What is the new SharePoint experience in 2026?

The new SharePoint experience is a major redesign of Microsoft SharePoint Online, rolling out between June and July 2026. It introduces a redesigned app bar with three new navigation areas — Discover, Publish, and Build — along with a refreshed start page and AI-assisted creation features for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.

When will the new SharePoint experience roll out in Ireland?

The new SharePoint experience is rolling out in General Availability from mid-June 2026, with expected completion by late July 2026. A public preview has been available since March 2026, which Irish administrators can enable now to test the changes before they are applied automatically.

Do I need a Copilot licence to use the new SharePoint experience?

No. The redesigned app bar, new navigation (Discover, Publish, Build), updated start page, and 31 new page templates are available to all Microsoft 365 users at no additional cost. The AI-assisted creation features within the new experience — such as AI-powered site creation and agent management — require a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.

Will the new SharePoint experience break our existing intranet?

For most Irish businesses, the new experience will not break an existing SharePoint intranet. Site-level branding — including header and footer backgrounds, fonts, and custom logos — is preserved. However, organisations with heavily customised SharePoint environments, custom scripts, or bespoke navigation should test the changes in a preview tenant before General Availability to identify any visual or functional issues.

Can users switch back to the old SharePoint experience?

During the preview period (March to May 2026), users have a toggle in the new app bar to revert to the previous experience. Once General Availability begins from mid-June 2026, this toggle will no longer be available and the new experience will apply to all users automatically.

What should Irish IT admins do to prepare for the new SharePoint experience?

Irish administrators should: enable the public preview in the SharePoint Admin Centre to test the changes before GA; review and configure global navigation and the Home site, as the new app bar displays these prominently; test any custom SPFx solutions or scripts for compatibility; prepare end-user communications and training resources; and review whether a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence is needed to unlock the AI features. Tier3Tech can assist Irish businesses with all of these steps.

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The New SharePoint Experience: What to Expect

Microsoft is redesigning SharePoint this summer — a new app bar, three new navigation hubs, and AI features built in. Every Irish business on Microsoft 365 will be affected from mid-June 2026. Here is what you need to do before it reaches your tenant.

The New SharePoint Experience 2026

What Is Actually Changing: The Three Core Updates

For Irish businesses using SharePoint as their document management platform, company intranet, or Teams file storage — this affects every user in your organisation.

This guide explains exactly what is changing, what it means for Irish businesses, and what your IT team needs to do before the rollout reaches your tenant.

1. A Redesigned App Bar with Three New Destinations

The left-side navigation bar in SharePoint — the app bar — is being completely replaced. The new app bar is categorised into three core jobs: Discover, Publish, and Build, along with AI-powered tools and a neutral theme.

Here is what each destination does:

Discover replaces the existing SharePoint start page. It is your personalised view that helps you navigate and see what’s new across relevant sites, content, and news. Think of it as a curated feed of everything relevant to each individual user — based on their role, the sites they visit, and the content their colleagues are working on.

Publish is an entirely new concept for SharePoint. It is a unified publishing hub that brings together pages, news, and campaign-style communications powered by Amplify. For Irish businesses with internal communications responsibilities — HR teams, senior leadership, marketing — this is the central place to create and distribute company-wide announcements, news posts, and structured communications.

Build consolidates site and solution creation in one place. From this page, users can create sites, lists, document libraries, and AI-powered agents. It also shows the items you own, along with recently accessed or modified sites, lists, libraries, and agents. For IT teams and power users, this replaces the scattered entry points that previously existed across SharePoint for creating and managing solutions.

2. A Refreshed Start Page

The SharePoint home page — the page you land on when you open SharePoint — is being replaced with the Discover experience. The new neutral theme reduces visual noise, hides command bars in view mode, and improves readability while preserving site-level branding options like header and footer backgrounds and fonts.

This means your existing company branding in SharePoint remains intact. The neutral theme applies to SharePoint’s own interface chrome — not to your organisation’s intranet pages or custom communication sites.

3. AI-Assisted Creation (Copilot Licence Required)

AI in SharePoint, formerly Knowledge Agent, is refreshed using Anthropic models for advanced capabilities — introducing an AI-powered site creation experience and allowing users to describe what they want to create using natural language.

Crucially, these AI features are only available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. The redesigned app bar, new navigation, and updated templates are available to all Microsoft 365 users — but the AI layer requires the add-on.

What Irish Businesses Are Getting for Free (No Extra Licence Needed)

This is important for Irish IT decision-makers to communicate clearly to their leadership teams. The majority of the new SharePoint experience is included in existing Microsoft 365 subscriptions at no additional cost.

Free for all Microsoft 365 users:

Redesigned app bar with Discover, Publish, and Build navigation
Refreshed SharePoint start page
31 brand-new modern page templates with improved browsing, filtering, and search capabilities, available from March to April 2026
Neutral theming with improved readability
Updated global navigation display

Requires Microsoft 365 Copilot licence:

AI-assisted site creation using natural language prompts
AI-powered agent creation and management from the Build hub
The SharePoint Admin Agent — an AI-powered assistant in the SharePoint admin centre that helps admins manage governance and security, including permission analysis, site lifecycle insights, storage monitoring, and AI-powered recommendations

The Rollout Timeline: What Happens and When

The new SharePoint experience preview became available to all customers from March 3rd, 2026. A SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator must first enable the new SharePoint experience in their tenant by going to SharePoint Admin Centre settings. Microsoft Learn

General Availability is rolling out from mid-June 2026, with expected completion by late July 2026. Starting with Targeted Release, the new SharePoint experience will automatically apply to all tenants and users. Any tenant-level preview settings or individual user opt-outs configured during the preview period will be overridden.

In plain English for Irish IT managers: from mid-June onwards, the new experience will be applied to your tenant automatically whether you have tested it or not. The preview opt-out toggle will disappear. Every user in your organisation will see the new SharePoint.

The window to prepare is now.

Will This Break Our SharePoint Intranet?

This is the first question every Irish IT manager asks. The short answer is: probably not — but you should test before GA, not after.

Site-level branding — including header and footer backgrounds, fonts, and custom logos — is preserved. The neutral theme applies to SharePoint’s own interface chrome, not your organisation’s intranet pages or custom communication sites.

However, there are scenarios where Irish businesses may see visual or functional changes they did not expect:

Custom scripts and SPFx solutions: Tenants with custom scripts, heavy branding, or bespoke navigation may need to test thoroughly, since the neutral theme and updated app bar can reveal edge cases.

Global navigation configuration: The new app bar displays your organisation’s Home site and global navigation prominently — but only if these have been configured. Irish businesses that have not set up a Home site will see a less personalised experience in the new Discover tab.

SharePoint One-Time Passcode (OTP): SharePoint OTP authentication is retiring by August 2026, transitioning external sharing and authentication in OneDrive and SharePoint to Microsoft Entra B2B. This change enhances security and governance, requiring guest accounts for external user access after July 2026. If your Irish business shares SharePoint content with external clients or partners using email OTP links, this is a separate but concurrent change that requires attention.

The 6-Step Readiness Checklist for Irish Admins

Use this checklist before the General Availability rollout begins in mid-June 2026.
Step 1 — Enable the preview in your tenant now Go to SharePoint Admin Centre → Settings → New SharePoint Experience → enable the preview. This gives your team the chance to experience the changes before they are applied automatically. All users in the tenant will see the new experience when preview is enabled.
Step 2 — Review and configure your Home site and global navigation The new Discover tab displays your Home site prominently. If you have not configured a SharePoint Home site or set up global navigation, do this before GA. It is one of the highest-impact quick wins available in any Microsoft 365 environment and takes less than a day to configure properly.
Step 3 — Test any custom SPFx solutions, scripts, or branded sites If your SharePoint intranet uses custom development — custom navigation, SPFx web parts, or custom page layouts — test these in the preview experience. Pay particular attention to visual alignment with the new neutral app bar and updated command bar behaviour.
Step 4 — Review external sharing and OTP authentication If your business shares SharePoint with external users via OTP email links, plan the transition to Entra B2B guest accounts before July 2026. This is a separate change from the app bar redesign but is rolling out at the same time.
Step 5 — Prepare user communications and training The new app bar is the most visible change employees will notice. Prepare a short guide — ideally a one-page PDF or short video — explaining where to find content (Discover), how to publish news (Publish), and how to create or manage sites (Build). Without this, your IT helpdesk will receive a surge of “where has everything gone?” queries from mid-June.
Step 6 — Assess whether Microsoft Copilot licences make sense for your team The new SharePoint experience is the best demonstration environment for Copilot’s capabilities that Microsoft has ever shipped. The AI-assisted site creation and agent management features are genuinely useful for Irish organisations managing complex SharePoint environments. If you have been evaluating Copilot, this is the moment to pilot it.

What This Means for Irish Businesses Using SharePoint as an Intranet

For Irish organisations that have invested in SharePoint as a company intranet — with branded communication sites, HR portals, and structured news publishing — the new Publish hub is directly relevant.
Previously, creating and managing news posts and page templates in SharePoint required navigating to individual site collections, finding the pages library, and creating content there. The Publish hub centralises this for the first time. Designated communications managers — typically in HR, marketing, or senior leadership in Irish SMEs — can access Publish to create and distribute company-wide content from a single, consistent interface.
This is particularly relevant for Irish businesses in healthcare and construction that use SharePoint for policy communications, H&S updates, and staff announcements. The structured publishing workflow in the new experience makes it easier to maintain consistency and ensure the right content reaches the right people.

How Tier3Tech Helps Irish Businesses Prepare

Tier3Tech is a 100% Irish-owned Microsoft partner based in Dublin, exclusively focused on Microsoft cloud technologies. We have been deploying and supporting SharePoint environments for Irish SMEs for over a decade — and we are already preparing client tenants for the new SharePoint experience rollout.
Our preparation service includes:
- Enabling and configuring the preview in your tenant
- Reviewing and setting up your Home site and global navigation
- Testing custom SPFx solutions and branded intranet pages for compatibility
- Preparing user communication and training materials
- Advising on the OTP-to-Entra-B2B external sharing transition
- Assessing whether Microsoft 365 Copilot licences are the right next step for your organisation
Not sure if your SharePoint environment is ready for the June 2026 rollout? Tier3Tech offers a free 30-minute SharePoint Readiness Call for Irish businesses. We will review your current environment and tell you exactly what to do before the new experience hits your tenant. Contact us at tier3tech.ie.