The wait is over for SharePoint users wanting to get their hands on the SharePoint mobile app promised back in May.
Or rather, the wait is over for iOS SharePoint users.
Last night Microsoft released the SharePoint mobile app to Apple's app store, as well as a new app for Microsoft Flow and an updated version of its OneDrive app.
All three releases aim to simplify working with Microsoft tools on mobile, something SharePoint users have been looking for since the 2007 release.
SharePoint iOS Mobile App
The new SharePoint mobile app provides quick access to team sites, organization portals and resources, and offers a view into what the people you work with are working on.
The new app also fuses with Office Graph, which applies machine learning to activity in Office 365 to connect to relevant documents and people in work processes.
OneDrive App
The new version of the OneDrive app is specifically designed to help work processes, allowing users to save files into any Office 365 app, find photos and documents through automated tagging and providing notifications when a document is edited and shared.
The app also includes integration with on premises files stored in SharePoint 2013 and 2016.
Microsoft Flow
Microsoft introduced Flow in April. Some see Flow as a Microsoft-centric IFTTT — the free web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements.
Flow allows users to mash up two or more Microsoft or public software services to automate workflows.
The new iOS app lets users manage, track and explore automated workflows anytime and anywhere. Users can view Flow properties and definition, turn flows on or off, review detailed run history reports and receive push notifications for critical tasks.
In the coming months, Microsoft will also add new capabilities like flow creation, triggering, remediation, approvals and flows that use mobile device signals.
The app integrates with a number of third-party apps including Google Drive, Salesforce, Dropbox, Slack and Twitter.
Microsoft’s Mobile First Strategy
Alone, the individual apps offer some nice functionality. Collectively, they build on the company's stated vision for SharePoint as outlined by Seth Patton, general manager for the OneDrive and SharePoint business at Microsoft, at the time of the SharePoint 2016 release.
Patton pointed out that the SharePoint roadmap would be built to reflect the cloud first, mobile first vision as seen in other Microsoft apps.
“The best has yet to come. We have a new vision for SharePoint that is to empower people by enabling them intelligently discover, share and collaborate on content from anywhere and on any device. The new SP is simple, intelligence and untethered," Patton said at the time.
This is just the beginning of the of the new mobile product show from Microsoft. Over the coming months it promises more updates as well as an imminent Android release.