Microsoft Visio for macOS

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Let me start by saying that at the time of writing this blog, there is no official Microsoft Visio application for macOS devices. So does that mean macOS users cannot use Visio at all? Luckily, there is a way.

Microsoft has a web\browser version of Visio that is light weight that doesn't require any installation and can be used on multiple OS platforms, including macOS. The web version has the url Visio.office.com. Now, there are multiple ways of making the web url available to end users on macOS. If you are using Intune to manage the macOS devices, then you can use Web clips to achieve this very task. It aligns with managed apps framework and easy to manage.

A quick word on Web clips - As per the conventional definition, a web clip is nothing but a a web app which normally functions as a client-server application. The server provides the web app, which includes the UI, content, and functionality. Intune supports a variety of app types, including web apps and in case of macOS, Intune creates a shortcut of the web app which gets pinned to the dock.

Here is how you can quickly set this up in Intune -

2. Browse to Apps – macOS.
3. Click Add
4. Select App type as Web application macOS web clip as shown below -


5. Populate the relevant details, especially the URL for Visio - https://visio.office.com, as shown below -


6. Assign as required and\or make it available for the enrolled macOS devices.

End user experience

On the next device sync, the Visio web clip should automatically install. If made available, then the end user can initiate the installation from the Company Portal themselves. And yes, applications deployed as available will require Company Portal to be installed. :-)


After the installation, the Visio web clip will pin to the dock.


On running the web clip, the URL will launch in Safari. If you have SSO setup, then the authentication should happen automatically. You can refer to my earlier posts on setting up SSO for macOS devices. Note: The user will need be licensed to be able to use Visio.


Compliance can be checked on Intune as well.

That is it. An installed version of Visio for macOS would have been nice, but until that happens, web app is a perfectly reasonable alternative. Strictly in my opinion of course. Until next time..

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