March 19, 2024

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Create Native mobile apps with Power Apps

Finally, we got an exciting announcement from Microsoft in relation to the ability for Power Apps makers to package their applications and distribute them as mobile apps.

In other words, your PowerApps can run as native applications, and no need to use PowerApps App.

This applies to both iOS and Android OS.

This new capability opens a wide range of possibilities to developers and companies, which can be summarised in:

  • Low Code mobile applications creation (Good bye XCode and Android Studio).
  • Full control of your application from the branding, icons to the navigations between screens.
  • Embed multiple Canvas apps into one mobile application.
  • Distribute your applications to the target audience.

 

Low-code mobile app creation

No need to install Xcode or Android Studio! Start with an existing Canvas app or build a new app from scratch to create your first mobile app with Power Apps.

Here’s how it works:

  1. In Power Apps Studio, create a new mobile app project referencing one or more Canvas apps.
  2. Add mobile app metadata, icons, and branding resources to your project, and kick off a build.
  3. When the build is complete, go to App Center on your mobile device to install your app.

You can directly install the mobile app onto your local device for testing or download APK and IPA files for distribution to end users.

Seamless end-to-end branding

When you build a mobile app with Power Apps, you can differentiate your app by customizing the look and feel from home screen icon to in-app UX.


The user experience is bootstrapped by the Power Apps mobile platform which handles sign-in. Control is passed to your embedded Canvas app(s) providing the UX and business logic for your mobile app. Your Canvas app becomes the mobile app with consistent branding and theming throughout.

Embed multiple Canvas apps

You have multiple Canvas apps that work together as a collection for the same group of end users? No problem! You don’t need separate mobile apps to deliver these natively. Power Apps mobile apps (preview) supports embedding multiple Canvas apps using a central “hub” app.

Figure 3: illustration showing the “Hub” UX pattern

Choose one of your Canvas apps to be the primary app serving as the central hub for your mobile app. Use the PowerFx Launch(…) function to navigate to secondary apps and from secondary apps back to the hub app.

Distribute your app natively

Meet your mobile end users where they are by delivering native mobile apps through your preferred channel. This makes it easy for your mobile end users to discover and use your app, removing the need to install the Microsoft Power Apps “Player” app for Android or iOS or share Canvas app links by email.

Figure 3: Installation from App Center

Generated mobile apps are yours to distribute (we don’t do it for you – yet). Distribution options include popular tools such as Microsoft Endpoint Manager or similar 3rd party MDM solutions; and private enterprise app stores like Microsoft App Center, Apple Volume Purchase Program, and Managed Google Play.

Enterprise governance with Intune

The Power Apps mobile platform is integrated with Microsoft Intune, so you can already protect org data when running Canvas apps in the Power Apps Player.

Power Apps mobile apps (preview) inherits this capability and since each generated mobile app is unique, you can manage Intune app protection policies on a per-mobile app basis. This enriches Power Apps mobile security and unblocks mobile scenarios by providing greater flexibility over enterprise governance with Power Apps.

Coming soon!

With the launch of Power Apps mobile apps (preview), we are bringing Mobile Application Development to Power Apps, empowering developers to create secure, fully-branded corporate mobile apps, that can be natively distributed to meet mobile end users where they are. This is another great feature making Power Apps the most complete low-code app platform.

Sign-up for Power Apps mobile apps (preview) on December 1, 2021. Watch this space and feel free to leave a comment below!

 

Source: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/create-mobile-apps-with-power-apps-preview/