It's C.Y.O. Time! Let's Start With Lightning App Launcher

This is the first article in our new CYO (Clean Your Org) series. Consider this series our version of “clean your room” except you’re getting paid to keep your org clean! The articles in our CYO series will feature things that an administrator should do on a periodic basis to keep their Salesforce org tidy and up to date.

Let’s Start with Lightning App Launcher!

Are different users using different apps in your Salesforce org? For example: are your Customer Success users using Service Console and your Sales Team using Sales Console? If so, each team may only need access to the specific app that they should be using. To limit user confusion and to provide a more streamlined user experience, you should consider removing access to any apps that will not be used.

What is a Lightning App?

A Lightning app is a pre-packaged group of objects and tabs that are specific to a role or function. For example, Salesforce provides an out-of-the-box Sales app. All the objects and tabs that are contained within the Sales app are typically used by someone in a Sales role. Salesforce also provides an out-of-the-box Chatter app. All the objects and tabs within the Chatter app are all related to Chatter functions. Administrators can also build their own Lightning Apps, but we’ll cover that in another article.

How do I access the Lightning App Launcher?

Clicking the 9 dots at the top left-hand corner of your org in Lightning will display the Lightning App Launcher page. There are two sections to the page. Under the All Apps header you will see all the applications that the users' profile can access. (a) Under the All Items section you will see all the objects that the users' profile can access. (b)

BEFORE Clean Up: The App Launcher displays a variety of useful apps and objects.

Why Organize or Clean Up the App Launcher?

There are a variety of useful apps on the App Launcher but as we’ve pointed out, probably not all teams, profiles or users need access to all of them. A more streamlined App Launcher means users don’t have to hunt through a long list to find the specific object or app they need. This in turn increases productivity. It also gives the App Launcher a more customized feel; only the most relevant apps, objects and information is visible.

AFTER Clean Up: Users can navigate more efficiently to the apps they use the most in the App Launcher.

Salesforce provides three ways to control app visibility:

Org Level – if you remove an app at the org level, none of your users will be able to see the app in the App Launcher.

Profile Level – if you remove an app at the profile level, none of the users in that profile will be able to see the app in the App Launcher.

User Level – if an app has been removed at the org and/or profile level, you can override that setting and add an app to one or more users using Permission Sets.

What are the Benefits of Making These Changes?

1. User Adoption – a clean looking user experience can contribute to better user adoption. If looking at the App Launcher is confusing or filled with options that users don’t need, your users are losing time searching for what they want.

2.  Reduced End User Support – we all have at least one user who just has to try clicking on an object or app that they’ve never used before to see what it does...UGH. If they click on an app or object and receive an error, guess who will be contacted? You, the administrator! To limit support questions about the App Launcher to the functions that the user should be using, cleaning the App Launcher page is a great start.

NOTE:  There are several items in the "All Items” section that currently cannot be removed from the App Launcher page. If you’re an admin and you want the ability to remove or edit every object that appears in the “All Items” section of the App Launcher, please click the link below and upvote this idea in the Trailblazer Community under the Ideas category.

https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=0873A000000cNbDQAU

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