For example, I work for Sparked and we declare our billable hours in an application called Timewax. This article talks about adding apps that point to your business applications accessible through the browser. I do want to stress, this article isn’t about developing an app with Visual Studio and adding it to the app launcher. This article is aimed at extending the app launcher. Do they want to share their expertise? They click Yammer. Do they need to write an e-mail? Click the Outlook icon. This availability feature really improves the user adoption of your Office 365 implementation because business users are now able to quickly browse to the services they need while getting the job done. The app launcher (figure 2) is still available.įigure 2: Even within an Office 365 service, you can easily get back to the app launcher. Did you click on OneDrive to continue working on your presentation? No worries. The app launcher is an awesome feature because it’s available through every Office 365 service or site within Office 365. This doesn’t necessarily fit the definition of an app, but that’s alright. You can spot Office 365 services such as Delve and Power BI, but on the other hand you have Tasks and Admin, which are nothing more than links to Outlook tasks and the Office 365 Admin Portal. I have to admit the name is a bit confusing because the app launcher displays a collection of items (figure 1).įigure 1: The Office 365 app launcher includes more than just Office, SharePoint and OneDrive. Why? Two words: availability and extensibility. The Office 365 app launcher can be a powerful tool to increase productivity and improve adoption. To be honest, I didn’t spend much attention looking at this new feature but I have seen the light.

Microsoft announced a new Office 365 feature on October, 16, 2014: The Office 365 app launcher.

Custom app launcher