Microsoft Brings SharePoint To Your iPhone And iPad

Feeling it could do better than a mobile browser experience, Microsoft has released a SharePoint app for iOS. The company plans to follow it up with SharePoint Mobile for Android and Universal Windows Platform apps.

The new SharePoint Mobile app can connect users to their organization's intranet sites and resources on Office 356 in the cloud, on premises with SharePoint 2013 and 2016, and in hybrid environments, according to Andy Haon, principal group program manager for OneDrive and SharePoint.

"These are our new front-door applications for SharePoint," says Haon. "They provide a gateway to get to experience in SharePoint."

The new app is connected to Office 365 Groups, the Office Graph "and the security and compliance you expect from Office 365," Haon says.

Inside of the app, the Links tab provides a listing of sites set by system administrators and the Sites tab provides a listing of followed and frequently visited sites. Users can browse the Sites menu for the latest content and activity, share the site and follow links to content from other Office apps.

And then there's the "People" tab, which shows users what their coworkers are working on and with whom they're collaborating, and Search. The search function includes filters for people, sites and files.

"When you perform a search in the SharePoint mobile app, you are connecting through full enterprise search," says Microsoft. "[S]o you can find content and people from across your intranet, SharePoint team sites, company portals and the OneDrive for Business folders you have access to, including content recommendations powered by the Microsoft Graph."

Microsoft hasn't revealed exactly when SharePoint Mobile will go to Android and Windows Universal, but the company indicated that it intends to release those versions later this year. The company also plans to update the SharePoint Mobile app to support cross-company news and other features.

For those concerned about authentication methods, Microsoft has confirmed that SharePoint Mobile will support MAM (Mobile Application Management) and MDM (Mobile Device Management), along with a other protocols.

SharePoint has grown into a $10 billion ecosystem of solutions, made up of about 1 million developers and used by more than 200,000 organizations. That community is backed my more than 50,000 partners.