Salesforce Summer ‘25 Release: Everything You Need to Know Before Go-Live

After much ado over a number of months, the Summer ‘25 release is finally upon us! There’s no doubt that the triannual Salesforce releases are full of fantastic features and exciting updates, but sometimes, there’s just too much good stuff to wrap your head around all at once.

The team at Salesforce Ben are determined to help you get across the most impactful parts of the release in easily digestible, discipline-based chunks. But what if you’re interested in the most exciting, anticipated, and important parts of the release all in one spot? If that’s you, look no further!

Additionally, I have curated what I believe to be the three most important release updates for the majority of Salesforce customers to pay attention to. You’ll need to assess how they will impact your org before the Summer ‘25 release goes live to minimize disruption across your business.

Summer ‘25 Features: The Top 3 for Each Discipline

Top Admin Features

Christine Marshall has pulled together a detailed post of the hottest features coming to the Summer ‘25 release. 

1. Simplify Feature Discovery and Setup with Salesforce Go

Salesforce has simplified the naming of a number of Go products by bundling them under a single name: Salesforce Go. The intent is to make it easier to discover new features, and this extends beyond just Sales Cloud (Service, Field Service, and more are included). 

2. Enhance Accessibility with the Improved List Views Dropdown Menu

Summer ‘25 introduces updates to enable better accessibility and enhanced search in list views. Now an LWC, the Picklist can display up to 100 list views and includes a new functionality: the ability to search your lists for the right list view. 

3. Get the Desktop Dynamic Related List Experience on Mobile (Beta)

This is one of my personal favorites – you’re now able to serve up those sweet, sweet Dynamic Related List components to your mobile users! After enabling the feature in the Salesforce Mobile App Setup page in Setup, your users will be able to see Dynamic Related Lists in the mobile app.

Top Marketing Features

Lucy Mazalon has made it easier for marketing professionals to learn about the new Summer ‘25 features across the various Marketing Cloud Engagement and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) products that Salesforce offers.

1. AI Capabilities

Summer ‘25 brings a whole slew of new AI features to Marketing Cloud, enabled by the Data Cloud foundations of the system. Reports can be built around Einstein Engagement Frequency and Scoring, for example. Flows can be automated based on Einstein predictions. Data graphs can be drawn for Einstein Send Time Optimization (STO). Last but not least, Agentforce can empower marketers by surfacing engagement scores quickly for leads, contacts, and prospects, as well as their related accounts.

2. Custom Campaigns

Use the new Build Your Own feature to craft a custom campaign from the ground up in Marketing Cloud. You’re able to switch between this and the older Quick Start option at any stage, with message elements able to be added from either the campaign record or from within Flow Builder.

3. WhatsApp Integration with Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

One for the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement fans, WhatsApp integration is coming to the platform! Message people where they are quickly and easily.

Top Developer Features

Paul Battison has carefully curated the top Summer ‘25 changes that are bound to make Salesforce Developers jump for joy!

1. Local Development for a Single Lightning Web Component (Beta)

Individual components can be run locally in Summer ‘25, expanding on the functionality that came in the last release. With the local development plugin installed, you’re able to choose a specific component to run in your org.

2. SLDS Linter (Beta) and SLDS 2

Summer ‘25 introduces a new version of the SLDS Linter, which will help developers identify issues in their HTML, CSS, and CMP fires for their LWC and Aura components when transitioning to SLDS 2 (Cosmos).

3. Dynamic Formula Evaluation in Template Mode

Evaluate dynamic formulas on the go using the new parseAsTemplate function in the FormulaBuilder class, saving unnecessary DML statements and round-trips back to the database to retrieve data.

Top Flow Features

Tim Combridge shares his favourite declarative automation features coming to Salesforce Flow in Summer ‘25.

 1. Send Email Action Updates

The Send Email Action gets a lot of love in Summer ‘25. From a new UX that groups properties together to new functionality, there’s bound to be something new that adds value to your Flow.

2. Flow Approval Processes

Another legacy tool is going down – Approval Processes! Summer ‘25 puts Flow Approval Processes front and center.

3. Completely Overhauled Flow Debugging

Flow Debugging like you’ve never seen it before! Summer ‘25 brings a new lick of paint and brand new functionality to the Flow Debug window.

