How to Create Custom People Picker Control in PowerApps

Introduction

A People Picker is one of the most commonly used controls in business applications. It allows users to search and select people from your organization, making it ideal for assigning tasks, approving requests, selecting managers, or adding team members.

Although Power Apps provides a Person column for SharePoint forms, there are many scenarios where you need a custom People Picker that gives you greater flexibility and works independently of SharePoint forms.

In this article, you'll learn how to build a Custom People Picker Control using the Office365Users connector in Power Apps.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Microsoft Power Apps
Office 365 Users Connector
Basic knowledge of Power Fx
An Office 365 account

What We'll Build

Our custom People Picker will include:

Search users by name or email
Display user profile picture
Show display name and email
Select a user
Remove selected user
Support single or multiple user selection

Step 1: Create a Canvas App

Open Power Apps.
Create a Blank Canvas App.
Choose Tablet or Phone layout.

Step 2: Add Office 365 Users Connector

Select Data.
Click Add Data.
Search for:

Office 365 Users

Add the connector.

Step 3: Insert Controls

Add the following controls:

Control	Name
Text Input	txtSearchUser
Vertical Gallery	galUsers
Image	imgUser
Labels	lblName, lblEmail
Button/Icon	icoSelect
Horizontal Gallery	galSelectedUsers (Optional for multi-select)

Step 4: Search Users

Set the Items property of galUsers

If(
    IsBlank(txtSearchUser.Text),
    Blank(),
    Office365Users.SearchUserV2(
        {
            searchTerm: txtSearchUser.Text,
            top: 20
        }
    ).value
)

Now typing any name will search users from Microsoft Entra ID.

Step 5: Show User Information

Profile Picture

Image property

Office365Users.UserPhotoV2(ThisItem.Id)

Display Name

ThisItem.DisplayName

Email

ThisItem.Mail

Job Title (Optional)

ThisItem.JobTitle

Department (Optional)

ThisItem.Department

Step 6: Select User

Create a variable when selecting a user.

OnSelect

Set(varSelectedUser, ThisItem)

Display selected user

Name Label

varSelectedUser.DisplayName

varSelectedUser.Mail

Photo

Office365Users.UserPhotoV2(varSelectedUser.Id)

Step 7: Clear Selection

Button

Set(varSelectedUser, Blank())

Step 8: Multi-User Selection

Instead of a variable, use a collection.

OnSelect

Collect(
    colSelectedUsers,
    ThisItem
)

Avoid duplicate users

If(
    IsBlank(
        LookUp(
            colSelectedUsers,
            Id = ThisItem.Id
        )
    ),
    Collect(
        colSelectedUsers,
        ThisItem
    )
)

Remove a user

Remove(
    colSelectedUsers,
    ThisItem
)

Gallery Items

colSelectedUsers

Step 9: Search Only After Three Characters

To reduce unnecessary API calls:

If(
    Len(txtSearchUser.Text) >= 3,
    Office365Users.SearchUserV2(
        {
            searchTerm: txtSearchUser.Text,
            top: 20
        }
    ).value
)

Step 10: Display "No Results Found"

Label Visible property

CountRows(galUsers.AllItems)=0 &&
Len(txtSearchUser.Text)>=3

Text

No users found.

Step 11: Patch Selected User to SharePoint Person Column

For a single Person column:

Patch(
    EmployeeRequests,
    Defaults(EmployeeRequests),
    {
        Employee: {
            '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(varSelectedUser.Mail),
            DisplayName: varSelectedUser.DisplayName,
            Email: varSelectedUser.Mail
        }
    }
)

Step 12: Save Multiple Users

ForAll(
    colSelectedUsers,
    Patch(
        EmployeeAssignments,
        Defaults(EmployeeAssignments),
        {
            EmployeeEmail: Mail,
            EmployeeName: DisplayName
        }
    )
)

Conclusion

Building a custom People Picker in Power Apps gives you much greater flexibility than the default SharePoint Person field. By using the Office365Users connector, you can create a responsive user search experience with profile pictures, email addresses, and support for both single and multiple selections. This approach is ideal for approval workflows, employee directories, task assignment, and other enterprise applications where user selection is a core requirement.