Microsoft has announced the general availability of SharePoint Embedded, an API-based version of SharePoint designed to integrate Microsoft 365 functionalities into third-party applications. The announcement was made during the opening day of the 2024 Microsoft Build conference.
API-Based Integration
SharePoint Embedded, which debuted as a public preview at the European SharePoint conference last fall, allows developers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to embed Microsoft 365 features into their applications. According to Microsoft's Zach Rosenfield, the platform “delivers Microsoft 365 superpowers as part of any app and consolidates all files and documents within a universal document layer.” This means that apps utilizing SharePoint Embedded can access collaboration, compliance, security, and AI capabilities without consuming resources or storage space from the user organization's Microsoft 365 environment.
Key Features and Benefits
Applications built with SharePoint Embedded can leverage essential Microsoft 365 functionalities, including Copilot, co-authoring, and search. The embedded apps operate within the user organization's Microsoft 365 environment, ensuring that they do not impact the organization's storage limits, such as those in OneDrive. SharePoint Embedded is billed on a pay-as-you-go model, which is separate from the broader Microsoft 365 environment. This allows users to develop applications without affecting their organization's Microsoft 365 usage limits.
ISV Opportunities
For ISVs, SharePoint Embedded offers the ability to create their own partitions within a customer's Microsoft 365 tenant, providing the same capabilities as part of their app. Rosenfield noted that Microsoft has already been using SharePoint Embedded internally to enhance applications like Microsoft Loop and Microsoft Designer.
In addition to the general availability of SharePoint Embedded, Microsoft has also announced the upcoming public preview of custom Copilots in SharePoint. This announcement was part of a series of updates made at the 2024 Microsoft Build conference, which also included enhancements to Microsoft 365 and AI capabilities.
