Salesforce1: How to get started with Salesforce’s new mobile app

 Take your mission on your mobile with Salesforce1

Salesforce1 is the completely redesigned mobile interface of Salesforce. It’s been built from the ground up to make Salesforce as fast and functional on a mobile device as it is on a computer.

We've put together a post with some of the Salesforce1 features, and why we think it’s better than previous Salesforce mobile apps (and you should get it immediately!)

1. System Admins can administrate – System Administrators can use the app to manage behind the scenes pieces – for instance now you can add/remove/edit users from your phone.

2. Chatter and Salesforce are combined – previously you needed two apps – one for Salesforce and one for Chatter. Salesforce1 combines them (plus many other features) into one single app (get it, 1?)

3. One stop shopping – with Salesforce1 you can do everything you are able to do when accessing Salesforce from a computer.

There’s been a lot of hype about Salesforce1 since its launch at Dreamforce in November 2013. We tried it, and we like it. And we think you should try it too. We’ve put together a guide to walk you through installing, configuring, and using Salesforce1 to get the most out of the app.

Getting started

If you’re an Android or iPhone user, download the Salesforce1 app for super easy deployment. Salesforce1 can also be accessed via your mobile browser after having an admin complete one simple step, which will be covered in a separate post on configuration..

By default, your landing page will be chatter. This can be changed to Task for example.

You can access additional information by tapping the icon in the top left  or by swiping the screen horizontally from left to right.

There are four major points to focus on in the side pane.

The first item is the Universal Search bar.  Within the app this will search for both Records and Objects so you can search for “Jason Cook” to find one contact or “Contacts” to go to the list view of contacts.  (note that when using Salesforce1 on a mobile browser you will only see Records as search results, not objects).  

Next up is the list of selected Objects, this list can be customized by your administrator to display only the information that you care about, we’ll get into more detail about that in our next post.

Third is a list of recently used/popular Objects.  This list is created based on how often you use Objects in the original web based version of Salesforce.  For most users, Contacts, Organizations, Opportunities will show. If there are Objects you use a lot you can ‘pin’ them to the top of this list while working in the web based Salesforce.

The fourth and final section is pretty straightforward. Your User Name is displayed first, tapping on it will take you to the User page. Aside from that you have Help, which will take you to the Salesforce1 help website.  If you’re working in a browser you will see the Full Site button, if you’re using the app you will see settings instead.  Settings allow you to configure your phone notifications in addition to a couple other options.  Lastly is Logout, which does exactly what you would expect it to.

When viewing a record in Salesforce1 it is important to know that there is more than one pane available for most Objects.  The center pane is generally going to contain all the fields that pertain to the Record, the left pane is generally the Chatter feed, and the right pane contains all relevant related lists.  The panes can be accessed by swiping right or left on your screen the same as the menu pane and the notification pane, which will be discussed next.

The icon on the top right of the Salesforce1 screen  is your notification icon, tapping it or swiping the screen from right to left will open the notification panel.  Swiping only works in the app, not in the browser and the layout will look slightly different on both but the function is the same, it displays all notifications that would normally appear on your Home page.

The only other difference between using the Salesforce1 app versus the mobile browser version is a option called ‘Today’.  Today can be accessed in the left side pane of Salesforce1 and will allow you to sync Saleforce1 with your personal calendars in order to give you an easy way of maintaining your schedule.  This functionality is entirely optional and can be disabled for all users by the administrator.

That’s it for the basics of using Salesforce1, the next section contains information for configuring your Salesforce1 implementation in order to maximum it’s functionality.

Jason Cook has been mesmerized by how things work since he disassembled his clock radio in the first grade. Contact him if you need help with Salesforce workflows, triggers, or want to talk shop on the latest Salesforce apps.