What is SharePoint app bar

The SharePoint app bar is a little flyout on the left-hand side of all modern SharePoint sites, which looks like this.

SharePoint app bar aims to help users find important content and resources no matter where they are in SharePoint.

You can enable Global Navigation to allow users to easily navigate to your company’s navigation from anywhere in SharePoint. Global Navigation is the only tab that you can customize on the SharePoint app bar. My sites, My news, and My files tabs will update your personalized content on SharePoint.

Global Navigation	Sites	News	Files

Facts about SharePoint app bar

• When Global Navigation is not configured, the home icon links to the SharePoint start page.
• You cannot disable specific tabs on the app bar.
• You cannot disable the SharePoint app bar for specific sites
• SharePoint app bar will show up even if you have a vanity URL (mysharepoint.contoso.com) for your SharePoint tenant
• If you have more than one Web Apps under your tenant, the app bar will show up only for the root Web App. SharePoint app bar will not show up for non-root Web Apps
• The app bar is not available for classic sites as of right now. However, SharePoint Admins can add it to classic sites manually
• Personalized content in the SharePoint app bar is enabled by Microsoft Graph
  
  

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SharePoint app bar Availability
Microsoft hasn’t provided any specific date, but recently it has reached “general availability” (GA) status. Microsoft is pushing it out tenant by tenant so you will know soon when it will hit your tenant. 

Temporarily disable the SharePoint app bar.
You can temporarily disable the app bar in your tenant to prepare for this change or control its rollout to users. The tool that disables the app bar will be available until October 31, 2021.

1. Run this PowerShell command
   

   Set-SPOTemporarilyDisableAppBar $true
   
   

2. To check the app bar status by running this command

   Get-SPOTemporarilyDisableAppBar
   
   

It can take up to an hour for the app bar to be removed on a tenant where the app bar is already showing up.

Enable SharePoint app bar
Once you are ready to display the app bar, you can run this PowerShell command.

Set-SPOTemporarilyDisableAppBar $false

Customize Global Navigation

1. Make sure you are SharePoint Admin to follow these steps
2. Navigate to your organization’s home site (Read this blog post if you have not set up a home site for your organization)
3. Select Settings and then select Global navigation settings
   
4. Switch Enable global navigation to On
   
5. If you want, you can add the customized logo for Global Navigation, as shown below. This logo replaces the default home icon in the app bar. Logo size: Height: 20px Width: 20px Logo file type: PNG (Transparent background recommended) 
    
   
   
6. Enter a title that will be displayed at the top of the Global Navigation. Usually, this can be your company’s name.

     7. Select the Navigation source as needed and click on the Save button.

         

Navigation source can be changed at any time by SharePoint Admins. After performing these steps, it may take up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect.

How to determine which Navigation source to use for Global Navigation
For home sites that are a hub, you can select “Homesite navigation.”
For home sites that are not a hub, you can select “Hub or global navigation” and edit global navigation as needed.