Every Featured Link an organisation has pinned to the SharePoint Start Page will be deleted automatically once this retirement completes. Microsoft began removing the capability in early March 2026 and expects the rollout to finish by late July 2026. Admins who relied on those links to steer users toward key sites have a narrow window to capture what they have before it vanishes.
What is being retired
Featured Links is the small, curated set of links that administrators could surface at the top of the SharePoint Start Page (the page a user lands on at the root of SharePoint in Microsoft 365) and in the SharePoint mobile app. The feature let an admin promote a handful of important destinations: an intranet home, an HR portal, a policy library.
The retirement removes that capability entirely. According to the message center notice, administrators will no longer be able to create, edit, update, or access Featured Links, and all existing links are removed as part of the change. Microsoft attributes the decision to low adoption across tenants.
Who is affected
The change reaches all deployment environments, including Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, and DoD. In practice, only organisations that actively configured Featured Links will notice anything, which is precisely why Microsoft is retiring the feature. If your Start Page shows no curated links today, there is nothing to do. If it does, the links stop appearing and cannot be recreated once the rollout completes.
What to do before the links disappear
The replacement is not a like-for-like feature but a shift toward the navigation surfaces Microsoft continues to invest in. A short checklist covers most tenants:
- Audit what is pinned. Open the SharePoint Start Page and note every Featured Link, its label, and its target URL. This is your only record once the links are gone.
- Move the important destinations into global navigation. The SharePoint global navigation bar (configured through the app bar) keeps curated links in front of users across the tenant.
- Consider Viva Connections. For organisations with a Viva Connections experience, the Resources section is the natural home for the curated links Featured Links used to hold.
- Tell the helpdesk. A user who bookmarked the Start Page for those links will report them as missing. A one-line heads-up to support avoids a wave of tickets.
- Update documentation. Any internal wiki or onboarding guide that references Featured Links should be revised.
This is one of several SharePoint surfaces Microsoft has trimmed through 2026. For a related change on the notification side, see the alert on the retirement of SharePoint Alerts. Keeping navigation and shared links tidy across a tenant is easier when you can see them in one place; ShareMaster's Shared Links & Permissions tool audits sharing across sites so nothing important slips through a platform change.
Frequently Asked Questions
When are SharePoint Featured Links being retired?
Microsoft began the retirement in early March 2026 and expects it to complete by late July 2026. Once complete, the links cannot be created, edited, or accessed, and existing links are removed automatically.
Why is Microsoft removing Featured Links?
Microsoft cited low adoption. Removing the feature simplifies the SharePoint Start Page and mobile app and points organisations toward global navigation and Viva Connections for curated links.
Does this affect my SharePoint site navigation?
No. The change is limited to Featured Links on the Start Page and mobile app. Site navigation, hub navigation, and the global navigation bar are unaffected.