Christmas is around the corner and Salesforce, in Santa’s costume, has brought what could possibly be the best of season’s gift for its ecosystem with Spring ‘23 release. This release is equally delicious like any of the Christmas delicacies. Before we let you taste it, let us call out important dates to mark in your calendars:
- December 15: Pre-release Org Sign-Up
- December 21: Release Notes Out
- January 6: Sandbox Preview Starts, Release Site ready & Release Module published on Trailhead
- January 10: Release Overview Deck & Feature Matrix
- January 13 – February 10: Release Weekends
- January 20 – February 27: Release Readiness Live
After going through hundreds of pages of release notes, we have cherry picked for you the top 20 features of Salesforce Spring ‘23 release. Enjoy them with your Christmas cake or pudding.
1. Let Customers Pick Their Own Meeting Times in Lightning Experience
Now your customers can choose their own convenient meeting times when scheduling a meeting with your reps. All that your reps have to do is click on “Add Scheduling Link” to the email when drafting it Salesforce Activity Composer. As simple as that! This enables reps to show availability on their Gmail or Outlook calendars and customers can choose a suitable slot. Moreover, you can add preferred times for the meeting also.
2. Stay Informed on Dashboard and Report Subscriptions
Get a clear view and one page summary of the reports and dashboards subscriptions in your org. It gives you key insights on which reports, dashboards users subscribed to, whether any and the kind of attachments sent in subscription email. Moreover, it shows who the receiver and subscriber are. Create a custom report type on “Analytic Notifications” and create a joined report on subscriptions that showcases the subscription run times and users who set them up, source, owner, running user, and schedule of subscriptions.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_rd_reports_report_on_subscriptions.htm&type=5&release=242
3. Learn Who Can Access Records and Why
“Sharing Hierarchy” quick action on the actions bar of an object’s record page gives you a crystal-clear view of who this record is shared with. Moreover, you will know the reason why a particular user has access to the record, be it though owner-based or criteria-based sharing rules or there is a restriction rule blocking the record access. Having key insights like these is crucial to securing your org’s record access.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_sharing_why_record_access.htm&type=5&release=242
4. Do More with Enhanced Contacts (Beta)
Enhanced Contacts (Beta) is a new feature that offers an upgraded Contacts experience. It will change the way you access Contact list views and record pages. Enhanced Contacts is mobile-first and is optimized for phone and tablet use. Users can easily look at recent contacts, access caller IDs, call and email efficiently using swipe actions. Moreover, users can import and export contacts (in bulk or one at a time) and scan business cards.
Why: Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_mobile_enhanced_contacts_beta.htm&type=5&release=242
5. Reduce Setup Complexity with a New Feature Panel
There is a brand-new control panel in setup to manage features in Salesforce mobile app for iOS and Android. It lists all the new features such as Enhanced Lightning Reports (GA), Enhanced Contacts (Beta) and Landscape Support on Phones (Beta) with a toggle for each to turn it on or off. It’s as simple as that. You can enable and try the features in Beta and turn it off if no longer required or do not find it useful. The latter is the rare case though!
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_mobile_feature_panel.htm&type=5&release=242
6. Take Action More Quickly in the Dynamic Activity Composer
Now you can take actions more quickly on a record with the Dynamic Activity Composer. It is far more advanced and feature-rich than tabbed Activity Composer what we have been using all along to send email, log a call, create a task or an event, etc. It gives users more choices when they click on the dropdown menu for an activity. For example, In the Email dropdown, user can choose which email address to use to send email in case of more than one addresses and set email preferences then and there itself.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_sales_productivity_activity_composer.htm&type=5&release=242
7. Configure Searchable Fields for Each User Profile (Beta)
Einstein Search is getting better and allowing you to better streamline search activities in your org. Now you can configure searchable fields for each user profile. Yes, you can have that level of granular control. In Search Manager, pick and choose the fields that you want users of a particular profile searchable or not searchable. For example, you can make sensitive and financial information related fields of Opportunity, Contract, etc. Not searchable for Customer Service or Support profile.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_search_configure_manager.htm&type=5&release=242
8. Create Personalized Report Filters
Personalized report filters feature is the one-size-fits-all solution for your team’s personalized reporting requirements. It allows you to configure the one and only dynamic report filter that displays results unique to each user. For example, you can create a single Opportunity report with Opportunity Owner dynamic filter for your sales team and Salesforce will show personalized results for each team member. Just click on “Use relative value” on the filter screen and add “$USER” value, then the filter will update to the logged-in user.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_rd_reports_relative_value_filter.htm&type=5&release=242
9. Stay Organized by Adding Reports and Dashboards to Collections
Collections is “de novo” in the Salesforce Analytics space to organize your reports and dashboards that you use the most. The beauty of Collections is that it lets you collate reports and dashboards from across folders thereby making it meaningful to keep a project/assignment related analytics together. That’s not it! You can pin, hide and share collections with others. Cool! To use Collections, enable “Unified Experience for Analytics Home” in Reports and Dashboards Settings in setup.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_rd_reports_collections.htm&type=5&release=242
10. Enhance Case and Lead Record Pages with Dynamic Forms
Dynamic Forms have finally made their way to Case and Lead standard objects. Now you can break Case and Lead record pages into tabs, sections, field sets and handle their visibility with dynamic conditions. Till now, this fabulous feature was only available on Account, Person Account, Contact, Opportunity and custom object record pages.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_lab_dynamic_form_enhancements.htm&type=5&release=242
11. Add Save Options to Accounts, Cases, and Leads with Dynamic Forms
Dynamic Forms now lets you add “Save”, “Save & New” and “Cancel” buttons, the ones that we see when on create/edit record modal, on Accounts, Case and Leads dynamic pages. This is available when you create, update, or clone a Case or Lead or when updating an Account. Along with these buttons, you can execute other functionality such as triggering of Account territory assignment rules or Lead, Case assignment rules. In the past, only page layout in setup had this option.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_lab_save_options.htm&type=5&release=242
12. Pin Important Content on the Right Side of Record Pages
There is a new Lightning Page Template in town! Pinned Right Sidebar (3 regions) template lets you create stunning object record pages which you can use to show specific and relevant information to your users. Example, if you add customer details and chats on the right side of the pages, it follows a consistent pattern and the support executives know where to quickly look for required information for verification when on call with customers. It helps reducing agent’s clicks and navigation around the app thereby saving time and let them be more productive.
