Thank you for watching the new YouTube video! The feedback this first week has been awesome, and it seems like these "3 Hacks" style videos are something a lot of you do enjoy. That makes me really happy, because a lot of work goes into making them. If you missed it, watch it here:

Now, on to the news. Microsoft dropped the 2026 Release Wave 1 plans on March 18. It covers everything shipping between April and September 2026. There's a lot in there, most of it buried in enterprise jargon. So here's what actually matters if you build Power Apps.

Canvas Apps: Offline Gets a Real Architecture

The biggest canvas news is how offline-first apps talk to Dataverse. Two features work together here.

Online mode for Dataverse (preview April 3, GA May 2026) adds a toggle to offline-enabled apps. When you have connectivity, you can switch to online mode and hit live Dataverse directly instead of reading from cached data. The app remembers your last mode and falls back to offline when connectivity drops. For apps where data freshness matters (think field inspections, inventory counts), this is a big deal.

FetchXML offline profiles (GA April 2026) let you write FetchXML queries directly in Power Apps Studio to control what data syncs offline. Previously you were stuck with the point-and-click Expression Builder, which couldn't handle complex filters or linked entity conditions. Now you can hand-author, paste, and version-control the exact queries that define your offline payload.

There's also push notification support for wrapped apps (GA April 2026). If you're distributing custom-branded Power Apps through app stores using Power Apps Wrap, those apps can now send push notifications. Previously this only worked in the standard Power Apps Mobile app.

Modern Controls: 9 Updated, 3 Still Missing

I covered the modern controls quality update in one of my last newsletters, but it's worth repeating in the context of this wave: modern controls are now the default foundation for canvas apps. The February update touched 9 controls with real behavioral changes.

The ones that matter most: Text Input now fires OnChange on blur instead of every keystroke (huge for performance). Combo Box handles thousands of items with server-side filtering via a new SearchText property. Date Picker finally respects DisplayMode.View as truly read-only.

Still missing from the modern controls lineup: Form, Dropdown, and Gallery. Those three weren't part of the update and are still being worked on.

Other canvas additions worth knowing about: a new Card control (preview) for responsive layout composition using Fluent UI principles, Confirm() as a Fluent dialog when modern controls are enabled, and theme copy-paste via YAML for reusing colors, typography, and styling tokens across apps.

Vibe Coding Enters Power Apps

Microsoft launched vibe.powerapps.com in preview. Describe what you want in plain language, and AI generates a full code app (React under the hood) with Dataverse tables, user stories, and a working front end.

I talked about this before, and my take hasn't changed: impressive for prototyping, but not ready for production. There is no version history, no undo, no ALM. And the same prompt twice gives you two different apps. But the fact that it exists inside Power Platform means every generated app automatically inherits Entra ID auth, DLP, and governance. That's the real value I see here.

Dataverse: Deleted Record Recovery

This one is useful. Restore Deleted Records hits GA in late April 2026. You can recover deleted table records (manual, automated, single, or bulk deletes) within a configurable window of up to 30 days. Available through the UI and APIs. If you've ever accidentally wiped test data or had a flow go rogue, this is your safety net.

The Thread Through All of This

If you zoom out, the pattern is clear. Microsoft is pushing hard on three fronts at the same time: modernizing the visual layer (Fluent 2 everywhere, modern controls as default), bolting on AI capabilities (MCP Server, Copilot Chat in model-driven apps, vibe coding), and tightening governance (managed environments, admin analytics, licensing controls).

For canvas developers, the good news: canvas apps aren't going anywhere. I’m saying this because the offline improvements, the modern controls work, the responsive layout features, are all getting real investment. The tools are getting better. And the parts that AI still can't generate well (complex YAML, responsive layouts, polished UI components), that's exactly where PowerLibs fits in.

If you want the full release plan, check learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/release-plan/2026wave1. And the Business Applications Update event on April 15 will demo most of this live.

Cheers,

Dennis