O365 Alerts App Update: Image & Video Previews in Teams

With Virto Alerts App for SharePoint Online, you can add variable images and links to them to corporate notifications. Here is the use case. As you know, with the latest update, Virto Office 365 Alerts App supports complex links. This means that Alerts users now can add variable clickable elements to alerts and reminders. This is an especially valuable feature when we speak about images in alerts. Previously, you could add images to alerts as a constant visual element. Just a picture. Now the image changes automatically depending on the source SharePoint item. For example, you wish to alert about the newly added image, and the notification inserts this image to the email. Moreover, the image is clickable. Today we offer a simple use case of O365 Alerts with complex links. We also are going to send the alert to the Teams channel. Let’s start!

Use Case Description

We are going to work with the Video Content plan list. The list contains data about videos published on the corporate YouTube channel. We would like to notify the team about newly added videos with Virto Alerts. When the new item with video description, preview image, and video URL appears in the list, an automatic alert with a clickable preview image goes to the Teams channel.

Step 1: Choose the list and add a complex link

First of all, you should choose the right source list. Find a SharePoint list with an “Image” and “Hyperlink” column types for a new notification.

Video Content Plan table showing Q&A session and Kanban board chart tutorials with descriptions and URLs

Choose this list when you create a new alert.

Create New Alert dialog showing SharePoint list selection with Video Content Plan highlighted

Check you have “New items are added” as a chosen alert trigger.

Alert creation dialog showing options for list selection, change type dropdown, and enabled status checkbox

Add a complex link to alert in the “Message View” block as described in Virto Office 365 Alerts App: Variable Images and Links in Your Alerts blog post. Image is a title source. And “Display Item Url” is a URL source.

Add Link dialog showing URL source dropdown menu with options for Display Item URL, Edit Item URL, and URL.

Rich text editor toolbar with formatting options and Preview Image button

Step 2: Add the webhook

To send this alert to the Teams channel, you should adjust the webhook. We have already described how you can do this in the “How to Connect Alerts from SharePoint to Teams?” blog post. Just follow these simple steps and insert the webhook URL to Recipients from the Teams connectors. Remember to save the new alert.

Email recipient and MS Teams webhook configuration form with fields for To, CC, BCC, sender email, and title.

Check the new alert you have just created.

Virto Alert for SharePoint Online interface showing alert configuration with one active alert

Step 3: Enjoy the result

Now let’s add a new video to the list — the preview image and YouTube video URL.

SharePoint new item form with preview image and URL fields highlighted in green

The email notification is sent to the email of chosen recipients and contains the clickable image. When you click on the image, you will be redirected to the YouTube video.

Outlook inbox with email about "New video on the YouTube" highlighted, showing video preview panel on right.

The same message appears in the chosen Teams channel!

Microsoft Teams interface showing a General channel post about a YouTube video on Virto Alerts App features.

Three steps and a quick solution for a corporate notification system! This was just an example of million possible options where you can apply the Office 365 Alerts App for Microsoft Teams. If you have a special case to use Alerts, please contact Virto Support Team and we will assist you in the best way!