What Are the Releases of Salesforce?

As a leading cloud-based platform, Salesforce continually enhances its features and functionality through regular salesforce releases. These updates, known as “Salesforce releases“, are rolled out three times a year: Spring, Summer, and Winter. Each release brings new capabilities to the Salesforce platform, ensuring it remains innovative and user-friendly.

Dates and Preview Information

Mark your calendars! The release schedule is consistent, with Spring arriving in March, Summer in June, and Winter in November. Salesforce provides a pre-release environment, allowing users to explore upcoming features before the official rollout. Staying informed about these dates ensures your team can adapt swiftly to the changes and make the most of new functionalities.

In 2023, Salesforce announced three major releases:

Spring ’23 Release: This release became generally available on February 13, 2023​​.

Summer ’23 Release: The key dates for this release started on May 14th, 2023, with various stages including preview notes availability on April 26 and sandbox upgrades on May 4 & 5​​​​.

Winter ’23 Release: This release was available on October 17, 2022​​.

What Will You Need to Be Ready?

To prepare for Salesforce releases, it’s essential to understand the specific upgrades each release brings. Here’s a breakdown:

Spring '23 Release Features

Spring ’23 Release Features

Spring ’23 Release Features:

Account Discovery: A dashboard built on CRM Analytics, providing AI-driven health and upside scores to identify accounts at risk and with potential.

WhatsApp Business Messaging: Direct integration for Salesforce customers to connect and build messaging experiences on WhatsApp.

Salesforce Contact Center: Includes Einstein Conversation Insights and Shift Scheduling for effective agent scheduling and onboarding.

Quick Promotion Setup: A streamlined setup experience for Loyalty Management users for promotions.

Automotive Cloud Intelligence: Pre-built KPIs and dashboards within Automotive Cloud, powered by AI insights for deeper analysis of automotive lead performance and sales.

Service Process Automation: Financial services firms can deploy automated processes for common service requests and make API calls to third-party systems with High-Performance Integrations​​.

Summer '23 Release Features

Summer ’23 Release Features

Summer ’23 Release Features:

Choice Lookup Component: Now generally available, allowing the display of choices in a lookup format.

Search Bar in Data Table: Addition of a search bar and increased row limit in tables.

Structured Data for Rich Search Results: Use of structured data to dynamically update meta tags for richer search results.

Reactive Screen Components Supporting Formulas: Enhanced screen component reactivity to user actions.

Interruptible Long-Running Work Items: Designating work items as interruptible for customer agents to handle time-sensitive tasks.

Improved Send Email Core Action: Enhanced email-sending capabilities using templates.

Guidance for Mobile Workers: Personalized actions for mobile workers on site.

Process Builder Creation Disabled: No new Process Builder creation post-release.

Access Rules for Apex Classes in Flows: No explicit access requirement for Apex classes triggered by flows.

Content Sniffing Protection: Enhanced security for external content access​​.

Winter '23 Release Features

Winter ’23 Release Features

Winter ’23 Release Features:

Dynamic Forms Enhancements: Available for key objects like Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities, allowing more flexibility in display​.

Dynamic Related List Filters: Ability to filter by multiple picklist values​​.

Custom Address Fields Creation: Mimics standard address field behavior for improved data accuracy​​.

DevOps Center: Change and release management with an easy interface for metadata movement between organs​​.

Broadcast Communication: Mass communication for Service Cloud and Experience Cloud customers during incidents​​.

Flow Builder Updates: Enhanced features like Cut-and-Paste flow elements and Formula Builder for flow resources​​.

In and Not In Operators in Flows: Efficiently find related records, reducing Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) query usage​​.

Launch Screen Flows with Lightning Web Components: Embedding screen flows in Lightning Web Components for improved functionality​​.

Multicolumn Screens and Picklist Filtering: Better organization and filtering of record fields and screen components​​​​.

Scheduled Path Time Offsets and Flow Testing: More options for scheduling and testing record-triggered flows​​.
To effectively navigate these updates, it’s crucial to:

Stay Informed: Keep abreast of release dates and features.

Test Features in Sandbox: Utilize the sandbox environment for testing.

Train Your Team: Ensure your team is well-versed with new features.

Seek Expert Guidance: Contact us, Xentric 360, your trusted Salesforce partner, for support in adapting to these changes.

At Xentric 360, we are dedicated to guiding you through each upgrade and release, ensuring you experience a smooth transition and fully utilize all new features. As you move forward in your Salesforce journey, let us, as a trusted Salesforce partner, be your faithful navigator. Contact Xentric 360 to take full advantage of Salesforce’s capabilities and stay ahead of the curve on this ever-advancing platform.