Signing up for a developer plan for Power Virtual Agents

Last month, we announced the Public Preview of the new authoring canvas for Power Virtual Agents.

We heard from our community that you want to be able to try out Power Virtual Agents’ new features before buying. Well, now you can by combining Microsoft’s 365 Developer plan, Power Apps Developer plan, and the Power Virtual Agents trial.

Follow these four easy steps below to get set up and try out all the new features like advanced topic management, interactive adaptive cards, multi-media responses (images, videos, quick replies), PowerFX, variable management, and more!

Getting started:

1. Obtain a personal account

Use a personal account that you’re happy to use for signing up for the Microsoft Developer Account. If you do not have a personal account, you can create a new one with Outlook.

2. Sign up for a Microsoft 365 Developer Account

Use the personal account to sign up for the Microsoft 365 Developer Program.

By signing up for the Microsoft 365 Developer Account, you will receive new credentials ending with ‘onmicrosoft.com’. This account is not to be confused with your company’s login. These will be your credentials for the next step.

The Microsoft 365 Developer program provisions the tenant, Office and other supplementary apps.

Tip: Incognito/InPrivate browsers work best when logging in to prevent login conflicts between any accounts already logged in.

Note: When making a new Microsoft 365 Developer Account from a brand new personal account, you may need to wait a few hours for your account to be completed.

3. Attaching the Power Apps Developer plan to your account

This Microsoft 365 Developer account is used to attach both the Power Apps Developer Plan and the Power Virtual Agent Trial to.

What’s included in the Power App Developer plan?

• Free development and testing of Power Apps/ Power Automate – Easily share and collaborate with others. (Step 4 adds Power Virtual Agents)
• Developer-friendly – Utilize Power Automates’ 900+ data sources, including premium connectors like Azure, Dynamics 365, and custom APIs.
• Dataverse included – A fully managed, scalable, Azure-backed data platform. 

To attach the Power Apps Developer Plan, follow the instructions outlined here – Create a developer environment using the ‘onmicrosoft.com’ work credentials from the previous step.

4. Get creating with Power Virtual Agents

Once you have set up the Power Apps development environment, go to the Power Virtual Agents trial, log in with your new credentials and complete the sign up.

Since the Power Apps Developer Plan includes Microsoft Dataverse, it means you can use Power Automate and Dataverse to connect to Power Virtual Agents, which unlocks even more of the possibilities within your bots!

Now you should be all set up to create your first bot and get testing!

Don’t forget to share your creations!

Be sure to share your latest Power Virtual Agents creation with our Twitter and LinkedIn channels. As a reminder, please do not share any sensitive data via screenshots/videos.

Happy bot building!