Outlook Web Add In can't open links in web browser

Question

I have developed a very basic Outlook Web Add In, with the purpose of loading a Power Apps app by using an iframe object with a URL pointing to the app, all this from Office 365 on desktop devices.

It works as intended and, when loading, Power Apps asks the user to login first, this isn't the app itself asking to login, but Power Apps asking the user to identify first and then loading the app. This also works, at least on some devices.

It has come to my attention that some users can't make it past the login request, as instead of opening a browser tab and showing the login form, the iframe in the Add In, shows this message, which, obviously, makes users think the app isn't working:

This app isn't working. Refresh your browser or try again later

Apparently this message is not that uncommon and at least from what I've read it isn't clear enough either.

Besides that, Windows is displaying this message:

You'll need a new app to open this about link

I'm not even sure what it means, but it shows a list with zero apps that can open this "about link", and the option to go the Windows Store.

What should happen (and happens on some devices):

1. User is shown login request (by Power Apps)
2. User logs in
3. App is loaded and shown to the user

What happens (only on some devices):

1. User is shown login request (by Power Apps)
2. Windows can't open a web browser, so the user can't log in
3. Message saying app isn't working appears, because app was never loaded.

As I don't quite understand why this only happens on some cases, I have been testing the issue, and I have found that when the Power Apps login button is clicked, a file called ielowutil.exe, which apparently stands for Internet Low MIC Utility Tool, is executed before the web browser is shown with the login screen, and this only happens on the devices that can eventually load the app, the ones that fail never run this program.

From what I understand this file is related to Internet Explorer.

The Outlook Web Add In is already working within a web browser, according to Microsoft the browser is chosen automatically (Browsers used by Office Add-ins), so if it's already opened then I don't quite understand why it can't open a new tab/window.

Answer 1

The combination of system requirements for Office Add-ins and Power Apps may be the cause of the error here. While some combinations of platforms and Office versions still support IE 11 for add-ins and may default to opening URLs in IE per Browsers used by Office Add-ins and Support Internet Explorer 11, it looks like IE is no longer supported by Power Apps (see Supported browsers for running Power Apps).

For users who experience the issue you mentioned because of IE, you may need to add an alternate experience for the add-in to gracefully fail (see Determine at runtime if the add-in is running in Internet Explorer) or consider a different solution for hosting the Power Apps app.