Missing Office 365 apps on the App launcher after creating collection (Azure AD/Entra ID)

[lucafabbri365]

Greetings,

I'm creating a new App launcher collection on Azure AD/Entra ID portal. The user performing this task has Global Administrator role with no license. The idea is to group Office 365 Apps (Outlook, Calendar People, Delve, OneDrive, SharePoint, etc.) into separate categories (collections) for a simpler user experience. 

Every time I add any Office 365 app in this new collection (e.g. Microsoft 365) and save it...

...the app disappears on page refresh/reload.

This issue doesn't occur if the user (either Global Admin, Cloud Application Admin or Application Admin role) performing the task has an Office 365 license assigned.

Is that an expected behavior? I don't understand why it is necessary to waste an Office 365 license for this administrative task.

Thank you.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

I suppose it's because the "availability" of said apps is tied to the license (i.e. you cannot "assign" them to users like you'd do with any other SaaS app). I'd classify it as bug/unexpected behavior, but best open a support ticket and probe Microsoft about it.

[#3]

The described behavior reached the Microsoft Product Group who is aware about it. To mitigate this issue, the recommended approach is to consistently re-add the same Office apps on every App Launcher changes from an un-licensed (Office 365) account. They are planning to submit a feature request. Expect further updates during CY24Q1, which falls between January and March.