Create and manage org apps
Power BI workspace apps have long been the primary way to package and distribute reports to consumers. With the introduction of org apps in Microsoft Fabric, you now have a more flexible option — one that can coexist with workspace apps and extend how you share curated content across your organization.
What are org apps?
Org apps are a Microsoft Fabric item type designed to help content creators package and share content with consumers in their organization. Unlike workspace apps, which are limited to one per workspace, org apps are independent items you can create, manage, and share like any other Fabric item — such as a report or notebook.
A single workspace can have multiple org apps. Each org app can include:
- Power BI reports
- Paginated reports
- Fabric notebooks
- Maps
- Real-time dashboards
One of the most significant differences from workspace apps is how updates reach consumers. With workspace apps, changes aren't visible until you explicitly publish an update. With org apps, changes are visible to consumers immediately after you save — there's no separate publish step. Consumers also don't need to install an org app. Once you share an org app, it appears directly in the consumer's item lists, such as Recent on the Home page.
Prerequisites for creating org apps
Before you can create an org app, three conditions must be met:
Tenant setting: A Fabric administrator must enable Users can discover and create org apps in the Fabric Admin portal under Tenant settings. Admins can use security group inclusion and exclusion settings to control who has this ability.
Workspace type: The workspace must be configured as Pro, Fabric trial, Premium capacity, or Fabric capacity. Standard free workspaces don't support org apps.
Workspace role: You need at least a Contributor role in the workspace. Workspace Viewers can't create org apps. Access-management changes — such as adding or removing items that affect consumer access — require Admin or Member level permissions.
Create and share an org app
To create an org app, open the workspace where your content lives and select New > Org app from the workspace toolbar. Give the org app a name and optionally configure navigation, theme colors, and a landing experience.
Next, add the items you want to include from the workspace. These are called included items. When you share the org app with a consumer, they gain at minimum read access to each included item. For Power BI reports, access also automatically extends to the associated semantic model — even if that model is in a different workspace. This is one of the key advantages of org apps over workspace apps, which require manual management of cross-workspace model access.
After you configure the org app, select Save. Your changes are immediately visible to anyone who already has access. To share the org app, select Share and add individuals, security groups, or Microsoft 365 groups. You can optionally grant reshare permissions to allow consumers to share the org app with others.
Guiding question: Think about your current reporting setup. Do you have multiple teams who need different subsets of content from the same workspace? Could you create separate, targeted org apps for each team — without creating separate workspaces?
Customize content visibility with audiences
Org apps support audiences — defined groups of users who see different subsets of content within the same org app. For example, you could create a Sales audience and a Finance audience within one org app, each showing only the reports relevant to that team.
To manage audiences, select Manage audiences in the org app editor. From there you can:
- Create new audience groups and name them
- Show or hide individual items per audience using checkboxes
- Assign users or groups to each audience
- Duplicate audience configurations to copy visibility settings to a new group
Unlike workspace apps, audience management in org apps is available without entering full edit mode. You can adjust who sees what without risking unintended changes to the org app content or navigation.
Choose between org apps and workspace apps
Org apps and workspace apps serve the same goal — distributing curated content to consumers — but they behave differently. Workspace apps continue to work alongside org apps, so you don't need to migrate existing apps. The right choice depends on your scenario.
| Scenario | Workspace app | Org app |
|---|---|---|
| You need a versioned, staged publishing experience | Best fit | — |
| You need multiple apps from one workspace | — | Best fit |
| You need to include Fabric notebooks or real-time dashboards | — | Best fit |
| Access should automatically revoke when a user is removed | — | Automatic |
| Consumers must install the app before accessing it | Install required | Not required |
| Content in the app should update immediately after a save | — | Best fit |
For most organizations, a practical approach is to continue using workspace apps for content that benefits from a review-before-publish cycle, and use org apps for fast-moving, team-specific distributions where immediate updates matter.