Upcoming SharePoint mobile beta testing - winding down

Hi everyone… first, thanks so much for participating in the external beta!  Your feedback has been great, and we really appreciate your insight and dedication to helping us make this a great update.

With that, we will be starting to rollout the updated production version to the app stores this week.  It will be a gradual rollout, so it won’t be available to everyone at once.  We are anticipating the rollout to take a few weeks.

In the meantime, you can continue using the beta versions, or you can get back on the production train.  To get back to production…

• For iOS: Remove the TestFlight version and reinstall the version from the App Store.  When the new update is available, you’ll get it as you have before through the App Store.
• For Android:  You’ll need to exit the Alpha via the following link: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.microsoft.sharepoint.  And then uninstall the Alpha version of the app.  You can then go to the PlayStore to get the production version.  Note that it may take a few hours to get you off of Alpha back to production.

Again, in both cases above you may not see the updated version of the app in the stores for a bit, as the rollout continues.

Thanks again for your help, and keep the feedback coming!  We are always interested to hear what you think about the product and how we can make it better.

Nate and the SharePoint mobile team

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Hi all… we are now ready for beta testing.  iOS and Android are ready!  You should be receiving an email from Apple/Testflight soon that will walk you through the steps for getting the iOS beta.  For Android, if you installed the placeholder alpha build, you should get an update later today or tomorrow.  If you haven’t installed it yet, you can get it from the instructions below.  In both cases, it’s SharePoint online only for now.

With that, welcome to the new Find tab and the updated SharePoint app look and feel.  Both of these changes reflect our desire to make the app as effective and valuable to you as possible. 

This includes a few things.  First, continuing to update the experiences you know and expect, per feedback.  Second, ensuring that we are aligned in the key areas with the web as it continues to improve and innovate.  Finally, looking at ways that we make the app great from a mobile scenario perspective.  That is, what are the key improvements we can make that are unique to mobile and/or demonstrate the power of SharePoint, but from a mobile point of view.  The changes you’ll see in the beta reflect all three of the above factors, but focus mainly on the third. 

What you can expect:

• A new layout that aligns to two key areas.  First, getting to and finding the content that’s important to you.  This is the Find tab.  It brings all of the content you care about into one easily scrollable view.  You’ll see…
• Improved search.  Better results, better suggestions.
• Your sites, the people you work with, and your organization featured links
• Your recent files
• Popular queries in your organization
• Quick access.  Initially, this section shows you the last three items (people, pages, news, lists, files) you’ve accessed in the app. 
• And check out the menus for sites!  You can quickly get to the site content you care about from the menu, saving you a few steps.
• The second area is your news.  No major changes here, but you’ll see an improved layout.

Your feedback is very appreciated, so definitely play around with the app and let us know what you think!  And this is just the continuation of our journey.  There is so much more to come beyond this release!

Thanks

Nate and the SharePoint mobile team

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Hi all…

I’m Nate Clinton, and I’m a program manager on the SharePoint mobile engineering team. As you may have seen at the recent SharePoint conference, big things are happening in the mobile space!  We are updating the user interface to better reflect our core “user jobs”:  1) Finding content and getting answers, 2) being the place to get notified about what’s important in your SharePoint world, and 3) being the place to consume your news content.  This is a journey, but we are nearing a point at which we’ll be ready to release the first update.

To ensure we deliver the right experience for you all, we’d love to get your feedback on the beta version.  We are targeting late June to start the beta program.  If you are interested in being an early previewer of the updated SharePoint mobile app, check out the steps below.

A few logistical notes:

• The beta is primarily for SharePoint Online users at this time.  Some of these features may be coming to on-premises, but that timeline is still tbd.
• When the first beta build is ready, you’ll be notified through the below described platform mechanisms.
• We’ll use this community to post updates, progress reports, etc.  So be sure to check back!
• We are still building features and fixing issues.  So things may be a bit rocky here and there 😊

Android beta testing

• Go to the following URL from your phone to opt-in to the SharePoint mobile for Android Alpha program:  https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.microsoft.sharepoint
• You’ll be presented with instructions welcoming you to the program
• You are all set!  You can also join our beta community by going to the following URL and clicking Accept.  We’ll monitor that community (along with this one) for feedback. https://plus.google.com/communities/117774018198464711938?sqinv=TFRMU1ZfOG51dWxXT1lkUEk2SzhNZlBGTmtpSm1R

• Note that, until we release the beta build, you’ll continue to get the current production build via the alpha program.  We’ll let you know when the first beta build is ready!

iOS beta testing

• To test on iOS, you’ll need to use the TestFlight app.  To get started, send your email address to natec@microsoft.com.  This email address will be used by Apple to send you the invite.  From there, you can install the TestFlight app, and then our app.  The TestFlight app will let you know when there are updates.

If you are already a beta tester (from previous iOS testing), you should be good to go! 

Thanks for your help with this!  We are very excited about the changes, and we’re eager to hear your feedback.

The SharePoint mobile team