Microsoft has delivered a set of long-awaited improvements to SharePoint home sites, headlined by a new Resources web part and a simpler way to create home sites directly from the admin center. The rollout, which reached general availability in April 2026, also brings broader availability for announcements and a fresh News layout to all SharePoint sites, along with refined customization controls for the SharePoint app in Teams—commonly known as Viva Connections.

A Dedicated Resources Web Part Arrives

The centerpiece of this update is a brand-new Resources web part designed specifically for SharePoint home sites. While Microsoft hasn’t spelled out every configuration option in the roadmap entry, the intent is clear: intranet owners now have a dedicated, built-in method to surface frequently needed links, tools, and reference materials on the organization’s primary landing page. Think of it as a customizable quick-access panel—no custom development required.

For years, site owners pieced together similar functionality using Quick Links, Highlighted Content, or custom SPFx solutions. The Resources web part formalizes that pattern, giving home sites a native block that can anchor navigation to everything from HR portals and IT ticketing systems to internal knowledge bases. Early screenshots from the Targeted Release channel suggest drag-and-drop editing and the ability to group resources by category, but organizations should wait for official documentation before locking in their design.

Home Site Creation Moves to the Admin Center

Setting up a home site used to be a specialist task. It often meant opening the SharePoint Online Management Shell, connecting with the right permissions, and running a Set-SPOHomeSite command. For smaller tenants or those without dedicated SharePoint admins, that hurdle was high enough to delay intranet modernization or force home-grown workarounds.

Microsoft is now adding the ability to create a new home site directly from the SharePoint admin center. According to the roadmap, admins will find a straightforward option to designate a communication site as the home site, complete with guidance on best practices and required permissions. The change should dramatically reduce operational friction for tenants establishing, replacing, or reorganizing their intranet landing site. It also aligns home site management with other admin-center workflows, making it a first-class citizen rather than a PowerShell afterthought.

Tighter Viva Connections Customization in Teams

Viva Connections—the SharePoint-based experience that lives inside Microsoft Teams—has always walked a fine line between browser-based intranet and Teams-native dashboard. With this update, Microsoft introduces a new customization experience for the SharePoint app in Teams, which effectively replaces the older Viva Connections branding and configuration panels.

Organizations that use a SharePoint home site as their intranet front door can now expect refreshed controls for tailoring how that experience appears on Teams desktop and mobile clients. The new customization path promises better alignment of navigation, branding, and high-priority content across entry points. For intranet admins, that means less time wrestling with separate settings in Teams admin center and SharePoint admin center, and more confidence that employees see a consistent, uncluttered interface whether they start their day in a browser or in Teams.

Announcements and News Layout Go Broad

Two content-focused changes are not limited to home sites. First, the Announcements web part—previously a home-site exclusive—is now available on all SharePoint sites. Second, a new News web-part layout gives communications teams another way to present articles without custom code.

The distinction matters. News posts typically follow an editorial flow: they appear in carousels, news digests, and email roll-ups. Announcements, by contrast, are designed for messages that need greater prominence and a clearer call to attention—all-company memos, urgent IT updates, event reminders. Making the Announcements web part broadly available means departmental, project, and communications sites can use that higher-visibility format without first being designated as the organization’s home site.

The new News layout is a presentation change rather than a new publishing system, but it gives site editors a fresh option for arranging articles in a grid, list, or filmstrip view. Organizations with tightly governed intranet templates should test this layout against existing page designs, branding, and mobile rendering before making it part of a standard site template.

What These Changes Mean for You

The practical impact splits across roles and environments.

For intranet owners and content editors: The Resources web part and broader Announcements rollout mean you can build richer, more functional landing pages without waiting for developer help. If you’ve been duct-taping Quick Links and custom web parts together, now is the time to review which resources really belong front and center—and then drop them into the new web part. The new News layout also gives you a low-effort way to refresh stale-looking news sections.

