Microsoft is Adding New Features to its SharePoint Mobile App

Microsoft is Adding New Features to its SharePoint Mobile App

Posted by Sophina Dillard on Thursday, 6 April 2017 0

With technological advances and new digital innovations being released daily, we, as workers, are now open to a completely new realm of possibilities for on-the-go operations. With our mobile phones we can literally do anything and everything, but sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes we need more.

The SharePoint Mobile App allows us to do just this.

A Quick Introduction to Get Us Started

We’ve all grown to know and love Microsoft SharePoint, especially its newest version, SharePoint 2016. For all those who aren’t exactly sure what the latest features are, or what this application even is, here’s a quick definition from Microsoft themselves:

“Organizations use SharePoint to create websites. You can use it as a secure place to store, organize, share, and access information from any device. All you need is a web browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox.”

SharePoint itself is a name umbrella for other products and technologies such as SharePoint Online, Server, Foundation, and Designer. More importantly, SharePoint Online gives employees within an organization the ability to create and share sites, documents and information. The SharePoint mobile app enhances these functions and is consistently receiving upgrades to become more and more user friendly.

Let’s explore the latest is surrounding the app’s most recent tweak, announced this past March.

What’s the Update All About?

The iOS app is finally getting some attention. According to CMSWire, “This time, Microsoft is giving most of the love to the iOS app, which now enables users to author news and publish to their team members while they are on the go. Users can add a title, body text, images, embed documents, format it and publish it.”
iPhone users aren’t the only ones who are going to be delighted. Android is receiving a nice little feature as well. What is it, you ask? It’s Team News.

                                                                               Image Source: support.office.com

Already a fixture on the iOS app, Team News keeps workers in the loop through team site updates and posts in a full display on Android devices. According to Microsoft, “The News tab shows the most recent articles from your sites you’re following and frequently visit along with sites suggested by Office Graph.” And “When you tap a news headline from the Sites tab or the News, you’ll see the full article complete with web parts, including images and embedded documents.”

Why Include These Features?

Why add these features to Microsoft SharePoint? Simple, Microsoft wants on-the-go workers to be able to access content on their intranet sites. The whole theme of quick access is exactly what the developers and creative minds at Microsoft are striving for.
Giving workers access to in-office features, outside of that setting, does and will continue to increase worker efficiency. A good idea shouldn’t have to wait for the workplace, it should be shared at any time.

What are the Benefits?

As we touched on earlier, increasing functionality for mobile applications will allow workers to be that much more productive.
For iPhone users, giving workers the ability to author news on the go is an incredibly useful feature. Having the Team News feature allows Android users and workers to fully immerse themselves within their company’s day-to-day activities. Not having to wait and go back to your desk for small work tasks also functions to boost productivity and performance levels.

The Wrap Up

The opportunities available for the SharePoint mobile app are virtually endless. With more improvement updates coming from mobile operating systems, we can only expect to see a continuous climb for aspects of functionality. Providing quick access for moderately essential features will continue to be at the forefront for motivation of what is to come next. Are you excited yet?