Get started with Power Apps

The Power Apps home page offers various options for creating your own apps, opening apps that you or others created, and performing related tasks. These tasks range from the most simple, such as identifying the licenses that give you access, to more advanced capabilities like creating custom connections to specific data sources.

If your organization enables AI, the home page also includes the new Copilot features.

Select the appropriate tab in the following section to learn more.

Legend:

1. Left navigation pane
2. Search
3. Environment information and settings
4. Create a plan
5. Plans
6. Build Apps

1 – Left navigation pane

Your main control center. When you sign in to the Power Apps home page, the left navigation pane gives you quick access to everything you need. Here's what each option does:

Legend:

1. Home: Takes you to the Power Apps home page.
2. Create: Create apps such as canvas apps, model-driven apps, chatbots, and AI models.
3. Learn: The learn hub lets you explore documents, training material, get help from the Power Apps community, and other resources that help you to create and build Power Apps.
4. Plans: View and edit your plans. For more information, see Overview of Plan designer.
5. Apps: If you created an app or someone else created one and shared it with you, you can play or edit it. You can also filter the list of apps based on criteria such as whether you opened it recently.
6. AI hub: Create and use AI models that optimize your business processes. For more information, see Overview of AI Builder.
7. Your most used pages such as Tables, Connections, Flows: When you first sign in, the top three pages that you use most are pinned to the left navigation pane. Use the More option to unpin any of these pages and pin something else.
8. More: Pin your most used items to the left navigation such as tables, flows, and more.
9. Power Platform: Explore other Power Platform products or service.

Pin and unpin

Pin your most used pages in the navigation pane so you can quickly access features that you use frequently. Links to other pages are available through the More link. When you pin an item, it appears in the middle section above More.

When you sign in, the system automatically pins your most and recently used pages on the left navigation pane. However, you can pin and unpin pages and customize it to your preference.

To pin or unpin a page from the left navigation pane, select More, and then select the pin or unpin button.

You can also unpin an item by selecting the more button and then select Unpin.

Discover all

To see all your Power Apps, from the left navigation pane, select More > Discover all. To keep it pinned, select the pin button.

Move up or move down

When you have a few pages pinned in the navigation pane, you can start moving them up or down.

To move a page up or down, select the more button next to the page that you want to move, and then select Move up or Move down.

Power Platform

From the left navigation pane, select Power Platform to access Power Platform services such as Power Platform Admin Center, Power BI, and Power Automate.

2 – Search

Find anything fast. The search bar helps you:

• Locate your apps by typing any part of the name
• Discover new app templates
• Access help documentation

Quick tip: Start typing in the search bar, then select the banner icon next to your app to open or edit it.

3 – Environment information and settings

View your environment information and settings.

Choose an environment

For best results, start by ensuring that the home page is set to the right environment. For more information, see Choose an environment.

Manage environments by using Power Platform admin center.

Notifications

Select the bell icon to see notifications. The notification center stores notifications until you dismiss them or when they expire.

Settings

Select the gear icon to perform tasks such as connecting to data sources, identifying your Power Apps licenses, and opening the page where you can perform administrative tasks.

• Admin center: Opens another window and goes to the Power Platform admin center.

• Plans(s): View your licenses. For more information, see Licensing overview.

• Advanced settings: Manage your admin settings. For more information, see Manage Microsoft Dataverse settings.

• Session details: View your Power Apps session details such as session ID, tenant ID, environment ID, and more.

• Developer resources: Access developer resources.

• Power Apps settings: View or update your language and time settings, notifications, or access directories.

• Themes: From the list of themes, select a theme for your organization.

• Password: Change your password.

• Contact preferences: Update your contact information.

  

Help

In the header, select the question mark icon to find more information about Power Apps.

Find links to documentation, Power Apps training on Microsoft Learn, the Power Apps Community where you can share information with users in other organizations, and the Power Apps blog where the newest features are announced.

4 - Create a plan

Use Plan designer to create user roles, data tables, and apps that address your business needs. For more information, see Create a plan using Plan designer.

5 – View and edit your plans

Use the Plans menu in the left navigation pane to access and edit your plans.

6 – Build apps

Ready to build your first app? Choose the option that best fits your needs:

For beginners: Start with Copilot or use a template For specific data: Connect to Excel or Dataverse
For custom solutions: Start with a blank canvas

To create an app, select Create and then choose from these options:

• Start with Copilot: Build apps through conversation.

• Start with data: Create a canvas app using Microsoft Dataverse or Create a canvas app based on Excel data.

• Start with a blank app: Create a blank canvas app from scratch.

• Start with a page design: Select the type of app you want to create. Use the Filter option in the top-right to narrow templates by app type or features like offline use, responsive design, or embedding into other Microsoft 365 products. For more information, see Overview of creating apps in Power Apps.

• Start with an app template: Choose from app templates, including data-centered templates for mobile apps. For more information, see Create a canvas app from a template.

  Note

  If you're trying to create an app by using Dataverse but the option is unavailable, review the permissions table in this article.

• Apps: On the Home page, find the apps that you own or apps that are shared with you. You can also filter and sort apps quickly to find the app you're looking for. Hover over the app name to Edit, Play, or select Commands to perform various actions such as share the app, view app details, and access app settings.

Permissions for Dataverse

Can't create a Dataverse app? This table shows what happens based on your permissions and helps you understand your next steps.