The Top SharePoint Apps for iOS

Updated October 2026: This post has been expanded from its original January 2014 version from a one-line link into a full history of using SharePoint on the iPhone and iPad: the third-party apps people relied on around 2014, and how Microsoft’s own apps eventually filled the gap. It is a historical account; details describe the time it covers, not today.

A tidy work desk with an iPad, an iMac and a MacBook laptop

In January 2014, getting real work done in SharePoint from an iPad was harder than it should have been. SharePoint, Microsoft’s platform for company intranets, team sites, and shared document libraries, was used by a huge number of businesses. The iPad had become a common sight in meeting rooms. Yet Microsoft had no dedicated SharePoint app for Apple devices, and Office itself was not yet available for the iPad. The original version of this post was a one-line pointer to an external list of the best SharePoint apps for iPhone and iPad.

This expanded version tells the fuller story. It explains why SharePoint on iOS was awkward in that period, which third-party apps stepped in, which Microsoft apps were available, and how the picture changed between 2014 and today, when an official SharePoint app sits alongside OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and a combined Office app.

The problem in 2013 and early 2014

SharePoint was designed around the desktop. Its natural partners were Internet Explorer and the Windows versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which could open a document from a SharePoint library, edit it, and save it back. On an iPad, those pieces were missing. Mobile Safari could load SharePoint sites, but the experience was clumsy on a touchscreen, and there was no native way to work with files offline.

Writing in September 2012, technology journalist Tim Anderson called Microsoft’s support for SharePoint on non-browser clients "surprisingly poor." He noted that Microsoft expected users to rely on Office, which did not run on iOS, and that even Microsoft’s SkyDrive app did not work offline. That gap created an opening for independent developers.

Third-party apps that filled the gap

Several companies built native iOS apps that connected to SharePoint servers. Two of the most visible were SharePlus and Colligo Briefcase.

SharePlus

SharePlus was developed by SouthLabs, which software company Infragistics announced it was acquiring on January 31, 2012. At the time of the deal, SharePlus was available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7. It offered offline access to SharePoint documents protected by a passcode lock, local editing with changes synced back later over cellular or Wi-Fi, and the ability to share a document directly with a nearby device over local Wi-Fi.

Infragistics released SharePlus version 3.0 for the iPad on March 27, 2012. Its feature list covered most of what a mobile SharePoint user needed: enterprise search, user-profile lookups, offline search and filtering of lists, an email viewer, a rich text editor, and web-app-based editing.

Colligo Briefcase

Colligo Briefcase took a slightly different approach, focusing on offline sync. Users picked which SharePoint lists and libraries to synchronize to their iPad or iPhone, then previewed Word and Excel documents without a connection. In 2012 it worked with SharePoint 2007 and 2010 and came in tiers: a free Lite version limited to 50MB, a Pro version for $2.99, and an Enterprise edition that added central management, remote wipe, and the ability to block the iOS "Open in" feature so company documents could not be sent to unmanaged apps.

That last feature points to a theme that ran through SharePoint on iOS in this period. Businesses wanted employees to be productive on iPads, but they also needed to control where sensitive documents ended up. Third-party apps often competed as much on security and management features as on usability.

App (as of 2012–2014)	Made by	What it did	Limits noted at the time
SharePlus	SouthLabs, then Infragistics	Native SharePoint browsing, offline documents, search, local editing with sync	Third-party; full features in paid versions
Colligo Briefcase	Colligo Networks	Offline sync of chosen SharePoint lists and libraries; document preview	No OneNote preview; "Open in" was a data-leak risk unless disabled
SkyDrive Pro (June 2013)	Microsoft	View, upload, share, and save Office 365 work files for offline use	SharePoint Online only; not on-premises SharePoint 2013
Office Mobile for iPhone (June 2013)	Microsoft	Open and make light edits to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files from SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro, or SharePoint	Required an Office 365 subscription; iPhone only, not iPad

Sources: ITWriting (Sept 2012), SD Times and Infragistics (2012), Computerworld and Engadget (June 2013).

Microsoft’s first steps on iOS

Microsoft began to move in 2013, but cautiously. On June 14, 2013, it released Office Mobile for iPhone. The app was free to download but required an Office 365 subscription, and it was built for iPhone and iPod touch rather than the iPad. It could open and lightly edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files stored in SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro, or SharePoint, and sync offline edits later.