Top Service Features

Mariel Domingo’s one-stop list of the top new Service Cloud features in Summer ‘25 highlights is going to make any service professional’s day!

1. Knowledge

Summer ‘25 gives new superpowers to Knowledge in the form of Article Feedback (now GA) and the ability to add a Table of Contents component to your Knowledge Lightning Pages.

There’s also an improved Lightning Article Editor that includes a number of improvements, most notably the ability to add Quick Text to your articles.

2. Feedback Management

Surveys have been improved in Summer ‘25 across many areas. You can now add Dynamic Emoji as a rating icon to bring more life to your surveys and a visual progress bar to show how much of the survey remains.

3. Routing

Not only are you getting new features in this release, but you may also be upgraded to Enhanced Omni-Channel, too! Estimated Wait Time works for skills-based routing now in addition to queues. Additionally, you can translate chat conversations (both live and past messaging conversations) and monitor email exchanges between your customers and AI agents.

Read more:

• Show Estimated Wait Times When Routing Work to Skills
• Expand Language Access for Messaging Supervision (Beta)
• Provide Better AI Support with Real-time Monitoring of Email Conversations

Top Sales Features

Last but not least, Christine Marshall brings the top Sales Cloud features that Salesforce is delivering in Summer ‘25 into one place.

1. Choose Which Dashboard Widgets to Refresh (Generally Available)

Refresh individual widgets instead of an entire Dashboard, ensuring that certain data is up to date at all times, while other data that doesn’t change as much isn’t polled when not required.

2. Navigate Quota Plans Easily

You can freeze specific columns and headers when working on quota planning, so you don’t lose sight of them when working with large sets of data.

3. Salesforce for Outlook is Being Retired in December 2027

It’s time to bid farewell to Salesforce for Outlook as it’s being retired in December 2027. While this isn’t so much a feature as it is a notice of impending doom for a feature, it is important to begin planning now so that you can make the right decisions for your business.

Note: Salesforce recommends you look at either Outlook Integration or Einstein Activity Capture to replace Salesforce for Outlook.

Release Updates You Need to Address

The release is upon us! As you read this, the first (or more) of the release weekends may have already passed, and if not, they’re quickly approaching. Release updates are changes that Salesforce applies to elements of the platform to help future-proof it. They’re designed to ensure Salesforce remains secure, performs well, and continues to be a valuable tool well into the future.

These changes are applied automatically by Salesforce when the major release is deployed, but there are some important steps you need to take and testing you need to complete prior to (or as soon as possible) the release to ensure that disruption is minimized or, preferably, avoided completely.

Enable a Modernized Record Experience in Aura Sites

Improved accessibility and performance with the upgraded Create Record Form, Record Banner, and Record Detail components that now run on Lightning Web Component technology. These include a series of changes, such as center-aligned buttons, changes to field focus highlights, new functionality for toast messages, and more. This will be enforced in Summer ‘25.

Enable Secure Roles Behavior and Update Sharing Group References in Sandboxes

Non-Preview Sandbox orgs now have their default sharing group for digital experiences set to Roles and Internal Subordinates instead of the previous Roles and Subordinates to prevent unintended access by external site users. This will be enforced in Summer ‘25.

Salesforce Platform API Versions 21.0 Through 30.0 Retirement

Bulk, SOAP, and REST API versions 21.0 through 30.0 are being retired in Summer ‘25, which will have serious impacts on a number of features if not addressed prior to the release. This will be enforced in Summer ‘25.

Enable ICU Locale Formats (Automatically Enabled)

International Components for Unicode (ICU) locale formats are set to replace Oracle’s Java Development Kit (JDK) formats in Salesforce’s Summer ‘25 release. This is coming in a future release, but worth taking action now.

Update References to Legacy Host Names (Automatically Enabled)

Legacy (*.force.com) host names are being retired, and redirects are coming to a close in an upcoming release. To avoid disruption, you should be taking steps now. This is coming in a future release, but worth taking action now.

Summary

And with that, the Summer ‘25 season comes to an end. Thank you for joining us as we unpack all the changes that are coming to your Salesforce org.

We’d love to hear how you’re planning to take advantage of some of these changes! If you’re working on some new functionality and planning on taking advantage of some of the Summer ‘25 changes, let us know by responding to this post on social media or tagging us in a post.