What is the Unified Experience?

It is a feature that enables the integration of a sidebar on your site. This sidebar provides access to various applications and tools, enhancing your overall user experience :

The configuration of options is done through the configurator

• Alert: Allows you to display a message at the top of the banner along with a button linking to a URL of your choice

• Search: A tab that allows you to perform a quick search from the bar, configuring the result type, the option to extend it to all site collections, and the URL for advanced search

• News Feed: This feature enables the broadcast of news directly in your bar. You have the option to choose the information source, sort it using a KQL query, display the sorting order in ascending or descending mode, adjust the target audience, and even add SharePoint events.

• Navigation: It provides the ability to quickly add links to SharePoint sites, URLs of websites, and email addresses, thus simplifying navigation and facilitating access to essential resources

• Footer: This setting allows you to add a footer to the page of your choice. You can customize its audience, incorporate a distinctive icon, and define a category for a clearer and more structured organization

• Theme: This setting allows you to add a theme to the page of your choice. You can customize its audience, incorporate a distinctive icon, and define a category for a clearer and more structured organization

• Yammer: the former name of Viva engage, a corporate social network.
• Applications: This option lets you access applications directly from the bar, simplifying navigation and providing fast, convenient access to essential functions.

How do I activate it?

Prerequisites

To activate the unified experience on your site, you must first have administrative rights for it.

Therefore, from the configurator, your user profile needs to have "Global Administrator" or "Unified Experience Administrator" rights

Configuration

From the configurator, navigate to the Unified Experience section and Activations. Then, select Apply to complete the URL of your site.

Make sure to enter the address immediately after sharepoint.com/... and click Apply

The activation may take a few minutes, and the unified experience bar will then become visible on your site