For IT admins and SharePoint administrators: The admin center’s home-site creation option removes a long-standing barrier for mid-size and smaller tenants. If you’ve postponed setting up a home site because of PowerShell reluctance, you now have a guided, click-through path. For larger organizations, the revised Viva Connections customization means you can retire custom scripts or third-party tools you might have used to synchronize navigation and branding between SharePoint and Teams. Just be sure to test the new controls in a pilot environment first: roadmap features sometimes arrive with quirks in the initial rollout.

For everyday employees: Most of these changes are invisible, but the net effect is a more cohesive intranet experience. Resources that used to be buried in a site’s navigation or hidden behind a “useful links” list can now surface directly on the home page. Announcements on departmental sites will look and behave consistently. And those who flip between Teams and a browser will notice fewer abrupt jumps in layout or missing navigation items.

The Backstory: How Home Sites Evolved

SharePoint home sites debuted in 2019 as the answer to a decades-old problem: every organization wanted a single, authoritative intranet landing page, but building one often required a Frankenstein’s monster of custom master pages, scripting, and compromises. Home sites introduced the concept of a “super site” that could aggregate news from across the tenant, support organization-wide search, and serve as the default destination for the SharePoint mobile app.

In 2021, Microsoft launched Viva Connections, placing that same home site inside Teams as a branded dashboard. The move recognized that the modern frontline and hybrid worker often lives in Teams, not a standalone browser tab. But the two experiences were awkwardly stitched together, with separate admin controls and a labyrinth of documentation.

Since then, Microsoft has been slowly unifying the management surface. In 2025, the company rebranded “Viva Connections” inside Teams as simply the “SharePoint app,” signaling that the intranet experience belonged to SharePoint rather than a separate product group. Now, with this April 2026 update, the admin experience catches up: home sites can be created and customized through the same admin center used for the rest of the SharePoint portfolio, and the Teams-side customization becomes a natural extension rather than a bolt-on.

What to Do Now: Steps for Your Organization

  1. Audit your current home site setup. If you already have a home site, check whether it’s using Quick Links or Highlighted Content web parts to surface resources. Plan a migration to the Resources web part where it makes sense.

  2. Explore the admin center option. Even if you’re not creating a new home site, navigate to the SharePoint admin center to see the new controls. Understanding the workflow now will help you guide colleagues or support growth scenarios.

  3. Pilot the Resources web part. Spin up a test communication site, enable Targeted Release if necessary, and experiment with the web part. Test how it renders on mobile, how quickly it loads, and whether it integrates with your existing audience targeting or security trimming.

  4. Revisit Viva Connections customization. Open the Teams admin center and review the SharePoint app settings. Look for the new customization experience and map out how you want navigation, footer links, and theme to carry over. Involve your branding and communications teams early—this is not a hands-off technical setting.

  5. Evaluate the new News layout. On a sample page, add the News web part and cycle through the layout options. Check for visual consistency with your brand guidelines and mobile breakpoints. If it passes, schedule a broader rollout to departmental site templates.

  6. Update training materials. End-user guides that reference “Viva Connections” may need a refresh. Note that the SharePoint app in Teams is the same experience, just with a new customization backend.

  7. Monitor the roadmap. Microsoft typically iterates rapidly after such launches. Keep an eye on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap for follow-up additions, like analytics for the Resources web part or deeper integration with Viva Amplify.

Looking Ahead

This update signals that Microsoft is serious about making SharePoint home sites the single pane of glass for the modern intranet—no scripting required. The Resources web part fills a gap that’s been obvious since home sites launched, and the admin-center integration lowers the barrier for the millions of organizations that never quite got around to designating an authoritative landing site.

What to watch next: tighter integration with Viva Amplify for campaign-driven communications, more intelligent resources suggestions based on user roles, and perhaps even a template gallery that makes the new News layout and Resources web part part of the out-of-the-box home site provisioning flow. For now, the tools are here. The question is whether your intranet is ready to use them.