SharePoint App Bar
Common Use Cases
- Global intranet navigation: one menu of the entire intranet, available from every site once a home site is configured
- Getting back home: the home icon returns users to the organization’s home site from anywhere in SharePoint
- Personal site shortcuts: the My sites tab lists the sites a user follows and visits frequently
- News catch-up: the My news tab surfaces posts curated from each user’s activity and interests
- Recent files: the My files tab brings back the documents a user worked on most recently
- Quick creation: the Create command starts a new site, file, or list from wherever the user happens to be
Benefits
- Consistency everywhere: the same rail appears on every modern site, so navigation muscle memory finally works
- Personalized automatically: the sites, news, files, and lists tabs populate themselves from each user’s own activity
- Global reach: global navigation carries the intranet-wide menu to every site without editing individual sites
- Zero-maintenance tabs: the personalized content requires no configuration from site owners
- Branded entry point: the global navigation panel carries the organization’s logo and a custom title
- Foundation for Viva: the same home site navigation also powers resources in Viva Connections
How It Works
- Always present: the app bar renders on every modern SharePoint site for everyone in the organization
- Home site requirement: the global navigation panel only lights up after the organization designates a home site
- Navigation source: global navigation displays either the home site’s own navigation or its hub navigation, chosen during setup
- Graph-powered personalization: the sites, news, files, and lists tabs draw on Microsoft Graph signals about each user’s activity
- Read access applies: users see global navigation links only when they have at least read access to the home site
- Rollout time: enabling or changing global navigation can take up to 24 hours to appear for every user
- Global navigation toggle: a home site setting controls whether the global navigation panel appears in the app bar
- Logo: a custom image representing global navigation at the top of the rail
- Title: the heading displayed at the top of the navigation panel, typically the intranet’s name
- Menu links: the links themselves are managed as regular site or hub navigation, including audience targeting on individual links
Limits and Nuances
- Cannot be removed: the app bar displays on all modern sites and cannot be disabled for the tenant or hidden on specific sites
- Tabs are fixed: individual tabs such as My sites or My files cannot be turned off or rearranged
- Home site prerequisite: without a home site, the app bar still appears but offers no global navigation panel
- Owner permissions: enabling and editing global navigation requires owner rights on the home site
- Modern only: classic pages and classic sites do not display the app bar
- Patience required: global navigation changes can take up to 24 hours to reach all users
Common Questions About the SharePoint App Bar
What is the SharePoint app bar?
The SharePoint app bar is the vertical rail on the left edge of every modern SharePoint site. It gives each user personalized tabs for their sites, news, files, and lists, a Create command, and optionally a global navigation panel showing the organization’s intranet-wide menu. Because it appears identically on every site, it provides consistent navigation no matter where a user lands.
Can the SharePoint app bar be hidden or disabled?
No. The app bar appears on all modern SharePoint sites and cannot be disabled for the tenant, hidden on specific sites, or trimmed tab by tab. Microsoft previously offered a temporary opt-out during the rollout period, and that window closed in March 2023. The practical approach is to embrace it: configure global navigation so the rail adds real value.
What do I need to set up global navigation?
Three things: a designated SharePoint home site, owner permissions on that home site, and a few configuration choices, namely a logo, a title, and whether the panel shows the home site’s navigation or its hub navigation. Once enabled, allow up to 24 hours for the change to reach everyone, and remember users need read access to the home site to see the links.
Where do the My sites, My news, and My files tabs get their content?
They personalize themselves using Microsoft Graph signals about each individual user: sites they follow and visit often, news posts matching their activity and interests, documents they recently opened or edited, and lists they viewed or marked as favorites. Site owners do not configure any of it, and two colleagues looking at the same tab will see different, personally relevant content.
What is the difference between the app bar and the Microsoft 365 bar?
They occupy different edges and serve different scopes. The Microsoft 365 bar runs horizontally across the very top and handles suite-level functions: the app launcher, search, settings, and account management across all of Microsoft 365. The app bar runs vertically down the left and is SharePoint-specific, carrying intranet global navigation plus personalized sites, news, files, and lists.
What should go into global navigation?
Treat it as the intranet’s master menu: the home page, major hubs, department sites, and the handful of destinations everyone needs, organized into a shallow hierarchy with plain-language labels. When Greg Zelfond builds LookBook 365 intranets, global navigation in the app bar is configured off the home site so every employee gets one consistent menu on every single site.