Microsoft Graph was released last November and can be used to integrate data from Microsoft services into developers own apps. It is designed to be a unified API endpoint for accessing data, intelligence, and insights coming from the Microsoft cloud.

 

The improvements mean you can now use the Microsoft Graph to access a user’s out-of-office status and recent email attachments. New APIs return “relevant documents” and suggestions for meeting times based on real-time calendar availability.

The team also announced new web and device SDKs that make it possible to use drop-in integrations like the OneDrive file picker. Finally, when the underlying data changes, applications consuming Office data will get notifications through Microsoft Graph for changes to users’ mail, calendar and contacts.

Skype is being made more accessible in a similar way, with a Skype Web SDK, Skype for Business App SDK and Office 365 Groups connectors. The Skype Web SDK is a set of JavaScript Web APIs and HTML controls that give access to Skype for Business services and the larger Skype network. The SDK provides support for collaboration services like presence, chat, audio, and video.

Office 365 Groups connectors are another addition aimed at the creation of collaborative apps. They let you push data from your own services into an Office 365 Groups conversation in Outlook. The idea is that business users can work in a familiar environment while using and interacting with the data from your external service. Microsoft also announced that it will be bringing Office 365 Connectors to the Outlook inbox "soon".