What are tooltips used for in Power BI?

Tooltips are a powerful feature in Power BI that enhance user experience by offering additional context when a user hovers over elements in a visual. When integrated into reports, tooltips display supplementary information such as metrics, comparisons, or detailed descriptions that may not be immediately visible in the base visual. This functionality helps users gain deeper insights into the data without needing to click into new pages or navigate away from their current view.

For instance, if a user hovers over a bar in a bar chart, a tooltip might show not only the value of that bar but also related statistics, trends, or percentages which can be pivotal for analysis. This makes it easier for users to grasp complex data relationships quickly and encourages more interactive engagement with the dashboard.

The other options do not accurately represent the purpose of tooltips. Permanently changing visual colors pertains to formatting options, creating new datasets involves data transformation and management tasks, and restricting data access relates to security and permissions within Power BI, none of which involve the dynamic display of information that tooltips provide.