This Power BI Android app release has a new, exciting capability that will get you to your data fast: Android app shortcuts.

Everyone is busy nowadays, and wants to find and access their important business reports as quickly and easily as possible, especially while on the go. Now, new Android app shortcuts help you to do just that. With shortcuts, you get straight to your reports and dashboards without having to navigate through the app – you just create a shortcut to a report or dashboard, pin it to your device’s home screen, and you’re all set to go! Just tap the shortcut and you’re there!

You can also use shortcuts to quickly access items in apps, and even items on external tenants (B2B items) – no more need to search for that sharing email that has the link to the B2B item.

Want to start using this exciting feature? Continue reading to learn how.

Create a shortcut

When the app recognizes that you access specific content often, it will suggest that you pin a shortcut to this content on your device’s home screen. A new “Add shortcut” banner will appear at the top of the screen. To create the shortcut, tap the banner – an Add shortcut dialog will open with the name of your item, which you can edit. Tap Add, and agree to add the shortcut to the device’s home screen. Once you’ve done this, the shortcut will be added to the home screen. It will have a report or dashboard icon, and the name you entered. Now, any time you’d like to access the dashboard or report you created the shortcut for, just tap the shortcut on the home screen and Power BI will automatically open it.

Shortcuts to reports and dashboards can also be added from the Action menu.

App launcher shortcuts

We also enabled quick access to your frequent items using a long tap on the Power BI app launcher. That way you can open the items directly from the launcher, and you can also drag them from there to your device’s home screen for future use.

Advanced scenarios with shortcuts

The ability to create shortcuts to reports and dashboards  can be leveraged in the following  scenarios:

• Shortcuts to app items: Many of our customers use apps to distribute content within their organizations. Each app has a landing item that opens by default when you navigate to the app. But what if this default item is not the one you need? You can also create shortcuts to items that are inside the app, getting direct access to them, without first having to land on the app’s default landing item.
• Shortcuts to external tenant items (B2B): Shortcuts can also be used to keep track of items shared with you from external tenants (B2B items). Instead of saving the “shared report” emails you receive from Power BI for accessing external content, you can now create shortcuts for these items and access them directly from your device’s home screen.

Shortcuts allow you to maximize your productivity. You now have a simple, quick way to get straight to the reports and dashboards you need, when you need them.

What’s next?

Please keep sending us your feedback, and don’t forget to vote for other features you’d like to see.

If you still don’t have the Power BI Mobile app installed on your mobile device, you can get it from Google Play .