Setting up Microsoft Teams

What is Popcorn Style?

Popcorn Style runs async standups in a Teams channel, spins picker wheels with a play-by-play, and puts a standup timer on the stage of your Teams meetings. In a channel it works from the + menu in the message box, or by mentioning @Popcorn Style. This guide takes you from install to your first standup in a few minutes.

Marketing

  1. Priya8:52 AM

    Launch copy is on staging and the blog’s queued up ☀️

  2. Marcus8:58 AM

    Love it. Let’s standup before the campaign review. Hit + and pick Popcorn Style 👇

Installing Popcorn Style for Microsoft Teams

  1. Download the app package.

    Click Add to Teams and download the app. If your organization’s IT team publishes apps for everyone, share the zip with them, ask them to add Popcorn Style to your org’s app catalog instead and skip to step 3.

    Add to Teams

  2. Upload it in Teams.

    In Teams, open Apps, then Manage your apps, then Upload an app, and pick the zip.

    If Teams won’t let you upload, your admin has turned custom apps off. Send them the package, or the link above, and they can publish it from the Teams admin center.

    Upload an app in Microsoft Teams’ Manage your apps, with options to upload to your org’s app catalog or submit it to your org

  3. Add it to a team.

    Choose the team Popcorn Style should join. Teams shows you what it’s asking for; it only ever posts in that team’s channels, and it never reads your direct messages. Here’s what you’re granting:

    • Post messages and start threads in the team’s channels
    • See who’s in the team, so it knows who to wait on
    • Read the replies in its own standup threads, which a team owner grants when adding it
    • Manage the team’s tags, so a rotation wheel can hand off something like @on-call. A Microsoft 365 admin grants this one, once, from the wheel’s settings
    Popcorn Style’s Let’s go dialog in Microsoft Teams, with the team’s General channel selected

  4. Click Connect.

    Popcorn Style posts a welcome card in the team’s General channel. Its Connect button links the team to your Popcorn Style account; you’ll be asked to sign in or create one first. Accounts are free for teams of up to 3, with no credit card required.

    Lost the card? Say @Popcorn Style connect in any channel for a fresh one.

  5. Run your first standup.

    Hit + in any channel’s message box, pick Popcorn Style and tap Start a meeting. Everyone answers in the thread, anyone who hasn’t posted gets a nudge, and an AI summary wraps it up.

    The same menu puts standups on a weekly schedule, spins your team’s picker wheels and changes how the bot talks, or mention @Popcorn Style if you’d rather type.

In a meeting

  1. Popcorn Style is a meeting app as well. In a scheduled meeting (not an instant Meet now call), open it from the meeting’s toolbar: it’s under Apps, or has its own icon there once it’s been added. It runs in the side panel with everyone in the meeting already on the list, and Start puts the timer on the meeting stage for the whole call. The controls stay with you.

    You get 4 free Teams meetings a month, and any paid plan makes them unlimited.

Prefer typing?

  1. Everything the shortcuts do can be typed after an @mention as well. Teams has no slash commands, so the first word after the mention does the job /meet, /spin and /popcorn do in Slack.

    Typed commands

    @Popcorn Style meet
    Start an async standup right here
    @Popcorn Style spin [name-of-wheel]
    Spin a wheel, with a play-by-play
    @Popcorn Style wheel list
    See the wheels shared with your team and the spins scheduled here
    @Popcorn Style personality [name]
    Change how Popcorn Style talks in this channel
    @Popcorn Style help
    Buttons for all of it, and See what’s scheduled

Uninstalling Popcorn Style for Microsoft Teams

  1. Open the team’s menu in Teams, choose Manage team, then Apps, and remove Popcorn Style.

    As soon as Teams tells us the app is gone, Popcorn Style deletes the team’s standups, schedules, channels and personalities from our servers. We keep a small record of your free-plan usage so reinstalling doesn’t reset your monthly allowance, and your wheels stay in your Popcorn Style account.

Something not working?

  1. Teams won’t take the upload.

    Custom app uploads are off for your organization. An admin can publish the package from the Teams admin center, or add it to your org’s app catalog.

  2. “That connect link isn’t one we recognise.”

    The card is from a team that has since been removed and re-added. Say @Popcorn Style connect in any channel for a fresh one.

  3. “I couldn’t find a wheel called…”

    Only wheels shared with My team show up in Teams. Check the wheel’s sharing setting on Popcorn Style, then say @Popcorn Style wheel list to see what Teams can see.

  4. The rotation can’t hand off a tag.

    Handing a tag like @on-call to a winner needs a permission a Microsoft 365 admin grants once. There’s a Grant permission button in the wheel’s rotation settings that starts it.

  5. Still stuck?

    Email us at contact@popcorn.style with your team’s name and we’ll sort it out.