Create a Power BI app

  • 5 minutes

Organizations often rely on Power BI apps to distribute insights securely and efficiently to various teams. Imagine you're part of a team responsible for delivering data insights to both the sales and marketing departments. Each department requires access to specific dashboards and reports relevant to their goals. By mastering app management and audience customization, you'll ensure that every team gets the right data while maintaining control over access and visibility.

Here, you'll explore the steps to create and publish Power BI apps, update or delete existing apps, and configure multiple audiences to streamline content distribution.

Create, update, delete

To create, update, or unpublish a Power BI app, follow these steps:

Create a Power BI App

  1. Set up the app: In the workspace, select Create app. Provide a name, description, and optional theme color. Add a support site link and contact information if needed. You can also enable app-scoped Copilot (preview) during setup, which lets consumers ask questions and get summaries across all app reports — this requires Fabric Copilot to be enabled at the tenant level.
  2. Add content: On the Content tab, select Add content to include dashboards, reports, or other items from the workspace. Arrange the content in the desired order.
  3. Publish the app: Once the setup and content are finalized, click Publish app. A shareable link will be generated for distribution.

Update a Power BI App

  1. Open the workspace: Navigate to the workspace associated with the app. Select the Edit app pencil icon.
  2. Make changes: Modify the app's content, setup, or other settings as needed. Changes remain in the workspace until republished.
  3. Republish the app: Select Update app to apply the changes. Users with access will automatically see the updated version.

Unpublish a Power BI App

  • Unpublish the app: In the workspace, select More options (...) > Unpublish app.

Note

Impact of unpublishing: This action removes the app from all users and deletes their customizations, such as bookmarks and comments. The workspace and its contents remain intact.

Audiences

Audiences in Power BI apps allow you to tailor the content visibility and access for different groups of users within your organization. This feature is particularly useful when you need to distribute specific dashboards, reports, or other content to distinct teams or departments while maintaining centralized control over permissions and visibility.

What is an Audience in Power BI Apps?

An audience in Power BI apps is a defined group of users who have access to a specific subset of content within an app. By creating multiple audiences, you can customize which content is visible to each group, ensuring that users only see the data relevant to their roles or responsibilities. For example, you might create separate audiences for sales, marketing, and finance teams, each with access to different reports and dashboards.

Why Use Audiences?

Using audiences simplifies content management and enhances security. Instead of creating multiple apps or workspaces for different teams, you can manage all content within a single app and control visibility at the audience level.

How to Use Audiences

To set up audiences in a Power BI app:

  1. Create an Audience Group: On the Audience tab during app creation or editing, select New Audience and name the group.
  2. Customize Content Visibility: Use the hide/show icons next to each item in the workspace to determine what content is visible to the audience. Hidden content won't appear in the app for that audience unless explicitly allowed via advanced settings.
  3. Assign Users or Groups: In the Manage audience access pane, specify the users or groups who should belong to the audience. You can also configure advanced permissions, such as allowing users to share or build content with semantic models.
  4. Publish the App: Once the audiences and their content visibility are configured, publish the app. Users will see only the content assigned to their respective audience groups.

Note

To create or update an app, you need a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license. You can create up to 25 audience groups per app. A total of 10,000 users and user groups combined can have access to an app. To stay within these limits, use security groups rather than individual user accounts when assigning audience access. For app users:

  • If the workspace for this app is not in a Power BI Premium capacity, all users need Power BI Pro or PPU licenses to view the app.
  • If the workspace is in a Power BI Premium capacity (F64 or higher Fabric capacity), users without Pro or PPU licenses can view the app content, but they cannot copy reports or create reports based on the underlying semantic models.