Every year, Salesforce releases three major updates to its platform. The Winter, Spring, and Summer releases are planned far in advance, and they follow a strict schedule. Because of this, all users have adequate time to prepare and test for a seamless release. With the Spring 2020 release approaching quickly, here is everything you need to know to prepare yourself:

When Will I Get The Release?

The release date for Spring ‘20 will be determined by your Salesforce Instance. If you want to check your specific date, follow these steps:

1. Go to trust.salesforce.com
2. Click on Status
3. Enter your instance, domain, or MID
4. Click on Maintenances
5. Look for “Spring ’20 Major Release” in the Subject column to find your date

How Can I Preview The Release In Advance?

 If you want to do a bit of testing (highly recommended) before the big update, you can have your Sandbox upgraded in advance. For this, there are two Sandbox release windows – January 3/4th and February 14/15th. The date your Sandbox is updated depends on whether you have a “Preview” instance or a “Non-Preview” instance. You can check this by following this guide by Salesforce. If you can, we highly recommend previewing the Spring ’20 release to check for compatibility and to make the transition as easy as possible.

Where Can I Read The Release Notes?

The Spring ‘20 release notes and details surrounding the update can be found in a variety of different formats:

• Interactive Spring ’20 Release Notes
• PDF Spring ’20 Release Notes
• YouTube Videos on Spring ’20 Release

Spring ‘20 Highlighted

Release notes can be long intimidating, so we’ve simplified some of the major updates here.

Note: While this summary will be helpful, we still recommend checking out the full release notes when you have time or using them as a reference for your organization.

General Updates

• Lightning Experience will be turned on for all orgs that don’t have it already enabled
• Ability to empty the Lightning recycling bin in one step
• View, restore, and delete reports and dashboards in the recycling bin without switching to Classic
• Lightning Experience App Launcher improvements – top apps and search available
• Lightning extension for Chrome generally available
• Access multiple Salesforce sites with one login through Trailblazer.me
• Clone objects with their related records with “Clone with Related” button

Einstein

• Einstein Voice Assistant Beta allows logging events, creating contacts, and updating opportunities via voice command
• Sales Cloud Updates
  • Simplified data requirements for several features means easier access to meaningful sales intelligence without as much data required (for Einstein Forecasting, Opportunity Insights, Opportunity Scoring, and Automated Contacts)
• Service Cloud Updates
  • Einstein article recommendations now generally available
  • Chat reply recommendation pilot – select from several suggested chat replies when working with customers
  • Conditional Messaging improves chatbot intelligent responses
  • Conversation Repair identifies and suggests corrections for incorrectly formatted chat input or routes the customer to a live support agent
  • Improved bot training resources
  • Chatbot typing indicator available
  • Einstein Bots integration with WhatsApp
• Analytics Updates
  • Include external data to improve live prediction scoring
  • What Could Happen insights replaces Predictions & Improvements and allows “What if” simulations to be run on rows of data
  • Every time users update stories, Einstein saves a snapshot of the older version
  • XGBoost added as a prediction model in addition to regression and GBM. When you create a story, Einstein now generated predictions using three models
• Industries Updates
  • Einstein Referral Scoring now generally available
• Customization Updates
  • Einstein Prediction Builder trial available free of cost
  • Use filters in Einstein Prediction Builder
  • Show top predictors on records in Einstein Prediction Builder
  • Analyze Next Best Action effectiveness
  • Launch flows when recommendations are rejected

Sales

• Sales Cadence Builder functionality expanded – branch based on emails, send emails automatically, and preview linked sales cadences
• Schedule emails in High Velocity Sales to increase open rates
• Einstein Opportunity Scoring now available for all Sales Cloud users
• Improved Gmail integration
• Outlook integration no longer requires Exchange Web Service
• Assign tasks to shared queues

Service

• Field Service variable shifts available and back-to-back appointment assignments available
• Shortcodes for messaging in Channels
• Authors can compare Knowledge article versions
• Hover over a case in the list view to preview, edit, or delete 

Commerce

• Salesforce Order Management generally available – build and automate processes to manage the order lifecycle

Analytics

• Turn off automatic preview updates to make more changes to reports without waiting for them to refresh
• Count unique values in report results

Communities

• Report Builder generally available
• Flexible layouts through drag and drop customization
• ExperienceBundle metadata type generally available
• Use Chatter REST API and Metadata API to create audiences and assign them to targets 
• Guest user access setting
• Apple ID login
• Text message ID verification

Mobile

• All mobile app users will be upgraded to the new Salesforce mobile app

Industries

• Consumer Goods Cloud optimized visit sequences and stock level monitoring

myTrailhead

• Trailmaker redesigned interface
• Create a subdomain and namespace when your company signs up for myTrailhead

Customization

• Lightning Flow: developers can create Apex actions for any object
• Einstein Prediction Builder: build 10 predictions and enable 1 for free

Development

• Lightning Web Components: all fields now reactive
• Einstein Platform Services: image recognition and natural language processing APIs
• No maximum daily cap for API calls in Enterprise and Professional

…and much more!

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Salesforce Release Notes are always long and can be overwhelming. If you need help understanding the upcoming changes, the team at Ntegro is here for you! If you have a question or need a point clarified, we can guide you through the changes to help you prepare for the release. Contact us online to set up a consultation!

Are you excited about the Spring ‘20 Release? What features are you looking forward to most? Comment below to share your opinions!