Get started with Power Apps

The Power Apps home page offers you various options for creating your own apps, opening apps that you or others have created, and performing related tasks. These tasks range from the most simple, such as identifying the license or licenses that give you access, to more advanced capabilities like creating custom connections to specific data sources.

If your organization has AI enabled then it also includes the new Copilot features.

Select the appropriate tab below to know more.

Legend:

1. Left navigation pane
2. Search
3. Environment information and settings
4. Copilot in Power Apps
5. Build apps
6. Get help from a virtual agent

1 – Left navigation pane

Find what you need with the left navigation pane. When you sign in to Power Apps home page the left navigation pane shows the following menu items:

Legend:

1. Home: Takes you to the Power Apps home page.
2. Create: Create apps as such as canvas apps, model-driven apps, chatbots, and AI models.
3. Learn: The learn hub lets you explore documents, training material, get help from the Power Apps community, and other resources that help you to create and build Power Apps.
4. Plans: View and edit your plans. More information: Use the Plan designer (preview).
5. Apps: If you've created an app or someone else has created one and shared it with you, you can play or edit it. You can also filter the list of apps based on criteria such as whether you opened it recently.
6. Your most used pages such as Tables, Connections, Flows: When you first sign in the top three pages that you use most are pinned to the left navigation pane. Use the More option to unpin any of these pages and pin something else.
7. More: Pin your most used items to the left navigation such as tables, flows, and more.
8. Power Platform: Explore other Power Platform products or service.

Pin and unpin

Pin your most used pages in the navigation pane so you can quickly access features that you use frequently. Links to other pages are available through the More link. When you pin an item, it appears in the middle section above More.

When you sign in, the system automatically pins your most and recently used pages on the left navigation pane. However, you can pin and unpin pages and customize it to your preference.

To pin or unpin a page from the left navigation pane, select More, and then select the pin or unpin button.

You can also unpin and item by selecting the more button and then select Unpin.

Discover all

To see all your Power Apps, from the left navigation pane, select More > Discover all.

Select Discover all to see the Discover page on the left navigation pane. To keep in pinned, select the pin button.

Move up or move down

When you have a few pages pinned in the navigation pane, you can start moving them up or down.

To move a page up or down, select the more button next to the page that you want to move, and then select Move up or Move down.

Power Platform

From the left navigation pane, select Power Platform to access Power Platform services such as Power Platform Admin Center, Power BI, and Power Automate.

2 – Search

Use the Search to find apps, create apps, or find help documentation.

To find your app, start typing one or more characters in the search bar. When you find the app you want, select the banner icon to play or edit the app.

3 – Environment information and settings

View your environment information and settings.

Choose an environment

For best results, start by ensuring that the home page is set to the right environment. More information Choose an environment.

Environments can be managed using Power Platform admin center.

Notifications

Select the bell icon to see notifications. Notifications are stored in the notification center until you dismiss them or when they expire.

Settings

Select the gear icon to perform tasks such as connecting to data sources, identify your Power Apps license or licenses, and open the page where you can perform administrative tasks.

• Admin center: Opens another windows and goes to the Power Platform admin center.

• Plans(s): View your licenses. More information: Licensing overview

• Advanced settings: Manage your admin settings. More information: Manage Microsoft Dataverse settings.

• Session details: View your Power Apps session details such as session ID, tenant ID, environment ID and more.

• Developer resources: Access developer resources.

• Power Apps settings: View or update your language and time settings, notifications, or access directories.

• Themes: From the list of themes, select a theme for your organization.

• Password: Change your password.

• Contact preferences: Update your contact information.

  

Help

In the header, select the question mark icon to find more information about either canvas apps or model-driven apps.

You'll find links to documentation, Power Apps training on Microsoft Learn, the Power Apps Community (where you can share information with users in other organizations), and the Power Apps blog (where the newest features are announced).

4 - Copilot in Power Apps

If your organization has Copilot in Power Apps (preview) enabled then you'll see Copilot assistant on the Power Apps Home screen. For more information, see Build apps through conversation (preview).

5 – Build apps

Start building apps, which provide rich business logic and workflow capabilities to transform your manual business operations into digital, automated processes.

To create an app, select from the following options:

• Start with data: Lets you upload an Excel file, build your own table, select a Dataverse table, or choose from external data source such as SharePoint, Excel, or SQL to start building your app.

  Note

  If your organization has AI enabled then you'll see AI assistant when you select Start with data. For more information, see Build apps through conversation.

• Start with a page design: Select the type of app you want to create. You can also use the Filter option located in the top-right to narrow down templates by app type or features, such as offline use, responsive design, or embed into other Microsoft 365 products. More information: Overview of creating apps in Power Apps

• Start with an app template: Choose from an app template including, data-centered templates for mobile apps. More information: Create a canvas app from a template

  Note

  If you're trying to create an app using Dataverse but the option is unavailable, then review the permissions table below.

• Your apps: On the Home page, find your top six apps that you own or apps that are shared with you. You also have the option to filter and sort apps quickly to find the app you're looking for. Use the Commands button to perform various actions such as editing the app, viewing app details, and accessing settings.

• My apps: On the Apps page, find the apps that you own. Use the search or the filter and sort options to find the app you're looking for. Select an app and perform various actions such as edit the app, view app details, and access app setting using the commands on the command bar or use the Commands button.

Permissions for Dataverse

The table summarizes scenarios and outcome when you create apps that require Microsoft Dataverse.

6 – Ask a virtual agent

Get contextual help while building your app using the Power Platform virtual agent. More information: Get help building your app from a virtual agent