What's new for SharePoint home sites

This article highlights SharePoint home site updates rolling out starting May 2026 and details the specific changes due to the rename of Viva Connections to SharePoint app.

Note

SharePoint home site technology fully powers the Connections experience in Teams, now branded as the SharePoint app in Teams. Targeted Release rollout of all these updates is planned for early May 2026 with GA by end of June 2026. You can track progress on the related Microsoft 365 public roadmap: ID 557983.

A SharePoint home site provides a customized landing experience that reflects the organization’s brand, voice, and priorities. A SharePoint home site also serves as the gateway to other portals in your organization’s intranet. It is simply a special communication site in your organization. You can either create a new home site or set an existing communication site as your home site. An admin can do this action in the SharePoint admin center.

Viva Connections is a customizable employee engagement experience app in Teams. Practically, its just how your SharePoint intranet can be deployed in Teams desktop and mobile. With the rename of Viva Connections to SharePoint app in Teams, this functionality becomes a feature to configure in a SharePoint home site.

With this update,

  1. Create or set a Home site in SharePoint admin center
  2. Configure your home site with web parts and deploy it to your organization, just like any portal launch
  3. In the home site, via options in the Settings gear, set up the SharePoint app for Teams

SharePoint home site updates - May-June 2026

What’s not changing

  1. Existing home sites, site content, branding, and overall look and feel are unchanged.
  2. Existing Viva Connections configurations, including customized app names and logos, continue to work as configured.
  3. Viva Connections remains available as a branded employee experience within SharePoint.
  4. Organizations that require multiple home sites still need the appropriate licensing.

What’s new

  1. A new Resources web part is available for curated links and employee resources.
  2. A new Announcements web part is available with no other license requirement.
  3. New filmstrip layout options are available for the News web part.
  4. A simplified experience for configuring SharePoint app in Teams is now available directly from the home site experience.
  5. SharePoint administrators can now create and designate home sites directly from the SharePoint admin center.

What existing experience is changing

  1. In Teams desktop and mobile, the default Viva Connections app name changes to SharePoint for non-customized experiences.
  2. The default app experience aligns with SharePoint branding and remove Viva-specific default content.
  3. The global navigation experience within the SharePoint app in Teams desktop displays either SharePoint or your organization’s customized app name.
  4. The Dashboard web part “See all” experience now supports end-user personalization and customization.
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