Share a canvas app with guest users

Canvas apps can be shared with guest users of an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant. This enables inviting external business partners, contractors, and third parties to run your company's canvas apps.

Watch this video to learn how to share an app with guests:

Prerequisites

  • In Azure AD, enable B2B external collaboration for the tenant. More information: Enable B2B external collaboration and manage who can invite guests

    Note

    B2B external collaboration is enabled by default; however, you need to verify that the settings weren't changed by a tenant admin. For more information about Azure AD B2B, go to What is guest user access in Azure AD B2B?.

  • Access to an account that can add guest users to an Azure AD tenant. Admins and users with the Guest Inviter role can add guests to a tenant.

  • To access an app that doesn't connect to Dataverse, the guest user must have a license with Power Apps use rights that matches the capability of the app assigned through one of the following tenants:

    • The tenant hosting the app being shared
    • The home tenant of the guest user
  • To access an app that connects to Dataverse, the guest user must have a license with Power Apps use rights that matches the capability of the app. And it must be assigned in the tenant hosting the app. The exception to this prerequisite is when an app is hosted in a Microsoft Dataverse for Teams environment.

Steps to grant guest access

  1. In Azure AD, select New guest user. More information: Quickstart: Add a new guest user in Azure AD

    Add a guest in Azure AD.

  2. If the guest user doesn't already have a license in their home tenant, assign a license to the guest user.

    Important

    You might need to disable the Microsoft 365 admin center preview to assign a license to a guest.

  3. Share the canvas app by doing the following:

    1. Sign in to Power Apps.

    2. On the left pane, select Apps.

    3. Select a canvas app.

    4. On the command bar, select Share.

    5. Enter an email address for a guest user from an Azure AD tenant. More information: What is guest user access in Azure AD B2B?

      Share with guest.

After you share an app for guest access, guests can discover and access apps shared with them from the email sent to them as part of sharing. You can also share the app URL directly with the guest instead. To find the URL, go to Power Apps, select Apps on left pane, select the app, and then select the Details tab. The app URL is displayed under Web link.

Guests receive app share email.

Considerations and limitations for guest access

  • Guests can be assigned the User role or Co-owner role for apps shared with them. However, guests can't edit apps currently. More information: Power Apps support for B2B guest maker (preview).
  • Power Apps guest access uses Azure B2B.
  • Power Apps Mobile doesn't support authentication using Azure AD direct federation. More information: Sign in using Power Apps Mobile
  • Power Apps per app plans are scoped to apps in a specific environment, so they can't be recognized across tenants.
  • Power Apps included with Office and Power Apps per user plans have the following characteristics:
    • In the Azure public cloud, they're recognized across tenants in guest scenarios because they aren't bound to a specific environment.
    • In Azure national or sovereign clouds, they're recognized across tenants in guest scenarios. More information: National clouds, Azure geographies
    • Licenses are not recognized across tenants in difference Azure clouds.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between canvas app guest access and Power Pages?

With canvas apps, you can build an app that's tailored to digitizing business processes, without writing code in a traditional programming language such as C#. Guest access for canvas apps enables teams of individuals made up of different organizations participating in a common business process to access the same app resources that might be integrated with a wide variety of Microsoft and third-party sources. More information: Overview of canvas-app connectors for Power Apps

Power Pages provide you the ability to build low-code, responsive websites that allow external users to interact with the data stored in Dataverse. With Power Pages, organizations can create websites that can be shared with users external to their organization either anonymously or through the sign-in provider of their choice, such as LinkedIn, Microsoft account, or other commercial sign-in provider.

The following table outlines a few core capability differences between Power Pages and canvas apps.

Guest access in Interface Authentication Accessible data sources
Power Pages Browser-only experience Allows anonymous and authenticated access Dataverse
Canvas apps Browser and mobile apps Requires authentication via Azure AD Any of approximately 150 out-of-the-box connectors and any custom connector

Can guests access customized forms in SharePoint?

See What license must be assigned to my guest so they can run an app shared with them?

Why is a guest who accesses a customized form in SharePoint prompted for a trial?

If the custom form uses a premium connector, a guest must have a Power Apps license to access the custom form. If the custom form only uses standard connectors, your tenant must allow Microsoft Power Platform internal consent plans to be assigned to users. For more details about Power Platform internal consent plans, read block trial license commands.

Can guests access apps embedded in SharePoint?

Yes. However, access to canvas standalone apps requires that the user have a license with Power Apps user rights that matches the capability of the app; this includes embedded apps. When embedding a canvas app in SharePoint by using the Power Apps embed control, enter the app ID. To do this, enter the app ID in the App web link or ID box.

Embed a canvas app in SharePoint for guests.

When embedding a canvas app in SharePoint via the iFrame HTML tag, reference the app by using the full web URL. To find the URL, sign in to Power Apps, select an app, and then select the Details tab. The URL is displayed under Web link.

Canvas app details.

How is it that guests can open the app shared with them, but no data connections are created?

As is the case with non-guests, the underlying data sources accessed by the app must also be made accessible to the guest.

What license must be assigned to my guest so they can run an app shared with them?

