The Winter ’25 release is available through the pre-release program. On August 30, 2024, Sandboxes will be upgraded, providing your organization with the Winter ’25 release experience. 

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Set Up Your Pay Now Store Quickly and Easily

Use the streamlined automated setup to get your Pay Now store up and running effortlessly. The guided process walks you through each step needed to configure your store. This feature is available in Salesforce Payments for Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

How to Set Up:

  • From the Store page or the Commerce Setup Assistant, select the Pay Now tile.

Gain Insight into How User Permissions Are Granted

Simplify user management with visibility into the profiles, permission sets, and permission set groups that grant permissions to a user. The User Access Summary now provides detailed information about a user’s assigned object, field, user, and custom permissions. Previously, identifying the source of a user’s permissions required multiple steps, but now you can access this information with just a few clicks. This change applies to Lightning Experience in all editions.

How to Use:

  • In Setup, enter “Users” in the Quick Find box, select Users, choose a user, and then click View Summary.
  • To see how a specific permission was granted, click the row-level action, and select Access Granted By.

See How Object Access Is Granted in Object Manager

Quickly view the permission sets, permission set groups, and profiles that grant access to an object, along with the level of access provided. The read-only Object Access Summary in Object Manager allows for quick checks during troubleshooting, reviews, or when deciding how to grant user access. This update is available in Lightning Experience across all editions.

How to Access:

  • In Setup, navigate to Object Manager, select an object, and click Object Access in the sidebar.

Improve Performance for List Views on Custom and Standard Objects

To enhance performance and meet the latest accessibility standards, list views for both custom and standard objects now render using Lightning Web Components (LWC) instead of Aura. LWC, Salesforce’s latest framework, delivers data faster and enables new features for list views. Previously, only custom object list views in sandboxes used LWC. This update applies to Lightning Experience in all editions.

How to Use:

  • The list view pages for standard objects have been updated, but the overall functionality remains unchanged. The List Views dropdown menu now displays up to 100 lists, with options to search for specific lists at the top. Additional changes include updated icons, highlights, and navigation features within the Filters panel.

Configure Record Highlights in Lightning App Builder

Enhance your Lightning pages with the new Dynamic Highlights Panel, which lets you configure important fields directly within the Lightning App Builder. Previously, this was only possible through compact layouts in Setup. The Dynamic Highlights Panel can hold up to 12 fields and adjusts responsively to browser size. This feature is available in Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

How to Implement:

  • Drag the Dynamic Highlights Panel component onto the Lightning App Builder canvas, add fields to it, and adjust the Primary Field value if needed. You can also use visibility rules to manage field display.

Make Record Fields Stand Out with Conditional Formatting

Highlight key information on record pages using conditional formatting in Lightning App Builder. On Dynamic Forms-enabled pages, you can assign custom icons and colors to fields based on defined criteria, such as field values or other conditions on the page. This feature is available on a rolling basis starting in early September 2024 for Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

How to Use:

  • Open a Dynamic Forms-enabled record page in the Lightning App Builder, click the desired field on the canvas, and use the Conditional Formatting property in the field’s property panel to assign or create a ruleset.

Save Time with New Messaging Components for Enhanced Bots (Generally Available)

Empower customers and save service agents’ time with the new messaging components for enhanced bots. These include authentication, custom, form, and payment messaging components, which can handle more complex use cases on enhanced Apple Messages for Business channels. The form component is also available for Messaging for In-App and Web. These updates apply to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions, with bot setup available only in Lightning Experience.

How to Implement:

  • The new messaging components include:
    • Authentication: Verify customer identity.
    • Custom: Embed external apps in bot conversations.
    • Form: Gather customer information securely.
    • Payment: Process payments via Apple Pay.
  • These components are asynchronous, allowing customers to respond at their convenience.

Enhance Your LWR Site Experience by Curating Data Providers on a Page (Beta)

Enhance LWR site pages by adding and configuring data providers in Experience Builder. This feature allows you to access data from different sources, such as Apex or Record data providers, directly within your site page and its components. This change is available in Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer editions for LWR sites accessed through Lightning Experience. A community license is required to use this feature.

How to Use:

  • In Experience Builder, add and configure data providers on an LWR site page to pull in the necessary data for your components.Configuring Data Providers on an LWR Site Page

To configure data providers on an LWR Site page in Experience Builder:

  1. From the Pages menu, click Open Page Properties to access the Page Action menu.
  2. Select Page Settings.
  3. Click the Data (Beta) tab to enable or disable data providers.

Enabling or Disabling Modernized Record Experience in Aura Sites

You can now use upgraded record components based on Lightning web component technology to see stylistic changes in your Aura sites. These updates, previously limited to sandbox environments, are now available in production environments for the Create Record Form, Record Banner, and Record Detail components. This update is applicable to Aura sites accessed through Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

When you enable the Use Lightning web components on your record pages in Aura sites setting, the Create Record Form, Record Banner, and Record Detail components display minor style changes. Some key updates include:

  • Buttons are now center-aligned (previously right-aligned).
  • Text in the record window is indented relative to the title.
  • Required fields are now clearly indicated with an asterisk explanation and a red outline for empty fields.
  • Error messages appear at the bottom of the record form, rather than at the top.
  • Field focus is highlighted with a yellow background.
  • Page headers scroll with the page instead of remaining fixed.
  • Success messages are more descriptive, and new icons appear next to various fields.

Daily Summary of Service Appointments Requiring Immediate Attention

Boost dispatcher productivity by using Einstein Copilot Field Service actions to get a daily summary of service appointments needing immediate attention, such as those with rule violations, overlaps, SLA risks, or emergencies. Each category in the summary is converted into a filter in the appointment list for quick resolution. Customize the summary to include additional categories. This feature is available in Lightning Experience in the Einstein 1 Field Service Edition with the Field Service Managed Package installed.

To use this feature:

  1. Einstein Copilot is accessed through the Summarize Scheduling Issues standard copilot action.
  2. Dispatchers can ask Copilot to create a schedule summary.
  3. Copilot will generate the summary, create filters, and display appointments in the appointment list.

Assigning Opportunity Splits to Territories

Sales teams can now assign opportunity splits and opportunity product splits to territories, enabling them to report on how territories contribute to overall sales. Previously, splits could only be associated with the parent opportunity’s territory. Now, teams can also forecast based on split amounts across territories. This update applies to Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

To enable this feature:

  1. Add the Split Territory field to the opportunity split and opportunity product split multi-line page layouts.

Strategic Planning with Account Plan

Enhance your strategic planning with Account Plans by nurturing existing relationships and growing key accounts. Use Account Plans to research and analyze accounts, set objectives with actionable metrics, and monitor growth and development from a single repository within Salesforce. This feature applies to Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions and in Einstein 1 Sales Edition.

This feature will be rolled out to production environments after the Winter ’25 release and will be available to all customers by October 29, 2024. It is accessible in sandboxes only after its production release.

To use Account Plans:

  1. View opportunity details in the dashboard.
  2. Create a SWOT Analysis.
  3. Capture customer needs and market dynamics.
  4. Set clear, measurable objectives with metrics.
  5. Visualize key stakeholders with a relationship map.

Forecast Submissions

Forecast submissions allow sales reps and managers to capture a snapshot of their forecast at the time of submission, providing management with a clear view of the forecast’s accuracy over time. This feature is available in Lightning Experience in Professional and Developer editions and in Enterprise and Unlimited editions with Sales Cloud.

To enable this feature:

  1. Turn on Forecast Submissions on the Forecast Settings page in Setup.
  2. Sales reps and managers can submit and review forecasts using the icons in the forecast summary.

Expanding CMS Content Reach

Publish content to Aura site channels from enhanced CMS workspaces with the new Use non-enhanced APIs setting, which is enabled by default for Aura site channels. This allows you to continue using non-enhanced CMS Managed Content Resources with enhanced CMS workspaces without disruption. This update applies to Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

When using this setting:

  • Salesforce handles the connection between these resources for you.
  • If you’re already using enhanced CMS APIs, enabling this setting is unnecessary.

Monitoring Additional User Permissions

Ensure comprehensive insight into all your rollout activities with additional user permission metrics, including Retain Field History, View Real-time Event Monitoring Data, and more. This update enhances security by providing a consolidated view of users assigned specific permissions and notifying you of any changes. It applies to Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

To monitor user permission metrics:

  1. Access the Security Center landscape via the User category in Security Overview.

Integrating Knowledge with Data Cloud

Combine first and third-party knowledge in Data Cloud to improve generative AI features for Einstein for Service. This integration, which supports large-scale data, prepares Knowledge and Zoomin connectors for future enhancements. This update applies to Lightning Experience in Unlimited Edition and other editions with the Knowledge add-on license.

To integrate Knowledge with Data Cloud:

  1. In Data Cloud Setup, click Salesforce CRM and choose Standard Data Bundles.
  2. Select Service Cloud and either install or update the latest version of the Service data kit.

Automating Milestone Actions with Flow

Automate standard milestone actions through a flow to reduce manual work and improve service efficiency. Auto-trigger actions such as sending email alerts, updating records, or sending Slack notifications when milestones are completed, nearing violation, or violated. This update applies to Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions with Service Cloud.

To use this feature:

  1. Open the milestone from an entitlement process.
  2. Click Add Actions and select New Flow.
  3. Customize and activate the action in Flow Builder.

Additional Enhancements

  • Add the New Setup Domain: Ensure that Setup pages load correctly in Lightning Experience when browsers block third-party cookies by adding *.salesforce-setup.com to the allowlist.
  • Create and Verify Default No-Reply Organization-Wide Email Address: To comply with new email security standards, create and verify a default no-reply address by Winter ’25.
  • Verify Return Email Address for Sender Verification: By Spring ’25, ensure all users verify their email addresses in My Email Settings.
  • Sender ID Deprecated: Sender ID is no longer available in Email Deliverability settings, but existing integrations will continue to work.
  • Transfer Snowflake Data to CRM Analytics Using VPC on AWS: Gain insights by syncing Snowflake data to Data Manager using AWS VPC.
  • Download Data Sync Job Logs: Diagnose data sync issues faster by downloading detailed job logs from Data Manager.
  • Inline Edits with Enhanced User List View: View, sort, filter, and modify user records directly in the list view.
  • Manage Public Group Membership: Use the public group’s summary page to manage members more easily.
  • Add Descriptions for Public Groups and Queues: Provide descriptions when creating or editing public groups and queues.
  • Reference Multiple Picklist Values in Rules: Simplify configuration by referencing multiple picklist values in restriction and scoping rules.

 Here’s a summary of the updates:

  1. Streamlined State and Country Picklist Setup:
    • Improvement: Setup process for State and Country Picklists is simplified, reducing steps and automating the mapping of standard states and countries.
    • Applies to: Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and mobile apps across all editions.
  2. Entity History Records Restoration:
    • Improvement: Now possible to restore only the 20,000 most recent history records for deleted entities, enhancing database performance.
    • Applies to: Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.
  3. Selective Sandbox Access:
    • Improvement: New requirement to use a public group to provide access when creating or refreshing Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes, improving creation times, login experience, and security.
    • Applies to: All newly created or refreshed Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes. This will be gradually rolled out starting September 2024.
  4. Duplicate Prospect Records Tool:
    • Improvement: The Optimizer tool now includes a feature to find and merge duplicate prospect records.
    • Applies to: Account Engagement Advanced and Premium editions and Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Unlimited, and Performance editions.
  5. Retirement of Campaign Member Status Chart:
    • Change: The chart displaying Campaign Members by status will be retired with the Winter ’25 release, but the status remains available in the list view.
    • Applies to: Salesforce Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions.
  6. Manager Judgment Enhancement in Sales Forecasting:
    • Improvement: Judgment values now roll up across the entire forecast hierarchy, and these values are available in reports and dashboards.
    • Applies to: Lightning Experience in Professional, Developer, Enterprise, and Unlimited editions.
  7. Unified Knowledge Expansion:
    • Improvement: New connectors (Github, ServiceNow, Madcap Flare) for Unified Knowledge, enhancing integration and supporting Einstein for Service.
    • Applies to: Lightning Experience in Unlimited Edition and others with the Knowledge add-on license.

These changes aim to improve usability, performance, and security across various Salesforce features and editions.

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