Two weeks later, on June 28, 2013, Microsoft released SkyDrive Pro for iOS, which gave Office 365 users access to their work file storage from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Users could view documents, save them for offline use, create folders, upload files, and share them. According to the app’s own documentation, it did not appear to work with on-premises SharePoint 2013 servers, so many companies running SharePoint in their own data centers were still left out.

That was roughly where things stood when the original version of this post was published in January 2014: a phone-only Office app for subscribers, a cloud-storage client for Office 365 customers, and a market of third-party apps for everyone else.

What happened next

The next two and a half years changed the picture considerably.

A new name. On January 27, 2014, Microsoft announced it would rename SkyDrive as OneDrive, after losing a trademark case brought by British broadcaster BSkyB. SkyDrive Pro became OneDrive for Business.
Office arrives on the iPad. On March 27, 2014, at his first public press event as Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella announced Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. Viewing documents was free; editing required an Office 365 subscription.
One OneDrive app. In late January 2015, Microsoft updated the OneDrive app for iOS so that personal OneDrive and OneDrive for Business lived in a single app.
An official SharePoint app. On June 21, 2016, Microsoft released a SharePoint app for iOS, describing it as putting the company intranet in your pocket. It had tabs for frequently visited sites, organization-wide links, people, and search, and it worked with SharePoint Online as well as on-premises SharePoint Server 2013 and 2016.
One Office app. On February 19, 2020, Microsoft made a combined Office app, bringing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint together in one mobile app, generally available on iOS and Android.
SharePoint inside Teams. In 2021, Microsoft introduced Viva Connections, which surfaces a company’s SharePoint intranet inside Microsoft Teams, including on mobile.

SharePoint on iPhone and iPad: key milestones

January 31, 2012
Infragistics announces it is acquiring SouthLabs, maker of SharePlus.
March 27, 2012
SharePlus 3.0 for iPad released.
June 14, 2013
Microsoft releases Office Mobile for iPhone for Office 365 subscribers.
June 28, 2013
SkyDrive Pro for iOS released for SharePoint Online users.
January 27, 2014
Microsoft announces SkyDrive will become OneDrive; SkyDrive Pro becomes OneDrive for Business.
March 27, 2014
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad announced.
January 2015
OneDrive for iOS combines personal and business accounts in one app.
June 21, 2016
Official SharePoint app for iOS released.
February 19, 2020
Combined Office app generally available on iOS and Android.
2021
Viva Connections brings SharePoint intranets into Microsoft Teams.

Sources: SD Times, Infragistics, Engadget, Computerworld, Fortune, Redmond Magazine, Microsoft 365 Blog, CMSWire.

How to use SharePoint on an iPhone or iPad today

If your organization uses SharePoint, these are the main options now. Exact features depend on how your company has set things up, so check with your IT team if something is missing.

1. The SharePoint app

Download SharePoint from the App Store and sign in with your work or school account. Microsoft’s support documentation says the app works on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch running iOS 10 or later. It lets you browse and search sites, team activity, files, and lists, look up colleagues, and read company news. It supports SharePoint in Microsoft 365 and on-premises SharePoint Server 2013, 2016, and 2019, though the 2019 experience is slightly different.

2. OneDrive for files

For working with documents rather than browsing sites, the OneDrive app is often the more practical choice. It is Microsoft’s app for your own work files and files colleagues share with you, and you can open documents from it in the Office apps for editing.

3. The Office app or individual Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps

Use these to open and edit documents stored in SharePoint. Signing in with your work account connects them to your organization’s storage.

4. Microsoft Teams

Many companies now reach SharePoint content mostly through Teams. The files in a Teams channel are stored in SharePoint, and organizations using Viva Connections can put their intranet front and center inside the Teams app.

A note on on-premises servers

If your company runs SharePoint on its own servers, sign-in options are more limited. Microsoft’s documentation says the SharePoint app supports Windows (NTLM) and forms-based authentication for on-premises sites, but not ADFS, Kerberos, Basic, Digest, or self-signed SSL certificates. If the app will not connect, that is often why.

The bottom line

In January 2014, SharePoint users with iPads depended on third-party apps such as SharePlus and Colligo Briefcase, plus a few limited Microsoft apps, to get work done. Within two and a half years, Microsoft had renamed its storage service, shipped Office for iPad, merged its OneDrive apps, and released an official SharePoint app. Today the question is less whether SharePoint works on an iPhone and more which of Microsoft’s several apps is the best way in.

Sources

Top image: "Paperless work desk with an iPad, iMac and a MacBook" by FirmBee, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized). Charts by Thank You Robot.

The Top SharePoint Apps for iOS

The problem in 2013 and early 2014