Spring ’26 is here, bringing another wave of Salesforce updates with AI, analytics, automation and data remaining front and centre. With staggered production releases already underway, knowing what matters is key. This post synthesises some of the most useful Spring ’26 coverage to date from across the community, highlighting themes and updates worth your time.
What is the Community Flagging?
So, what are the main themes being called out across the community? Based on a review of several sources (see Further Reading), these are the Spring ’26 updates which stood out most:
- AI-assisted setup. Spring ’26 continues to focus on agentic experiences for admins and developers, such as Setup with Agentforce (Beta), Agentforce Builder (Beta) and Agent Script (Beta). This signals a sustained drive towards AI-supported configuration and development.
- Salesforce Files. Stronger controls for file deletion, increased file size limits, the introduction of malware screening and being able to trigger flows on Content Document/Content Version records, all point towards a more mature approach towards file management across the platform.
- Flow enhancements. Improvements across screen design, interaction patterns and canvas usability, such as: launching flows via URL, richer data table experiences (sort columns and edit certain field types), read-only Kanban boards, embedded analytics and collapsible branching elements. These changes further Flow’s capabilities as the primary tool for building tailored automation.
- Trust and platform transparency. Salesforce is rebranding ‘Personalized Trust’ to ‘My Trust Center’. This offers tailored notifications, clearer visibility of incidents and maintenance history and wider context for each org (e.g. location, myDomain details, etc). These updates provide a richer Trust site experience.
- Platform Security. Spring ’26 continues the clear trend towards tighter security and improved visibility. This includes disabling the ability to create local Connected Apps, a new simplified Shield App and enhancements to Health Check (more signals and enabling notifications).
Worth a Quick Look
In addition to the themes above, here are a few other Spring ’26 updates worth being aware of:
- Agentforce Lead Nurturing. Improvements to setup, lead assignment via list views (up to 200 records at a time), and sending on behalf of the record owner make Agentforce Lead Nurturing easier to activate and scale.
- Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) and Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI). As covered previously, EAC is targeted to be stored natively on the platform, with supporting tooling now available. ECI is expected to follow, with ECI migration beginning in Summer ’26. This makes both datasets easier to use across reporting and automation, but also introduces additional governance and storage considerations (see The Penguin Take).
- Case management enhancements. Updates such as the consolidated case timeline (available with Industries Service Excellence), automated milestone pausing and resumption, and role-based case summaries are designed to help service teams work more efficiently while delivering more contextual, empathetic support.
- Dark Mode (Beta). As part of SLDS 2, Dark Mode continues to roll out across more editions (including, Professional, Enterprise and Developer), offering greater flexibility in how teams use the UI and, where appropriate, improving readability and accessibility.
- Apex Cursors for expanded SOQL query results. Apex cursors, when used with Queueable Apex, provide a flexible alternative to Batch Apex, by enabling large result sets to be processed incrementally, whilst helping to remain within governor limits.
- Analytics enhancements. Smaller but useful updates to Reports and Dashboards. The ability to share Report and Dashboard folders via username helps in large orgs (avoid accidentally sharing with the wrong team member!). Additional flexibility over export Report disclaimers also helps with compliance and regulatory requirements. Support for custom LWCs on dashboards enables more flexible presentation of insights.
Watch Out
Alongside new capabilities, major Salesforce releases are also key milestones for Release Updates. These are upcoming or enforced changes that may require action to avoid disruption, often relating to accessibility, performance, security, or feature retirements. This section isn’t exhaustive, but highlights some of the more notable items to be aware of.
| Release | Number of Updates | Key Areas Impacted |
|---|---|---|
| Spring '26 (Upcoming) | 2 | Visualforce, My Domain (redirects) |
| Summer '26 | 6 | Accessibility, SAML, X (Twitter) Authentication, Instanced API Traffic redirects, Apex (PDF Rendering) |
| Winter '27 | 2 | Email Change Verifications & Accessibility |
| Spring '27 | 2 | Salesforce to Salesforce, Apex (Sharing Recalculations) |
| Summer '27 | 1 | SOAP API login() 31.0-64.0 retirement |
Spring ’26 includes only two Release Updates, both with a security focus: enforcing stricter controls to help prevent cross-site scripting on Visualforce pages, and changes relating to legacy (non-enhanced) Salesforce domain redirects.
