Microsoft says Fabric Apps can be included in org apps, so organisations can distribute custom Fabric applications beside Power BI reports and other supported Fabric content. The change is aimed at cases where a report leads to a task, such as updating a plan, assigning an owner or tracking a resolution.
The model brings reporting and application work into the same curated destination. A user can review a Power BI report, open a Fabric App from the org app navigation, and carry out the related process without moving to a separately distributed tool.
Fabric Apps and org apps
Fabric Apps are purpose-built applications connected to Fabric data. They provide a custom interface and workflow, with managed APIs, authentication, hosting and service integration. Fabric Apps remain in preview.
Org apps are a Microsoft Fabric item type used to package content for consumers in an organisation. They can include Power BI reports, paginated reports, Fabric notebooks, Fabric Apps, maps and real-time dashboards. Org apps are generally available.
The distinction matters for teams that already use workspace apps. Workspace apps, previously widely called Power BI apps, continue to work alongside org apps. Existing workspace apps are not automatically renamed, upgraded, migrated or replaced.
Org apps also differ in structure. A workspace can have multiple org apps, and those org apps can be managed like other Fabric items. Audiences can tailor navigation and access for different groups within a single org app.
From report context to operational task
Microsoft gives the example of a retail operations hub. A regional manager reviews a Power BI report showing revenue, margin, inventory and customer-service trends. A real-time dashboard can also show emerging operational issues.
If the report shows that a store is missing its sales target while carrying excess inventory, the manager can open a Store Action Planner built as a Fabric App inside the same org app. The application can then present the relevant context and guide the manager through reviewing the exception, choosing a response, assigning owners and tracking the plan.
This separates ownership without separating the user experience. BI authors can continue to evolve reports, developers can improve the Fabric App, and business owners can curate the org app navigation and included items.
Permissions and access propagation
Creating an org app item requires a workspace in Pro, Fabric trial, Premium capacity or Fabric capacity mode. Users with admin, member or contributor roles can create org app items, but access-management changes have stricter requirements.
Adding or removing items, or making changes that affect access, requires write and reshare permissions on the included items and on the underlying semantic models used by included reports and paginated reports. That requirement can include semantic models in other workspaces. In practice, Microsoft says these permissions are typically available only to workspace admins and members.
When a user receives access to an org app, they receive access to the included items as well. For an included Fabric App, the user receives the Read and Execute permissions needed to access the app. For Power BI reports and paginated reports, org apps can grant read access to the underlying semantic models, including cross-workspace models.
There is an important boundary for Fabric Apps. Org apps do not currently manage access to the related items that a Fabric App uses to read or write data. Authors must manage access to those related items directly, or users may be able to open the Fabric App but encounter failures when the app tries to read or write data.
Removing access follows the same boundary. Removing a user from an org app removes org-app-derived access to the org app item, included items and supported underlying semantic models. It also removes org-app-derived Read and Execute permissions for an included Fabric App, but access granted independently remains in place.
Lifecycle and user experience
Org apps support Git integration and deployment pipelines. In Git, an org app is represented as artifacts for the app and one or more audiences. Microsoft documents definition version 2.0.0 for org app definitions with audience support.
Deployment pipelines can move org apps across environments such as development, test and production. For complex multi-workspace deployments or Git-based workflows with environment-specific configuration, Microsoft also documents use of the fabric-cicd tool.
Consumers do not need to install an org app in the same way as a workspace app. Org apps can appear in Home recents, Home favourites, OneLake Catalog and the Apps page. On the new Apps page, Microsoft labels org apps as Org app, workspace apps as Workspace app and Fabric Apps as App.
Org apps are also supported in the Power BI personal app for Microsoft Teams. Reports in org apps can be used with the Power BI add-in for PowerPoint by pasting the report URL. Embedding a single visual from a report in an org app is not currently supported.
Current limitations
Some workspace app report toolbar capabilities are not supported in org apps, including comments. Org apps also do not support single sign-on for custom visuals.
Email subscriptions are supported for Power BI reports in org apps, but with differences from subscriptions created directly on reports. Subscriptions are tied to the underlying report rather than the org app, subscription emails link directly to the report, and subscriptions are not supported for paginated reports in org apps.
Power BI mobile apps can show org apps and respect audience configuration, but support is limited to Power BI items such as reports, paginated reports, overview pages, sections and links. Fabric items such as real-time dashboards, notebooks and maps open in the browser.
Putting a Fabric App beside the report that triggered it changes the design question from visualisation alone to process, permissions and ownership, which ECS's Data topic covers across Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, SQL Server and Dataverse. Sessions and workshops give attendees room to compare modelling, app distribution, governance and lifecycle practices with people who build these solutions. Bring the app patterns and access questions that are difficult to settle from documentation alone.
This article was written by the ECS editorial team with the assistance of Amal Agent, run.events' AI assistant, which supported the research, drafting and proofreading.