What is a Power BI App?

Ever built a Power BI dashboard so useful you wanted to share it with your entire team, but hesitated at the thought of sending messy backend files or giving everyone editing access? You're not alone. The best way to distribute your finished reports and dashboards isn't by sharing the development space, but by packaging them into a polished, professional Power BI App. This article breaks down exactly what a Power BI App is, how it differs from a workspace, and how you can create one in just a few steps.

So, What Exactly is a Power BI App?

Think of a Power BI App as a refined, distributable package of your analytics content. It's a container that bundles related dashboards, reports, and datasets into a single, easy-to-use application for your end-users. Instead of sending co-workers a link to your cluttered "workshop" where reports are being built, you hand them a key to a clean, finished "showroom" where they can explore the final product.

An app is designed for consumption, not creation. Your audience - whether it's the sales team, the executive board, or the entire company - gets a simplified view with clear navigation. They can interact with the data by clicking, filtering, and cross-highlighting, but they can't accidentally change or delete the underlying reports you worked so hard to build. It turns your analytics work into a professional-grade experience that feels like a real software application.

By packaging content this way, you provide a single, authoritative place for people to find the information they need, making data accessible to a much broader audience without creating chaos.

Power BI App vs. Workspace: What’s the Difference?

One of the most common points of confusion for new Power BI users is the difference between an app and a workspace. Understanding this distinction is fundamental to managing and distributing your content effectively.

As mentioned, a workspace is the collaborative backend. It's the kitchen where you and your analyst team "cook" up the reports. It's for development, and it often contains test reports, duplicate datasets, and notes. Only the creators and data teams who are actively building content should have access to the workspace. This is where the magic (and the mess) happens.

An app, on the other hand, is the fully plated meal served in the dining room. It’s what you create from a workspace, presenting a curated selection of finished dashboards and reports in a user-friendly format. The audience of an app is a wider group of business users who need to consume the information but not necessarily edit it.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

• Workspace:
• App:

In short, you build in the workspace, and you share with the app. Keeping these two functions separate is a best practice that prevents users from getting lost and protects the integrity of your reports.

Why Bother Using Power BI Apps? Key Benefits

Creating an app might seem like an extra step, but the benefits make it well worth the effort, especially as your data culture grows. Here’s why you should use Power BI Apps for distribution:

• Simplified Navigation and User Experience: Instead of asking users to navigate a long, confusing list of individual reports, you can organize a collection of related content into a single application with its own navigation pane. For example, a single "Quarterly Sales Review" app could contain separate reports for Territory Performance, Product Sales, and Rep Leaderboards.
• Centralized and Controlled Distribution: Apps provide a single point of entry for your audience. You share one link. Any updates you make and publish from the source workspace are automatically pushed to every user of the app. This eliminates version control problems and ensures everyone is always looking at the very latest data.
• Enhanced Security and Access Control: This is a big one. You can grant access to the app without giving users access to the underlying workspace. This prevents them from seeing or editing the underlying datasets or works in progress. Additionally, you can publish an app to specific "audiences," showing or hiding certain reports for different user groups within the same app. A manager might see all the reports, while an individual contributor sees only their relevant reports.
• Professional Branding: You can customize your app with a company logo, a custom theme color, and support information. This gives your analytics content a polished, professional feel and aligns it with your organization’s branding.

How to Create and Publish a Power BI App: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to create your first app? It’s surprisingly straightforward. Just follow these steps within the Power BI service.

Step 1: Finalize Your Content in a Workspace

Before anything else, make sure the reports, dashboards, and datasets you want to share are organized within a single Power BI workspace. Take a moment to review and clean them up. Are the titles clear? Are all the visuals loading correctly? You want to put your best foot forward, so make sure the content is polished and ready for your audience.

Step 2: Start the App Creation Process

Navigate to your workspace. In the top-right corner, you’ll see a button labeled “Create app.” Click it to begin.

Step 3: Fill Out the 'Setup' Information

The first screen you'll see is the Setup tab. This is where you'll define the app's identity.

• App name: Give your app a clear, descriptive name (e.g., "Monthly Marketing Performance" or "Operations Dashboard").
• Description: Add a couple of sentences explaining what the app is for, what kind of data it contains, and who the intended audience is. Good descriptions help users find what they need.
• App logo: Upload a company logo or an icon relevant to the app content for that added touch of branding.
• App theme color: Select a color that aligns with your brand. This color will be used for the app's top navigation bar.
• Contact Information: Specify a person or group that users can contact if they have questions about the app.

Step 4: Choose Your Content

Next, click on the Content tab (in older versions, it might be labeled "Navigation"). Here you will build out the user experience of your app. On the right, you'll see a list of all reports and dashboards available in your workspace.

Simply click “Add content” and select the items you wish to include. Not every item in the workspace has to be in the app, which is a key benefit. You can control exactly what your users see. After adding content, you can drag and drop the items to reorder them in the app's navigation panel on the left.

Step 5: Define Your Audience and Permissions

The Audience tab (or "Permissions" in older versions) is where you control who can access your app. This is the most powerful feature of Power BI Apps. You can grant access to individual users, Microsoft 365 Groups, or security groups.

What's truly great is the ability to create multiple audience groups within a single app. Let’s say your "Company Performance" app includes HR, Sales, and Finance reports. You can create:

• An "HR Team" audience that only sees the HR report.
• A "Sales Team" audience that only sees the Sales reports.
• An "Executives" audience that can see everything.

To do this, create a new audience, give it a name, grant access to the appropriate users/groups, and then use the "eye" icon to show or hide the relevant content for that specific group.

Step 6: Publish Your App

Once you’ve configured the setup, content, and audience, hit the big “Publish app” button in the bottom-right corner. Power BI will ask for a final confirmation. Click “Publish” again, and you're done!

Power BI will provide you with a direct link to the app that you can share with your users. Users with access will also find it available in the "Apps" section of their Power BI left-hand navigation pane.

Tips for Creating Great Power BI Apps

Just because you can build an app doesn’t guarantee it will be effective. Follow these best practices to ensure your users get the most value from your work:

• Curate, Don’t Dump: Resist the temptation to include every single report from your workspace. More isn't always better. An app filled with dozens of reports is just as overwhelming as a disorganized workspace. Choose only the most critical, user-validated reports to include.
• Think Like Your Audience: Name your reports clearly and organize them logically in the navigation pane. The report that answers the most common question should be first on the list. Use sections to group related reports together.
• Provide Guidance: Don't assume users will know how to interact with your reports. Consider adding a text box on the first page with a brief explanation of how to use slicers and filters or what the key metrics mean.
• Announce Updates: When you publish an update to the app, let your users know. A quick email or Teams message saying, "The weekly sales data has been updated in the Sales Performance app," can drive adoption and ensure people are acting on the freshest insights.

Final Thoughts

Power BI Apps are the definitive solution for distributing analytics content to a broad audience in a secure, professional, and user-friendly way. By separating the creation phase in workspaces from the consumption phase in apps, you empower business users with data while maintaining control and governance over your analytics assets.

For teams looking for immediate insights without the steep learning curve of tools like Power BI, we built Graphed. Our platform lets you connect your marketing and sales data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Salesforce and build dashboards just by describing what you need in plain English. There’s no complex setup or training required, making it easy for anyone on your team to turn data into a clear-cut advantage for your business.