Add Apps in Slack and Teams: Install, Tabs and Approval
Both Slack and Teams treat apps as the way you pull other tools into chat, but they put the controls in different places. Slack installs an app once for the whole workspace; Teams can add the same app to a tab, a meeting, a message or just for you. Here is what each help page documents.
Miles Crawford
The quick version
In Slack, click Agents & tools in the desktop sidebar (look under More or Tools if you do not see it), open Apps, search, click Add, then Add to Slack in the Marketplace and follow the prompts. In Teams, select Apps on the left, search or browse, open the app and select Add. Teams also lets you add apps to a channel or chat tab, to a meeting, or straight into a message with the Actions and apps plus button.
Slack: one install for the whole workspace
By default, any member of a Slack workspace can install an app, and once it is installed every member can connect their own account to use it. Slack's install path runs through the sidebar: Agents & tools, then Apps, then search and Add, which takes you to the Slack Marketplace for the Add to Slack button. If the app is already installed, you are prompted to connect your account instead. Apps published in the Slack Marketplace have been reviewed by Slack's team for user experience and security; an app that is not listed shows a banner telling you it has not been reviewed before you install it.
Slack: approval, updates and reinstalls
Workspace Owners can turn on app approval so every app needs admin sign-off. Members can then install apps an owner has approved and request approval for others, adding a custom message that owners may make optional or required; restricted apps can be neither installed nor requested. When a developer changes an app's permission scopes, members may need to re-authorize it through an installation link, and with approval on, an owner or app manager reviews the new scopes first. Slack also suggests periodically rotating app tokens: from the Marketplace's Manage page, open Installed Apps, select the app and remove it, then reinstall. If app approval is enabled, only owners and members with app-management permission can reinstall a third-party app. The feature is available to all members by default on all plans.
Teams: four places to add an app
Microsoft documents apps in more places than Slack. From the Apps button you can search or browse categories and select Add. In any channel or chat, Add a tab (the plus button) pins an app as a tab, with an optional post announcing it, then Save. Meeting organizers and presenters can add apps before a meeting (send the invite, open the meeting, add a tab) or during it from Apps in the meeting controls. And in the compose box, Actions and apps inserts an app directly into a message. Apps work across the web, desktop and mobile versions of Teams.
Teams: personal apps and owner controls
Some Teams apps have a personal app capability, meaning they work for you alone outside any channel or chat; Microsoft gives OneNote as a private workspace example, and Planner or Wrike as cross-board task views. To find them, browse Apps and look for Personal app listed as a capability. On the control side, team owners can restrict who can add apps, and some apps can only be installed by a team owner because they require additional permissions.
Which one for what?
Our read: Slack's model is simpler to reason about, since one install covers the workspace and the approval switch is the main control; Teams' model is more flexible, since the same app can be a shared tab, a meeting tool, a message insert or a private panel. If people keep asking for the same tool, in Slack you approve it once; in Teams you can add it to the channel tab where the work already happens.
What to be careful about
- Unreviewed apps show a banner in Slack. Only Slack Marketplace apps have been reviewed for user experience and security, per Slack.
- Restricted means restricted. In Slack, a restricted app can be neither installed nor requested.
- Scope changes need re-authorization. New Slack permission scopes do not apply until someone grants them, and with approval on, an owner reviews first.
- Some Teams apps are owner-only. Microsoft notes apps requiring additional permissions can only be installed by a team owner.
- Tabs are shared, personal apps are not. A Teams tab is visible to the channel or chat; a personal app is yours alone.
Sources
Checked October 23, 2026. Install paths and controls follow each product's own help articles. The suggestions about when to prefer each model are ours.