsoft's continued investment in enhancing low-code development through Power Fx. Whether you're building simple solutions or complex business applications, these improvements aim to streamline your experience and scale your impact.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Enhanced Component Properties (ECP) – Now generally available, ECP lets you modularize and reuse logic across apps using component libraries.

• User Defined Functions (UDF) – Now in preview, UDFs let you define formulas once and reuse them throughout your app.

• User Defined Types (UDT) – Coming soon to preview, UDTs make it easier to convert ParseJSON output into structured, typed objects.

• Dynamic (formerly UntypedObject) – The UntypedObject is now called Dynamic to better reflect its flexible behavior.

• Void as a Parameter Type – The Void type is no longer supported in UDFs since it added no functional value.

Smarter AI defaults and model choice arrive in Visual Studio Copilot

Microsoft has rolled out a major update to Copilot in Visual Studio, introducing smarter defaults and expanded model options. The improvements aim to give developers greater control, improved performance, and a more seamless coding experience.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Smarter by default: Copilot now runs on GPT-4.1 by default—bringing faster responses, higher-quality suggestions, and overall better performance.

• More model choices: You can now choose from a wider range of models, and your selection stays active across threads for a smoother workflow.

• Easier usage tracking: A new Copilot Consumptions panel lets you monitor usage across chat, inline suggestions, and more. Just click the Copilot badge in the top-right corner of Visual Studio.

• All-in-one Visual Studio Hub: Stay up to date with the latest release notes, videos, social content, and community discussions—all in one place.