SharePoint: Quick Approval Requests

Key insights

• Modern approval experience
  SharePoint Online now supports a built‑in approval flow for lists and libraries, rolled out starting late 2024, so you can request approvals without building a Power Automate flow.
• Request approval (context menu)
  You start approvals from the item or file context menu, making the process fast and visible to users where they already work.
• Approval status column
  SharePoint adds an approval status column to track progress; when an item is under review, edits prompt a cancellation warning and Office files open in view‑only mode to avoid accidental changes.
• Teams and Approval app integration
  Notifications and responses surface in Microsoft Teams and the Approval app, letting approvers respond and owners monitor status in real time.
• Power Automate for complex logic
  The built‑in approval is quick to use but limited in advanced logic; keep using Power Automate when you need conditional routing, multiple approvers, or custom notifications.
• Recent tutorial/demo (Feb 2025)
  A recent demo shows how to configure approvals in SharePoint, respond via Teams, and watch status updates, useful as a step‑by‑step starting guide.

By Laura Rogers [MVP]. In a recent review of a how-to video that highlights SharePoint’s new approval option, the presenter walks viewers through a faster path to request and manage approvals without building custom flows. The YouTube tutorial, created by a SharePoint practitioner, demonstrates the practical steps to use the feature from the modern SharePoint interface and shows how approvals integrate with Microsoft Teams. Overall, the video frames the new capability as a time-saver for straightforward approval scenarios while still recognizing limits for complex workflows.

What the video demonstrates

The video begins by showing how to trigger the new approval path from the item or file context menu using the Request approval command. Viewers see that SharePoint automatically adds an Approval status column to track progress and that items under review warn editors and open in view-only mode to avoid accidental edits. Additionally, the tutorial highlights how responders can act from within Teams, making it easier to respond without switching apps. In short, the clip focuses on practical steps to start and monitor approvals directly in SharePoint’s modern UI.

Next, the presenter walks through a typical approval cycle and shows real-time status updates appearing in the library view. This visual confirmation helps teams spot pending items more quickly and reduces questions about where a request stands. The video also demonstrates the cancellation behavior when someone tries to edit an item under review, which helps protect content integrity. Therefore, the tutorial emphasizes convenience and a lighter operational touch for straightforward approvals.

How integration with Teams improves response flow

Importantly, the video highlights how approval notifications surface in Teams and in the Approval app, enabling approvers to act from the places they already work. This integration reduces friction because recipients can review and respond without navigating back to SharePoint, and the tutorial clearly shows responses updating the library status in near real time. Consequently, organizations that rely on Teams for collaboration will likely find quicker turnaround and clearer accountability. However, the presenter also notes that integration behaviors can vary with tenant settings and notification preferences.

Moreover, the exemplar workflow demonstrates that responders can approve, request changes, or decline from within Teams, and each action updates SharePoint accordingly. This streamlines basic approval use cases, particularly for document review and simple sign-offs where deep branching logic is not required. Thus, the video positions the new native experience as complementary to existing communication patterns instead of a replacement for advanced flows. At the same time, administrators must ensure consent and notification configurations are aligned to avoid missed requests.

Where modern direct approvals excel

The core strength of the feature, as shown in the video, is speed and low setup overhead: users can enable approvals straight from the SharePoint UI using the Configure Approvals option and apply requests immediately. For small teams and simple sign-off processes, this reduces dependency on Power Platform skills and accelerates adoption. Moreover, because the process is built into the SharePoint modern experience, it follows familiar interface patterns that reduce training needs. As a result, organizations looking to remove friction from routine approvals will appreciate the direct approach.

In addition, the visual tracking through the added approval column gives teams a clear single source of truth for item state, which improves transparency. When combined with view-only protections during review, the feature mitigates accidental edits that could otherwise invalidate the approval. Therefore, the video endorses the new flow for scenarios where speed, visibility, and content protection are the main priorities. Still, this simplicity comes with tradeoffs that teams must weigh.

Tradeoffs versus Power Automate flows

The tutorial contrasts the modern direct approval with the older Page Approval or custom Power Automate flows, and it stresses the tradeoffs between convenience and flexibility. While the built-in approach requires little or no configuration, it lacks advanced branching, conditional assignments, and multi-stage orchestration that Power Automate supports. Consequently, organizations with complex routing, approval hierarchies, or integration needs will likely continue to use flows to meet those requirements.

Conversely, Power Automate remains indispensable when approvals must trigger downstream automation, deal with multiple approvers in sequence or parallel, or require bespoke notifications and logging. Hence, the video suggests a hybrid mindset: use the modern direct approval for simple cases and reserve Power Automate for scenarios that need precise control and extensibility. This balanced perspective helps teams choose the right tool rather than forcing a single approach.

Challenges, recommendations, and next steps

The speaker also calls out common implementation challenges, such as ensuring tenant settings allow the modern experience, educating end users about review behaviors, and auditing approvals for compliance. Administrators should test the experience in a controlled library and validate how edits, approvals, and notifications behave in their tenant before rolling it out widely. Additionally, governance around who can request approvals and who can respond will help prevent misuse and bottlenecks.

Finally, for teams that want to adopt the new experience, the practical recommendation is to start small, measure outcomes, and expand as confidence grows. Where necessary, pair the modern approval with Power Automate for hybrid scenarios that need both speed and logic. In conclusion, the video provides a clear, hands-on look at a useful new tool in SharePoint’s toolbox and helps decision-makers weigh the tradeoffs between ease of use and customization needs.

Keywords

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