How to Add a Custom Tile to SharePoint 2016 App Launcher?

Requirement: Add a new tile to App Launcher in SharePoint.

How to Add a Custom Tile to SharePoint 2016 App Launcher?

The SharePoint 2016 App Launcher is a shortcut that allows users to access SharePoint sites and Office 365 apps from anywhere in SharePoint 2016. The App Launcher includes tiles for some of the standard SharePoint sites and Office 365 applications by default, but you can also add custom tiles. This article will discuss how to add a custom tile to the SharePoint 2016 App Launcher.

We wanted to place a new tile in the SharePoint 2016 app launcher for the support center site to improve end-user usability. SharePoint 2016 Feature Pack 1 brought us the capability to add a new tile to the app launcher. Here is how you can customize SharePoint 2016 App launcher:

Step 1: Enable the “Custom Tiles” feature in SharePoint 2016 with PowerShell:

Use this PowerShell script to enable the custom tiles feature.

Enable-SPFeature -Identity CustomTiles -Url "https://intranet.crescent.com" -Force

This creates a new “Custom Tiles” list in the given web application’s root site collection.

Step 2: Create a new Tile in the “Custom Tiles” list

Once the feature is activated, navigate to: https://intranet.crescent.com/Lists/Custom%20Tiles/AllItems.aspx URL and add a new entry with desired URL and image for the tile for your custom tile. Please note, this list is hidden from the browser interface, so you should use the link directly in the browser to navigate to the list.
sharepoint 2016 app launcher customize
It may take up to 24 hours for the new tile to reflect. Clear your browser cache, or open the browser in Private mode to see the new tile in action.

how to add custom tile in sharepoint 2016

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - Information Technology Expert with Two-decades of hands-on experience, specializing in SharePoint, PowerShell, Microsoft 365, and related products. He has held various positions including SharePoint Architect, Administrator, Developer and consultant, has helped many organizations to implement and optimize SharePoint solutions. Known for his deep technical expertise, He's passionate about sharing the knowledge and insights to help others, through the real-world articles!

7 thoughts on “How to Add a Custom Tile to SharePoint 2016 App Launcher?

  • I want to know the answer for this as well. I have several Hosted Site Name Collections and I cannot get the custom tiles feature to work.

    Reply
  • In my case, I have added custom tiles feature to web application which has hosted name site collections created. Does custom tiles work for Hosted name site collections.

    Reply
  • Please confirm how can we have custom tiles in Host Named site collection & how can we achieve it

    Appreciate your support

    Regards,
    Akshay

    Reply
  • Hi,
    Can we have custom tiles in host named site collection?
    Really appreciate your help

    Regards,
    AD

    Reply
  • I have confirmed via internally Microsoft resources that Custom Tiles can’t be consumed between farms.

    The reading of the Custom Tiles list and links within the list is done using a server side API to read the list, which won’t work for sites outside the local farm.

    Reply
  • In the article “Custom Tiles in SharePoint Servers 2016 and 2019”
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/SharePoint/administration/custom-tiles-in-sharepoint-server-2016
    it indicates you can use the same custom tiles across multiple web applications.

    I have been able to use the same ‘master’ tiles for multiple web apps in the same farm.

    However, I cannot get other web apps in other farms to use the same ‘master’ tiles.

    Is there a way to have web apps in other farms consume the ‘master’ tiles list?

    Reply
  • Does this work with Host Name Site Collections ?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *