Top New Features in Spring ’24 Release: Salesforce Platform in Lightning

To all the Salesforce enthusiasts, we’re excited to share the latest enhancements, features, and modifications rolled out on the Salesforce Lightning Platform. The top new Salesforce features in Spring ’24 introduced a range of updates, including enhanced user interface, record accessibility, increased field visibility, and customized research functions. This blog post highlights critical updates across various product areas that will elevate your Salesforce Lightning journey. Let’s dive right in. For a broader view of Salesforce’s evolution, you can also explore highlights from the Salesforce Lightning Platform Features in Summer ’23 Release to compare previous enhancements with Spring ’24.

Regardless of your role within the Salesforce ecosystem—developer, administrator, or end-user—these updates equip you with the necessary enhancements to increase productivity and simplify your operational procedures significantly. We encourage you to prepare for an insightful journey through the newest additions to the Salesforce Lightning Platform.

1 . Allow the New Setup Domain

To maintain continuous access to Salesforce Setup, it is important to add *.salesforce-setup.com to your approved website list. This is where you’ll find all the Setup pages for Salesforce from now on.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in all editions.

2. MFA Is Turned On by Default Starting April 2024

Contractual requirements, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), can be tiresome, but Salesforce won’t compromise customers’ data security. That’s why SF has made an MFA a default part of the direct login process for production org. This prevents any unauthorized access to Salesforce accounts. Productions orgs created on or after April 8, 2024, can be availed of this update. The existing orgs that weren’t included in MFA auto-enablement phases will also be enabled in this update. However, this change will not affect sandbox organizations and those under trial until they switch to a subscription.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and all Salesforce mobile apps in all editions.

Procedure:

• Users must confirm their identity twice when an organization enables multi-factor authentication (MFA).
• First, users log in with a username and password, then with other methods such as an authenticator app, a security key, or built-in authenticators. Users are shown how to set up this second step the first time they log in.
• For the first 30 days after MFA is enabled, users can still log in without it if they need to set up the second verification method.
• If necessary, a Salesforce admin can temporarily turn off MFA by changing a system setting. But remember, the contract requires MFA, so it should be turned back on as soon as possible.

3. Migrate Even More Processes with the Updated Migrate to Flow Tool

The ‘Migrate to Flow’ tool now supports partial migration for most actions. At the very least, you can partially migrate all activities except for those that are invocable. The migration results will highlight any actions needing further setup in Flow Builder to complete your migration.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

Procedure:

• Starting in Setup, locate ‘Migrate to Flow’ in the Quick Find box and select it.
• Choose the process you need to convert into a flow, then hit ‘Migrate to Flow’ and Choose the criteria for migration (1).
• The Migrateable column will show if the process can be partially migrated (2).
• Click ‘Migrate to Flow’ again. Once the migration is complete, click ‘Needs Review’ to see if any actions need further Setup.

4. Get Notified Before Deleting Permission Sets Assigned to Users

If you remove a permission set in a set group assigned to users, an error message will appear. You can delete the permission sets that are not directly assigned to users or through a Permission set group. This action wasn’t restricted in the past, which allowed users to be assigned to empty permission set groups without enabled permissions.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Contact Manager, Group, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, Developer, and Database.com editions.

5. Reference Picklists, Groups, and Queues in User Access Policies

Now, it’s simpler to automate user assignments to package licenses, permission sets, and other access mechanisms as you can refer to user picklist fields, groups, and queues in your policy’s user criteria filters. The user interface has been improved for easier and faster policy creation and management. This feature, which is still being tested, will be available in Spring ’24.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise and Unlimited editions.

Procedure:

• To switch on user access policies, go to Setup and type ‘User Management Settings’ in the Quick Find box, then select it.
• From there, activate User Access Policies (Beta). The upgraded user interface is automatically turned on, but if needed, you can turn off the Enhanced Interface for User Access Policies (Beta) setting.
• To create or manage your user access policies, navigate to Setup, input ‘User Access Policies’ in the Quick Find box, and then choose User Access Policies.

6. Experience Improved Performance on More Record Home Pages

In Spring ’24, Salesforce expanded the number of objects that can use Lightning Web Components (LWC). This allows you to build, view, or modify the record home pages with enhanced speed, superior accessibility features, and improved service reliability.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience and the Salesforce mobile app. This change doesn’t apply to the Field Service mobile app.

Procedure:

• Lightning Web Components (LWC) were enabled for over 120 objects.
• This includes AdverseEventAction, IssuedCard, ResearchStudy, and Visit, among others.

Please refer to the Lightning Web Components Developer Guide for a comprehensive list.

Curious how real businesses are benefiting from Lightning Web Components? Explore our Visualforce to Lightning Web Components migration journey to see how performance and user experience were dramatically improved.

7. Resolve and Deflect Issues with Einstein Search Answers

Simply input your Query into the global search bar, sidebar, or an Experience site. Search Answers will find the best answer from your articles. AI-Generated Search Answers will create a brief, personalized response based on articles and other sources. With the General Availability (GA) release, pilot customers using Search Answers need the proper SKUs and must turn Search Answers back on to use it.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience, Lightning Knowledge, and Salesforce Experience Sites (LWR or Aura) in Service Cloud Unlimited Edition with Lightning Knowledge enabled.

Procedure:

• Go to Settings and pick the search options you want to enable.
• Enabling AI-Generated Search Answers will automatically select Search Answers.
• Remember that it might take up to a day for the activation process to complete.
• Also, both agents and self-service users are encouraged to rate the responses using the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons to provide valuable feedback.

8. Define Rules to Filter Search Results Shown to End Users

You can now make search results better and less cluttered by adding field rules in your Search Manager. You can use these rules for global search and searches in LWR Experience sites for Experience Cloud, and the Lightning Knowledge part in the Service Console. 

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience in Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

9. Customize the Search Experience for Global Search, LWR Experience Sites, and the Lightning Knowledge Component

Customize the search function to better suit your users and give them personalized results. For example, you can set up one type of search for your customers on Lightning Web Runtime (LWR) Experience sites for Experience Cloud. And for your agents using the Lightning Knowledge tool in the Service Console, you can set up an informative research.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience in Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

10. Add Fields from Related Objects to Dynamic Forms-Enabled Pages

The component palette in the Lightning App Builder will now show relationship fields, and you can access fields from related objects. Simply by dragging cross-object fields onto your record page, you can see relevant data form related objects.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience in Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

Procedure:

• Salesforce enhanced the Lightning App Builder UI interface to navigate relationship fields easily.
• On the Fields tab, you’ll notice a breadcrumb trail at the top showing the areas you’ve explored.
• The initial breadcrumb represents the object linked to your page. Fields with cross-object relationships are marked with an arrow icon (>). You can drag these directly onto your page or click the arrow icon to delve deeper.
• When you select a cross-object field on the canvas, a new Object property shows the relationship of the field to the base object associated with the Lightning page.
• Please note that you can dive down two levels deep. However, polymorphic relationship fields (where the related object could be one of the various object types) are not supported as cross-object fields in the Lightning App Builder.

11. Set Field Visibility by Device in Dynamic Forms

Previously, visibility rules based on device form factor could be set only for Field Sections and other components, not individual fields. Now, Salesforce has taken customization to a new level; you can fine-tune your desktop and mobile Lightning record pages by setting field visibility according to the device form factor, be it desktop or phone. This gives you more specific control over what is visible on different devices.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience in Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

Procedure:

• In the Lightning App Builder, on a page where Dynamic Forms are enabled, choose a field on the canvas.
• Then, create a visibility rule filter in the properties area using the Device context. This allows you to set the field to show only when its page is viewed on a specific device, leading to easy page customization.

12. Get a Full View of Account Health with the Account Intelligence View

With the Account Intelligence view, you can now keep track of account activity, evaluate opportunity metrics, examine cases, and record activities all in one convenient location. This is a significant upgrade from the previous account home page, which only offered a basic list view and required users to visit each record individually to access data on opportunities, activities, or cases.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience in Professional, Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions with Sales Cloud.

The Account Intelligence view offers a streamlined way to sift through accounts swiftly (1), providing key statistics, such as the total value of open opportunities and the upcoming close date for the records you’ve filtered (2). For a more in-depth look at each record’s activity, opportunity, and case data, click on the side panel icon next to the record name (3). This side panel allows you to switch between viewing activity data or related records (4) or logging activity (5) without leaving the Intelligence view.

Procedure:

• To access the Account Intelligence view, navigate to the account home page and select ‘Intelligence View.’
• If you wish to return to the classic list view, click ‘List View.’ For those new to Salesforce, you’ll find that the Account Intelligence View is already set as the default view on your account home page.

Conclusion:

With the Spring ’24 release, it is clear that Salesforce will continue to push the boundaries of innovation and provide businesses with the tools they need to succeed in a constantly changing marketplace.

Talk to our team of experts and discover how the newest Salesforce Spring ’24 features can transform your business with LevelShift! Need help applying these new Salesforce features across your organization? Our Salesforce Implementation Services team can assist with end-to-end setup, migration, and platform optimization to ensure maximum ROI.