A small business recently migrated to Office 365 and the users were complaining about the Bing Maps and Actions links under the message header in many messages.
These are Outlook apps, currently available only on Office 365 if using Outlook 2013/2016. (They will be coming to Outlook.com sometime this spring.)
The users felt the apps were just a waste of space as they didn’t need Bing maps or the other default apps.
The apps can be turned off globally, for all accounts, in the Exchange Admin Center. Click the apps link (under Organization heading) then double click on the app you wish to disable (or select it and click the Edit (pencil) button). Change the user defaults or uncheck the box to Make this app available to users in your organization.
Users can turn the apps off (or on) in their own account by logging into Outlook Web Access (OWA), then select Gear, Manage apps.
The File, Manage Apps button in Outlook desktop will also open this page.
Select an app and click Disable (on the right) to remove the app from Outlook and OWA. It can take 15 minutes or more for the change to sync to Outlook; if you restart Outlook the apps should be removed immediately.
The webpage for Small Business users is slightly different. It has a column called Turned On and checkboxes instead of the Disable link.
In the first screenshot in this article there is an option "+Get more apps" which is "+Get more add-ins" in Office 2016. Does anyone know how to remove this option?
If we can get it's command id, we should be able to disable it. I'll check with support and see what they say.
As a workaround we have disabled all the add-ins in Exchange admin center and that seems to remove the bar. However, it would be nice to have some of the add-ins enabled but disable the "get more" option.
I was told by a developer of an app available through the store that the gray bar is going away soon - all Addins will need to be buttons on the ribbon. I don't have confirmation from Microsoft yet.
I am not sure about "get more apps" or behavior in office clients. however, you can disable the users' ability to turn on their own apps from the 365 mail app settings fly out. you need to disable "My Marketplace Apps" under the user role policy in the exchange admin center. it is on by default.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj943752(v=exchg.150).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj943754(v=exchg.150).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657480(v=exchg.150).aspx
disabling this bars users from loading apps themselves in the mail app (also possibly outlook), but still lets you dictate global add-ins like this article shows you.
hope this helps someone.
Thanks for this! Been Googling GP for an hour and coming up blank. Didn't think to look in ECP.
Mine are all disabled, but the app bar is still shown
Have you restarted Outlook? It usually syncs down to outlook with about 15 min but can take longer.
Thanks you so much this was super helpful!
I've done a ton of migrations, and I had a client with the same complaint. Thanks for posting!