Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

Development

Whether you’re using Lightning components, Visualforce, Apex, or our APIs with your favorite programming language, these enhancements help you develop amazing applications, integrations, and packages for resale to other organizations.

Lightning Components
Create a quick action that invokes a Lightning web component. Create styling hooks for your custom Lightning web components. Use the audit trail to track when your users create, change, or delete a custom Lightning component. Aura components in the ui namespace are deprecated and no longer supported after May 1, 2021.
Einstein Vision and Language
Not a data scientist or machine learning expert, but still want to integrate AI into your apps? Use the Einstein Vision and Language APIs to easily AI-enable your apps with image recognition and natural language processing. Using the Einstein Vision APIs, you can leverage pretrained classifiers or train custom classifiers to solve a vast array of image recognition use cases. With the Einstein Language APIs, you can harness the power of natural language processing to analyze text and infer the sentiment or intent behind the text. Make your apps smarter and look like a genius at the same time.
Salesforce Functions: Extend Salesforce with Functions (Beta)
Salesforce Functions lets developers extend Salesforce with custom, elastically scalable business logic built with industry-standard programming languages and open-source components. Salesforce Functions reduces your infrastructure responsibilities, enabling you to build and integrate Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS) apps using the languages and tools of your choice.
Visualforce
An ongoing release update prevents consecutive API navigation calls in Visualforce pages. Another release update increases security when calling the Visualforce Remoting API. Both release updates are enforced in Winter ’22.
Apex
Apex reference content is now available as a separate Apex Reference Guide, with conceptual information retained in the Apex Developer Guide. The Transactions Finalizers feature is generally available. New Database methods support an AccessLevel parameter that enables you to run database operations in user mode, instead of in the default system mode.
API
Legacy versions of the Salesforce Platform API have been retired. New Metadata API documentation will be reformatted for easier scanning and viewing. And a new Warning header has been added to the Platform REST API and the Bulk API.
Deprecation and End Of Support for Platform API Legacy Versions
As of this release, legacy versions 20.0 and earlier of the Salesforce Platform API are deprecated and are no longer supported by Salesforce.
Scan and View New Metadata API Documentation More Easily
New Metadata API reference documentation contains field tables with two columns instead of three columns. Field type and description are now in the same column. In addition, new documentation contains other minor formatting differences, such as a separate section for parent type information. All of the same information is still present on the page.
Warning Header
The Platform REST API and Bulk API now return a Warning header if there are any warnings, such as the use of a deprecated version of the API.
Use the Default Value of Flow Screen Components for Choice Resources
The defaultValue field on the FlowScreenField subtype of the Flow metadata type can now be used for choice resources. The defaultValue field is now supported when the FlowScreenField subtype has a fieldType field value of RadioButtons, DropdownBox, MultiSelectCheckboxes, or MultiSelectPicklist. A FlowScreenField can’t have both a defaultValue and a defaultSelectedChoiceReference field.
Packaging
Create package versions based on a branch in your version control system. Manage access to Apex tests that run at package version creation. Test upcoming features in your packages by specifying the release version of the package. Secure the subscriber support console in your License Management Org using multi-factor authentication.
Scratch Orgs
A scratch org is a dedicated and configurable Salesforce environment that you can quickly spin up for many different purposes. It can be your own personal development environment, or you can create a headless scratch org for automated tests. You can create scratch orgs if you turned on Dev Hub in your production org or a Developer Edition org, or have a Dev Hub trial org. We continually add support for new features.
Sandboxes
Use new tools to secure personally identifiable information and other sensitive data in a sandbox.
Platform Development Tools
Build applications collaboratively and deliver continuously with Salesforce Developer Experience (DX), the open and integrated experience that makes development on the Customer 360 Platform easy.
Lightning Design System
The Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS) includes the resources to create user interfaces consistent with the Salesforce Lightning principles, design language, and best practices.
AppExchange Partners
Gain efficiency and insight using AppExchange App Analytics query strategy best practices.
Platform Events
Use the EventUuid field to identify platform event messages.
New and Changed Items for Developers
Here is where you can find new and changed objects, calls, classes, components, commands, and more that help you customize Salesforce features.