The following table explains whether the guests can run (use) customized Microsoft Lists or SharePoint library forms, canvas apps, and model-driven apps using the referenced license.

Plan Customized Microsoft Lists or SharePoint library form (using non-premium connectors) Customized Microsoft Lists or SharePoint library (using premium connectors) Canvas app (using non-premium connectors) Canvas app (using premium connectors) Model-driven app
No license
SharePoint user (without Power Apps license)
Power Apps included with Office
Power Apps per app plan
Power Apps per user plan

For more information about pricing and the capabilities of various plans, go to Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate Licensing Guide.

In Power Apps Mobile, how does a guest see apps for their home tenant?

Any user who has used their mobile device to access a canvas app that was published in an Azure AD tenant that isn't their home tenant, can switch to a different directory.

In Power Apps Mobile, how does a guest see apps in the guest tenant?

The guest user opens the email they received when an app in the guest tenant was shared, and selects Open the app. This applies to both Azure AD and Microsoft account users. You can also create a deep link. For more information, see Use deep links with Power Apps mobile.

Must a guest accept the Azure AD guest invitation before an app can be shared with them?

No. If a guest opens an app that was shared with them before they accepted a guest invitation, the guest will be prompted to accept the invitation as part of the sign-in experience while opening the app.

In which Azure AD tenant are connections created for a guest user?

Connections for an app are always made in the context of the Azure AD tenant the app is associated with. For example, if an app is created in the Contoso tenant, the connections made for Contoso internal and guest users are made in the context of the Contoso tenant.

Can guests use Microsoft Graph via the Microsoft Security Graph connector or a custom connector by using Microsoft Graph APIs?

No, Azure AD guests can't query Microsoft Graph to retrieve information for a tenant in which they're a guest.

Which Intune policies apply to guests who are using my apps?

Intune only applies the policies of a user's home tenant. For instance, if Lesa@Contoso.com shares an app with Wanda@Fabrikam.com, Intune continues to apply Fabrikam.com policies on Wanda's device, regardless of the apps Wanda runs.

Which connectors support guest access?

Connectors that don't use any type of Azure AD authentication will support guest access. The following table enumerates all connectors that do use Azure AD authentication, and identifies which connectors currently support guest access. More information: List of all Power Apps connectors

Connector Supports guest access [1]
10to8 Appointment Scheduling No
Adobe Creative Cloud No
Adobe Sign No
Asana No
AtBot Admin No
AtBot Logic No
Azure AD Yes
Azure Automation Yes
Azure Blob Storage No
Azure Container Instance Yes
Azure Data Factory Yes
Azure Data Lake Yes
Azure DevOps No
Azure Event Grid No
Azure IoT Central Yes
Azure Key Vault No
Azure Kusto Yes
Azure Log Analytics Yes
Azure Resource Manager Yes
Basecamp 2 No
Bitbucket No
Bitly No
bttn No
Buffer No
Business Central No
CandidateZip No
Capsule CRM No
Cloud PKI Management No
Cognito Forms No
Microsoft Dataverse Yes*
Microsoft Dataverse (Legacy) No
D&B Optimizer No
Derdack SIGNL4 No
Disqus No
Document Merge No
Dynamics 365 No
Dynamics 365 AI for Sales Yes
Dynamics 365 for Fin & Ops No
Enadoc No
Eventbrite No
Excel Online (Business) No
Excel Online (OneDrive) No
Expiration Reminder No
FreshBooks No
GoToMeeting No
GoToTraining No
GoToWebinar No
Harvest No
HTTP with Azure AD No
Infusionsoft No
Inoreader No
Intercom No
JotForm No
kintone No
LinkedIn No
Marketing Content Hub No
Medium No
Metatask No
Microsoft Forms No
Microsoft Forms Pro No
Microsoft Graph Security No
Microsoft Kaizala No
Microsoft School Data Sync No
Microsoft StaffHub No
Microsoft Teams Yes
Microsoft To-Do (Business) No
Muhimbi PDF No
NetDocuments No
Office 365 Groups Yes
Office 365 Outlook No
Office 365 Users Yes
Office 365 Video No
OneDrive No
OneDrive for Business No
OneNote (Business) No
Outlook Tasks Yes
Outlook.com No
Paylocity No
Planner No
Plumsail Forms No
Power Apps for Admins No
Power Apps for Makers No
Power Automate Management No
Power BI Yes
Power Platform for Admins No
Project Online No
ProjectWise Design Integration No
Projectwise Share No
SharePoint Yes
SignNow No
Skype for Business Online No
Soft1 No
Stormboard No
Survey123 No
SurveyMonkey No
Toodledo No
Typeform No
Vimeo No
Webex Teams No
Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) No
Word Online (Business) No

* When using the Microsoft Dataverse as the data source, ensure that the guest user is licensed from the same tenant where you have Dataverse data located.

[1] External users explicitly added directly to your tenant are not considered guest users. External users that you have extended an invitation to access your tenant (but not directly added) are considered guest users.

See also

Edit an app
Restore an app to a previous version
Export and import an app
Delete an app