13. Track External Services Limits
Get a visual representation of the external services limits in setup. A horizontal strip of five flat gauges, namely Total Registrations, Active Operations, Total Operations, Active Objects and Total Objects signify the current usage and maximum values for each per org limit. This representation is intuitive and quickly catches eye and draws attention towards rather than earlier text format representation.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_ext_services_track_limits.htm&type=5&release=242
14. Connect Salesforce to MuleSoft with Fewer Clicks
Setup has a new page this release! The brand-new “MuleSoft Services” page allows you to quickly log in to MuleSoft AnyPoint Platform. Once logged in, system automatically sets up necessary objects and settings for you and then you can import REST APIs from Anypoint Exchange as external services. Earlier, first you had to create a connected app in Mulesoft and other settings at bunch of different places. Now the process is smooth which has significantly reduced the time and effort required.
15. Plan for the Retirement of Setting Security Policies via Custom Attributes
We have made optimum use of Mobile Security Policies to impose stringent control on what the user can and cannot do in Salesforce mobile app. But, it’s time to say goodbye to Mobile Security Policies. From Winter ’24 release (October 2023), you won’t be able to set up any new security policies. You need to plan and have a strategy to migrate existing policies, if any, to the Mobile Security Setup UI at the earliest.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_mobile_security_policies.htm&type=5&release=242
16. Get the Play-by-Play with Field History Tracking for Activities
Field History Tracking is now available for Activities. You can track up to six fields each on Task or Event object. Once done, add Activity Record History component to Task or Event related list. Now you can track changes that happened to those field data over time. This is highly beneficial to track rescheduled customer meetings or changed due dates for tasks.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_sales_activity_field_history.htm&type=5&release=242
17. Define Email Preferences in the Activity Composer
Setting email preferences is not a daunting task anymore for your reps. They can do that easily on any record’s Activity Composer. Just click the dropdown for email activity and click “Set My Email Preferences. This feature saves the hassle and some clicks for them of going into My Settings and configuring the preferences there.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_sales_productivity_email_settings.htm&type=5&release=242
18. Monitor More My Domain Settings
My Domain being customizable has increased the possibilities of it likely be changed if need be. Earlier certain changes to My Domain were untraceable but now Setup Audit Trail has new events that track those changes. You can track if My Domain details are changed, a provisioned My Domain was cancelled or removal of earlier My Domain. Furthermore, when a new My Domain is deployed, the name is captured in the trail and whether Enhanced Domains are enabled.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_security_domains_monitor_settings.htm&type=5&release=242
19. Major Release Notification Emails Are Streamlined
Earlier, whenever a major release upgrade used to complete, the org admins used to get two emails, first with subject line “Release Is Live” and second with “Features Enabled”. Now the content of “Features Enabled” email are incorporated in the “Release Is Live” email itself reducing your incoming email notification by one! It’s small at individual level but meaningful change that will help Salesforce reduce large number of emails at scale.
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_general_release_emails_streamlined.htm&type=5&release=242
20. Log In with More Domain Formats
New login domain format alert! Enhanced domains and partitioned domains are new formats that can change the way you log into Salesforce org or customers, partners to your sites. change the format of the login URLs for your Salesforce org and your sites. Furthermore, when you choose custom domain option on login.salesforce.com, the autocomplete function lets you save some keyboard key strokes by completing the remaining portion of the domain. Suppose you are using custom domain option on test.salesforce.com and enter yourcompany–dev.sa, the autocomplete kicks in and completes it with yourcompany–dev.sandbox.my.salesforce.com
Reference URL: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_general_login_more_domains.htm&type=5&release=242
These were the sweetest features of Salesforce Spring ‘23 release. Watch out this space for subsequent blogs from our Spring ‘23 features blog series. Till then, have yourself a Merry Little Christmas and a Happy New Year!
