SharePoint Home Site: Intranet Landing Experience
A SharePoint home site is a communication site designated as an organization's primary intranet landing experience and gateway to other portals. It reflects organizational brand, voice, news, and resources, and its technology powers the employee experience in Teams now branded by Microsoft as the SharePoint app in Teams, formerly Viva Connections.
What Home Site Means in SharePoint
The home site gives employees a recognizable starting point for organization-wide information. It can feature news, announcements, resources, navigation, events, and links to hubs or other important destinations. It is a special role assigned to a communication site, not an entirely different site template or a container that owns every other intranet site.
A home site should answer high-frequency employee needs and establish trust in official content. Its value depends on editorial governance, responsive design, accessibility, audience-aware content, and strong connections to the broader information architecture. Treating it as a decorative homepage produces short-lived launch interest rather than a durable digital workplace.
Why It Matters to the Business
For leadership and communications teams, the home site provides a consistent channel for priorities, organizational news, and employee resources. For employees, it reduces the effort required to determine where to begin and which source is authoritative.
The home site also bridges web and Teams experiences. Organizations can bring their SharePoint intranet into the SharePoint app in Teams, helping employees reach the same governed resources from a place where they already collaborate.
What SharePoint Administrators Need to Know
A SharePoint administrator can create or designate an eligible communication site as a home site in the SharePoint admin center. The site still needs normal ownership, permissions, sensitivity, content, and lifecycle management, plus coordination with any hub, global navigation, and SharePoint app in Teams configuration.
Administrators should test how home-site content appears across SharePoint, Teams desktop, Teams mobile, and different audience or permission contexts. Web parts that roll up content respect source permissions, so broad home-page placement does not guarantee that every employee can open the underlying item.
What to Consider
Prioritize employee tasks
Use research, search data, support requests, and stakeholder interviews to identify the resources and journeys that deserve prominent placement.
Establish editorial accountability
Assign owners and review schedules for news, announcements, navigation, campaigns, and evergreen resources displayed on the home site.
Test every delivery surface
Validate desktop, mobile, SharePoint, and Teams experiences with representative users, permissions, accessibility needs, and device sizes.
Practical Takeaway
A home site is the front door to the intranet; its job is to guide employees to trustworthy answers and action, not merely look polished.
How This Shows Up in the Field
Enterprise employee portal
A home site can surface company news, leadership messages, benefits, help resources, events, and links to departmental hubs from one branded destination.
Government workforce experience
A public agency can use a secure home site to connect policies, service departments, emergency notices, forms, and role-relevant resources across its intranet.
Home site, communication site, and hub site
| Home site | A communication site designated as the organization's primary intranet landing experience and the basis for the SharePoint app in Teams. |
|---|---|
| Communication site | A broad-publishing site; only a selected communication site receives the special home-site role. |
| Hub site | Connects a family of related sites. A home site can also participate in the broader hub and intranet architecture, but the roles are distinct. |
Related 6SC Services and Proof
Related SharePoint Glossary Terms
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a SharePoint home site a special type of site?
It is an existing or newly created communication site that receives the home-site designation. That role makes it the primary intranet landing experience and connects it to organization-wide SharePoint and Teams experiences.
Is Viva Connections now called the SharePoint app in Teams?
Microsoft renamed the default Viva Connections experience in Teams to the SharePoint app in Teams in its May–June 2026 update. Existing customized names, logos, and deployments can continue to operate.
Can an organization have more than one home site?
Microsoft supports multiple home-site scenarios with appropriate configuration and licensing. Organizations should verify current requirements and use multiple home sites only when distinct employee populations and governance justify the added complexity.
Does a home site replace hub sites?
No. The home site is the primary front door, while hubs connect families of related sites. A complete intranet often uses both roles within one information architecture.
Official Microsoft References
- What's new for SharePoint home sites
- Planning your SharePoint home site
- Planning your SharePoint hub sites
Editorial review date: July 13, 2026. Product status and licensing can change; confirm current Microsoft documentation before implementation.
Create an intranet front door employees will use
6SC can research employee needs, design the home-site experience, connect hubs and resources, establish editorial governance, and support launch and adoption.
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