Looking further ahead, Summer ’26 introduces a number of updates, with the most impactful for many orgs likely to be changes to supported SAML frameworks used in SSO and the end of support for API traffic using instanced URLs (which should be routed via myDomain instead).
Feature Retirements
In addition to the Release Updates, there are several notable feature retirements on the horizon:
- Open CTI, a common and long-standing framework for telephony integration into Salesforce, has been deprecated and is scheduled for retirement on the 28th of February 2028.
- Salesforce to Salesforce is on a phased retirement. It is no longer available for enablement from Spring ’26, with support ending in Summer ’26 and full retirement scheduled for Spring ’27.
- Unified Knowledge, used for integrating third-party knowledge from disparate third-party systems into Salesforce, is being retired in Summer ’26.
The Penguin Take 🐧
So, having reflected on Spring ’26, what are my main takeaways? Here are six themes that stood out to me.
1. Agentforce is becoming increasingly baked into the platform.
This isn’t a surprise, but it is important to acknowledge. Salesforce is continuing to embed and refine Agentforce capabilities, spanning end-user productivity (such as Agentforce Lead Nurturing and role-based Case summaries) and admin and developer experiences (including Setup with Agentforce, Agentforce Builder, and Agent Script).
One area that will likely continue to evolve is how Agentforce is metered. Some capabilities, such as Get More Accurate Draft Flows (GA), explicitly state that they do not consume AI credits. As Agentforce capabilities expand and more customers seek to explore these features, clear guidance on what is metered versus unmetered will be essential.
Overall, the direction is clear: Salesforce is positioning Agentforce as an increasingly integral part of the platform. Setup with Agentforce, in particular, feels like a strong example of this shift, and highlights the potential to address long-standing feedback around setup complexity discussed at Dreamforce.
2. Data 360 is continuing to reshape the Salesforce landscape.
My summary above does not explicitly call out Data 360, but that does not mean it isn’t a key factor in this release. For example, within Feature Retirements, both Salesforce to Salesforce and Unified Knowledge reference Data Cloud / Data 360 as an alternative (or preferred) solution.
Beyond retirements, Data 360 is increasingly referenced across monitoring capabilities and other offerings, such as Marketing Cloud Next. Features are also being introduced to make Data 360 adoption easier, such as Ready-to-Use Data Lake Objects. Together, these highlight the long-term strategic role of Data 360 in reshaping the Salesforce platform, both by reimagining existing tooling and by powering future capabilities.
3. EAC and ECI are useful changes, but require planning.
The changes to Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) and Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI) are significant and, overall, likely to be positive. Storing this data natively on the platform will make it far more accessible across core capabilities such as reporting and automation. However, this shift does require careful planning.
Moving EAC and ECI data onto the platform brings new considerations around storage consumption and data access controls. In addition, migration away from existing tooling, such as Activity 360 Reporting, Activity Metrics, and the Activities Analytics Dashboard will need to be managed carefully to avoid disruption.
Taken together, these changes can unlock long-term value. That said, to realise the benefits, teams should plan early to understand the trade-offs and avoid unexpected costs or governance challenges.
4. It's time to talk: Open CTI and Service Cloud Voice.
The upcoming retirement of Open CTI represents a significant change for many organisations. While Service Cloud Voice has been available for several years, Open CTI has existed far longer and remains deeply embedded in many telephony integrations across the ecosystem.
Service Cloud Voice offers clear functional and architectural advantages; particularly given how closely it works with OmniChannel and Agentforce. However, the transition from Open CTI should not be underestimated. Organisations relying on Open CTI would be well served to begin planning their migration well ahead of 28 February 2028, when Open CTI is scheduled to reach end of life and cease functioning.
5. Time to get creative: aesthetics and technical competency.
A recent guest post by Dorian Sabitov explored how the role of Salesforce admins continues to evolve, and Spring ’26 reinforces that shift. Screen flow enhancements now offer significantly more control over the look and feel of the platform, building on themes highlighted at TrailblazerDX last year.
