It felt like it was yesterday that I wrote my last log post about the wave 1 2024 release. Here we are again with yet another wave and tons of new features released. You can access the Power Platform notes here.
Copilot and AI features are still dominating the release notes with some cool features being announced and entering public preview such as AI flow.
As usual, I start my post with a graphical view of what is announced in the notes to be able to visualize where Microsoft is focusing its investment. What is interesting is the comparison between the wave 1 and wave 2 stats. We can clearly see an increase in the % of copilot and AI features in both release notes.
Here are my top 10 features that picked from the Power Platform
1. Work together in real time to create canvas apps
This feature has been long-awaited. Allow multiple users to update a canvas app at once.
2. Select columns downloaded on mobile devices
This feature provides flexibility and control over not only the tables but also the columns to be download on mobile devices for offline use.
3. Manage your source code for canvas apps
This feature is about making canvas apps exported natively in YAML to make them more developer and source control friendly. No need for the CLI to concert .msapp to YAML.
4. Generate and explain Power Fx formulas using Copilot
Power Fx is not always easy to remember, let alone understand someone else’s formula. This feature leverages the power of copilot to help writing Power Fx or understand existing ones in Power Pages.
5. Use Power Fx in web template components
I have always had a passion for Power Fx and through the MVP program we’ve been requesting from Microsoft to introduce Power Fx everywhere. We now have it in Power Pages!
6. AI flow
This is the probably the most anticipated feature of this release. Think of it as the same evolution between power virtual agent and copilot studio. Tell the AI flow what you want to achieve and it will figure it out for you.
7. Generate flow description using AI
How often do we inherit some obscure Power Automates that we have to reverse engineer. Now AI can do it for you. Imagine the power of this capability when you have to document an entire tenancy.
8. Bypass business logic for hassle free migration
This feature has been announced in the last release notes and if aiming to go GA in October. This feature allows you to bypass plugins and automation when running intense data manipulation activities. This will come in handy during your next data migration.
9. Accelerate value with better email validation
No need to cater for email validation. If you define you attribute with email type, the validation will follow through on the user interface.
10. Mask sensitive data and fields using column-level security
Public preview aimed for August, administrators will be able to mark attributes are sensitive mask them on export to avoid data leaks. Security controls will be able who can view and manage sensitive data.
Hope you enjoy this list. Let me know which feature is your favourite in the comments below.