Files added as tab using URL with "Website" option don't open in Microsofte Teams app from New Teams.

[gpradowork]

Steps to reproduce

1. Click "Add a tab" on a channel and select "Website".
2. Enter "Tab name" and "URL"
3. Click "Save"

Expected behavior

Expect to open SharePoint website and it's contents

Actual behavior

after Verifying link, the page stays blank. It works for few users, others it does not.

Error details

No response

[gpradowork]

Escalating the ticket view the link now

[ChetanSharma-msft]

Hello @gpradowork - Thanks for raising your query.
We will look into it and let you know the updates.

[Nivedipa-MSFT]

@gpradowork - Could you please share on which platform you are facing this issue? Additionally, could you inspect and share the error you are getting? Ensure that all users have the necessary permissions to access the SharePoint site. If some users do not have the required permissions, they may see a blank page

[Nivedipa-MSFT]

@gpradowork - Could you please share the details of the above ask? Also, have you verified the permissions to access the SharePoint site?

[gpradowork]

Hi there, sorry for the delay.

1 - Microsoft teams version

2- There is no error, just blank screen, is there a inspect element in teams? The users have necessary permissions, when they click Open in browser, they can access the files without an issue.

[Nivedipa-MSFT]

@gpradowork - This behavior is currently by design. Many websites out there do not allow themselves to be iframed by returning the X-Frame-Options or CSP frame-ancestors header. Such websites will not work when embedded inside of the Teams Web Client. That is why there is a banner at the top of the tab that guides the user to their options when it comes to getting the tab to render.

You can use the Teams Desktop Client which uses a webview to render Website tabs and is not affected by X-Frame-Options or CSP frame-ancestors headers.

[gpradowork]

Hi there, thank you for your response.

Why do some users experience this issue while others do not? The conditions are the same: using "new MS Teams" with the same version, but while the site opens for me, some of my colleagues cannot access it.

[Nivedipa-MSFT]

@gpradowork - Users who are using the Teams desktop client will be able to see the website in tab, while those using the Teams web client will not be able to see the website in tab. That's why some users are able to see the tab, and some are not.

[gpradowork]

That is not what we are experiencing. Some users using the desktop app have the website other do not.

[Nivedipa-MSFT]

@gpradowork - This behaviour is by design. To achieve your requirements, we recommend you give your feedback in
Teams Feedback Portal.

[Nivedipa-MSFT]

@gpradowork - Could you please share your valuable feedback via Microsoft Teams Developer Community Response Feedback link?

[gpradowork]

valuable feedback? smh

[Wajeed-msft]

@lokimeyburg - could you please help here? I believe these changes are due to updates to loading websites in New Teams tabs.

[lokimeyburg]

Hi @gpradowork. You're right, the "website" tab is unreliable and frustrating. I'd like to explain why, what we're doing about it and what you can try in the meantime.

Why: modern web standards are changing. For very valid security and privacy best practices. And the new version of Teams is built on modern web best practices. In short: we can no longer reliably render websites inside of Teams (we were able to get around this in the old version of Teams, but that's no longer considered best practice). Even in the old version of Teams - the way we used to do it - will no longer work in a few months because of changes coming to webviews in Chromium.

Starting very soon, we will no longer be rendering websites in Teams (using the Website tab). This doesn't mean the website tab is going away. Just that it's changing how it works. Instead of rendering the website inside of Teams, the website will get opened in the web browser. Similar to clicking on a link shared from a message. This change has been fully rolled out to our beta/ early preview customers and we will be slowly rolling out the change worldwide in the coming weeks. ¹

Now, the feedback has ranged from 'finally, this is great' to 'this sucks - what am I supposed to do? I relied on these getting opened inside of Teams'

There are two options available if you want to keep opening these links inside of Teams, but it all boils down to "use a tab app instead". We can reliably render apps in Teams - since the Teams SDK is making it reliable. and can handle authentication. In the case of the SharePoint links earlier in this discussion: try to use the SharePoint app tab. The other option is to create your own custom tab app and we have developer documentation and developer tools to help make that easier.

Again, I hear you: Website tab being unreliable sucks. Which is why we're changing how it works very soon. Let me know if you have any questions.

---

1-- Small caveat: we are not rolling out this change to EDU customers yet given school is in session. That will happen at a later date.

[gpradowork]

Hi @lokimeyburg thank you for the clarification.
Using the website was a alternative since adding a SharePoint site was giving me error below

But now this issue seems to be resolved. I won't be using Websites anymore.

Is "adding a SharePoint site" going to be relinquished too?

Thank you