Customize SharePoint 2016 App Launcher Tiles

Question

SharePoint 2016 OnPremise now contains the AppLauncher in the upper left corner like Office365 already does.

How can i add/modify/remove those links in an OnPremise-only installation of SharePoint 2016?

Answer 1

The requested feature has been implemented with SharePoint 2016 FeaturePack 1 which was release in November 2016. The feature is also shipped with SharePoint 2019 RTM.

Steps to implement custom tiles:

• Check if at least FeaturePack 1 for SharePoint Server 2016 is installed (SharePoint Build 16.0.4456.1002 or above)
• Enable the feature via PowerShell: Enable-SPFeature -Identity CustomTiles -Url <WebAppURL> -Force. It is a WebApplication-scoped feature, so it must be enabled and configured per WebApplication
• A hidden list named Custom tiles will automatically be created in the RootSiteCollection of your WebApplication. It can be found in http://<WebAppURL>/lists/custom%20tiles
• A new tile can be created by adding a new item to the list. The form will ask all necessary information

• The new tile will be displayed within 24 hours to the users.
• More configuration-options can be found in Microsofts documentation: Custom Tiles in SharePoint Servers 2016 and 2019

Answer 2

You must have full hybrid integration (hybrid Sites) with SharePoint Server 2016. I worked with Vlad Catrinescu yesterday to get this working. You can 'Add a tile' from the O365 Administration center and it may take 24 to 48 hours to boil back down to on-prem. You cannot directly customize it, the tiles will only come from O365.

EDIT: Here's a picture.

Answer 3

According to this blog post, it seems to be impossible in the current version of SharePoint 2016.

http://nikcharlebois.com/enable-the-sharepoint-2016-app-launcher/

UPDATE: See note above regarding Feature Pack 1. We got it to work.