However, as the adage goes, with great power comes great responsibility. While this additional declarative flexibility is a clear positive, it also introduces risk if not applied thoughtfully. Teams will need to establish design patterns and guardrails to maintain consistency, usability, and a user-centric experience. This is particularly true in larger orgs or where multiple team members look after the system, as divergence could quickly occur.
As a result, Salesforce professionals may increasingly benefit from strengthening their UX skills. Exploring the UX Designer certification is one way to help balance the technical capability to build flows with the principles of good design and user experience.
6. Further tightening security.
Security has always been central to Salesforce’s value of Trust. However, following incidents last year where malicious actors exploited connected apps through social engineering, alongside wider industry pressure to harden platforms more widely, Spring ’26 shows clear signals of a continued and more assertive response.
Changes such as restrictions on Connected Apps and upcoming updates to certificate management, including: shorter certificate lifespans, Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS), and Salesforce’s move from DigiCert G1 to G2 may be disruptive in the short term. However, they collectively strengthen the platform’s security posture. To navigate this effectively, Salesforce teams will benefit from closer collaboration with IT and Security teams, particularly where identity, certificates, and integrations are involved.
Alongside this, the introduction of file malware scanning is a meaningful security enhancement. While the capability remains in beta and Salesforce notes that third-party scanning solutions may still be appropriate in some scenarios, it represents an important step in helping protect orgs that receive files from outside their trust boundary.
Summary
Spring ’26 is an important release for several reasons. Whilst there is arguably no clear ‘single’ feature which stands out, they collectively signal the long-term direction of the platform, particularly around Agentforce, Data 360, Flow and security.
Many of these changes have the potential to unlock meaningful value. However, maximising that value will require a clear architectural view and strong design-thinking discipline. Spring ’26 therefore encourages teams to look beyond immediate feature adoption and rethink existing processes to align with where the platform is heading over the longer term.
Thanks for reading! I hope this post has helped. It would be great to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, thanks for reading! 🐧
Further Reading
If the above has whetted your interest in Spring ’26 and you want to dive deeper, the following resources are well worth exploring. These are some of the sources I used to help inform this post.
Official Salesforce Resources
- Salesforce Spring ’26 Release Notes: The full release notes… all 882 pages! Always take a look to see if there is anything relevant to your own org.
- Salesforce News & Highlights: High-level overview across multiple clouds; strong focus on Agentforce features.
- Salesforce Admins: Admin focused highlights by Jennifer Lee.
- Salesforce Developers: Developer focused guide by Mohith Shrivastava.
- Spring ’26 Release Overview Deck: Official slide deck for Spring ’26.
Community Resources
- Apex Hours: Covers Spring ’26 for Admins and providing deeper analysis into changes for Flow and the new Apex Cursors feature.
- Salesforce Ben. Extensive coverage of Spring ’26 from a variety of perspectives and clouds (linked post is for Admins).
- Salesforce Break. Very strong coverage of Flow enhancements and examples of features.
- SFXD Wiki: A concise and critical take on the Spring ’26 release notes.
Bonus Penguin Fact 🐧
Time for a little bit of chemistry… have you heard of C10H14O before? I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t! This is an organic compound called Penguinone. This interestingly named compound gained its name due to its two-dimensional structure looking like a penguin. Why not take a look and let me know your thoughts!
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Hello Richard,
I enjoyed reading this post. Im excited to learn more about SFDC and its architectural value through that same discipline. I have to say I am a bit indecisive about the (Dark Mode UI) for Salesforce. I feel it will cause a bit of distraction from what Salesforce is (Classic) & (Lightning).. only a beta, more results to come through that.
Glad to see the new Kan-ban view in flow and MyTrust for User Security !!!
Again enjoyed reading this post and learning more through the slides. Please keep this up and showcase the features being implemented and retired. It goes a long way for everyone viewing and taking on newer roles in the ecosystem.
All the best,
Ramit Lal
Hi Ramit, thank you for your reply – it is greatly appreciated!
I’m glad to hear you found the content helpful. Great points around dark mode, Kanban and My Trust Center too. It’ll be interesting to see how each of these develop in the coming releases. Please keep an eye out for future posts!
Thanks again,
Richard