Mobile Features in SharePoint 2013

Introduction

In this article, we will learn about the mobile features in SharePoint 2013.There are several Mobile features added in SharePoint 2013. They include the following:

  • Optimized mobile browser experience
  • Device channels
  • Push notifications
  • Location
  • Business intelligence
  • Office Web Apps

Optimized mobile browser experience

This section helps you to understand the mobile views available in SharePoint 2013. You can choose the views based on the customer or project needs. There are three distinct views available for mobile. They are as mentioned below.

  • Contemporary view
  • Classic view
  • Full screen UI
  • Device channels

A. Contemporary View

This view is newly added to the SharePoint 2013.Mobile browser view that renders in HTML5. This view is available to Mobile Internet Explorer version 9.0 or later versions for Windows Phone 7.5, Safari version 4.0 or later versions for iPhone iOS 5.0, and the Android browser for Android 4.0 or later versions. This view is optimized for touch screen mobiles.

B. Classic View

This view renders in classic HTML format. It is a Lightweight mobile view for interacting with lists and libraries on SharePoint sites.

C. Full Screen UI

This view is similar to a desktop rendering experience in SharePoint 2013.

D. Device channel

It lets you to design a different view for different mobile devices based on the user string parameters.

The following table illustrates mobile views supports for various SharePoint site templates that are available.

Mobile view Blank Site Team Site Document Workspace Document Centre Project site Publishing Site
Contemporary view Yes Yes Yes yes n/a n/a
Full Screen UI Yes Yes Yes Yes n/a n/a
Classic View NA NA NA NA NA Yes
Device channels Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes NA

Push Notifications

Mobile devices can either opt for receiving notifications whenever a SharePoint list item is being something or edited. When the Push notification feature is activated, a subscription store is created and used to store all the device information. There is a upper limit of 20,000 devices that can be registered initially.

Location

SharePoint Server 2013 introduced a new geolocation field type that can be used in a list. For example, you can now make lists “location-aware” and display latitude and longitude coordinates through Bing Maps. An entry is typically seen as a pushpin on the map view.

Business Intelligence

PerformancePoint Web Parts, Excel Services reports, and SQL Reporting Services reports can be viewed in mobile devices.

Office Apps

Word Mobile Viewer, Excel Mobile Viewer, and PowerPoint Mobile Viewer are optimized to render documents for phones. When integrated with SharePoint Server 2013, a user can enjoy enhanced viewing experiences when interacting with documents on the phone.