Apps and Tabs in Salesforce

You’ve built objects, fields, page layouts, record pages, quick actions, and validation rules. The functionality is there. But right now, everything lives in a single navigation experience. Your sales reps see the same tabs as your support agents. Your project managers navigate through the same app as your finance team. That’s not ideal.

Apps and tabs are how you organize the Salesforce experience into focused workspaces. An app is a collection of tabs, and a tab is an entry point to an object, web page, Lightning component, or Visualforce page. Together, they let you create purpose-built navigation for different teams without changing anything about the underlying data or permissions.

What Are Apps?

A Salesforce app is a branded collection of tabs, utilities, and settings that creates a focused workspace for a specific role or business process.

When a user switches apps (using the App Launcher or the app dropdown in the header), the navigation bar changes to show the tabs defined for that app. The data doesn’t change — apps are a navigation layer, not a security layer.

Types of Apps

Lightning Apps — The modern app type for Lightning Experience. These are what you’ll create and manage as an admin.

Classic Apps — The older app type from Salesforce Classic. They still exist for backward compatibility but have fewer features. All new development should use Lightning apps.

Connected Apps — A different concept entirely. These are for OAuth/API integrations with external systems (e.g., connecting a mobile app to Salesforce). Not what we’re covering here.

Standard Apps vs. Custom Apps

Salesforce comes with several standard apps out of the box:

• Sales — Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Reports, Dashboards
• Service — Cases, Knowledge, Queues, Entitlements
• Marketing — Campaigns, Leads
• Community — For Experience Cloud sites

You can customize standard apps (change their tabs, colors, etc.) and create entirely custom apps for your org’s specific needs.

What an App Controls

How to Create a Lightning App

1. Setup → Quick Find → “App Manager”
2. Click “New Lightning App”
3. Walk through the wizard:

Step 1: App Details

• App Name — e.g., “Project Management”
• Developer Name — API name (auto-generated)
• Description — What this app is for
• Image — Upload an app icon (displayed in the App Launcher)
  • Recommended: 250x250px PNG with transparent background
  • If you don’t upload one, Salesforce generates a default based on the app name initials

Step 2: App Options

• Navigation Style:

  • Standard Navigation — The default horizontal nav bar
  • Console Navigation — A tabbed workspace for high-volume, multi-record workflows (like a support agent working multiple cases simultaneously)

  Standard is the right choice for most apps. Console is specifically for roles that need to have multiple records open at once.

• Supported Form Factors: Desktop, Phone (select where this app should be available)

• Setup Experience: Include Setup in this app’s navigation (usually only for admin-focused apps)

Step 3: Utility Items (Utility Bar)

The utility bar is a persistent footer toolbar that stays visible on every page within the app. Add utility components:

• History — Quick access to recently viewed records
• Notes — Create and view notes
• Macros — Run macros (for service agents)
• Open CTI Softphone — Telephony integration
• Omni-Channel — Work routing for service agents
• Flow — A screen Flow always accessible from the footer
• Rich Text — Static information or instructions
• Custom Lightning Component — Any LWC that supports the utility bar target

Each utility item has settings:

• Panel Width and Height — How big the utility panel is
• Start Automatically — Whether it opens when the app loads
• Load in Background — Pre-load the component for faster access

The utility bar is optional. Many apps don’t need one.

Step 4: Navigation Items

This is where you select which tabs appear in the app’s nav bar.

• Available Items (left list) — All tabs in the org
• Selected Items (right list) — Tabs included in this app, in display order

Move items from Available to Selected. Drag to reorder.

Common navigation items:

• Standard object tabs (Accounts, Contacts, Cases)
• Custom object tabs (Projects, Deliverables)
• Lightning component tabs
• Visualforce tabs
• Web tabs
• Utility pages (Reports, Dashboards)

Step 5: User Profiles

Select which profiles can access this app. Users with selected profiles will see this app in the App Launcher.

• This is about visibility, not security. Users can only see data their profile and permissions allow, regardless of which app they’re in.
• Leave all profiles selected if the app should be available to everyone.

4. Click “Save & Finish”

Editing an Existing App

1. Setup → App Manager
2. Find the app in the list
3. Click the dropdown arrow on the right → “Edit”
4. Make changes and save

App Manager Overview

The App Manager (Setup → App Manager) shows all apps in your org:

• App Type — Lightning or Classic
• Visible — Whether the app appears in the App Launcher
• Developer Name — API name
• Actions — Edit, Delete, App Settings

What Are Tabs?

A tab is a navigation item that gives users access to an object, page, or resource. Tabs appear in the navigation bar of Lightning apps.

Types of Tabs

Custom Object Tabs Created automatically (or manually) for custom objects. Each custom object can have one tab. The tab provides access to the object’s list view, and from there users can navigate to individual records.

Web Tabs A tab that loads an external URL in an iframe within Salesforce. Useful for embedding external tools, documentation, or dashboards.

Lightning Component Tabs A tab that renders a Lightning Web Component or Aura Component. Useful for custom-built pages and tools.

Lightning Page Tabs A tab that renders a Lightning page built in the Lightning App Builder (App Page type).

Visualforce Tabs A tab that renders a Visualforce page. Older technology but still used in many orgs.

How to Create Tabs

Custom Object Tab

When you create a custom object, you can create its tab at the same time (there’s a checkbox in the object creation wizard). If you didn’t, or need to create one later:

1. Setup → Quick Find → “Tabs”

2. Under Custom Object Tabs, click “New”

3. Select the Object from the dropdown

4. Choose a Tab Style — an icon and color combination. Click the color swatch to browse options. This icon appears:

   • In the navigation bar
   • In the App Launcher
   • On related lists and lookups
   • On mobile

5. Enter an optional Description and Splash Page (a custom page shown the first time a user clicks the tab — rarely used)

6. Click “Next”

7. Profile Visibility:

   • Default On — Tab is visible for this profile
   • Default Off — Tab exists but is hidden (users can still add it manually)
   • Tab Hidden — Tab is completely hidden from this profile

   Set visibility per profile. Most tabs should be “Default On” for relevant profiles and “Tab Hidden” for others.

8. Click “Next”

9. App Inclusion: Select which apps should include this tab. Check the apps where this tab makes sense.

10. Click “Save”

Web Tab

1. Setup → Tabs → Under Web Tabs, click “New”
2. Choose a layout (full page, with sidebar, etc.)
3. Click “Next”
4. Enter:
   • Tab Label — e.g., “Jira Board”
   • Tab Name — API name
   • Tab Style — Icon and color
   • Description
5. Click “Next”
6. Enter the URL — Can include merge fields:
   • {!User.SessionId} — For authenticated embedded apps
   • {!$Api.Partner_Server_URL_260} — API endpoint
   • Static URL for external sites
7. Set encoding and frame options
8. Click “Next” → Set profile visibility → Add to apps → “Save”

Lightning Component Tab

1. Setup → Tabs → Under Lightning Component Tabs, click “New”
2. Select the Lightning Component from the dropdown (only components with the lightning__Tab target are listed)
3. Enter:
   • Tab Label
   • Tab Name
   • Tab Style
   • Description
4. Click “Save”

Note: Lightning Component Tabs skip the profile and app assignment steps — you add them to apps manually through the App Manager.

Tab Visibility vs. Tab Inclusion

These are separate concepts:

Tab Visibility (set per profile on the tab itself):

• Controls whether a user’s profile allows them to see the tab
• Even if a tab is included in an app, it won’t appear if the profile has it set to “Tab Hidden”

Tab Inclusion (set in the app definition):

• Controls whether the tab is part of an app’s navigation
• A tab can be visible to a profile but not included in the app they’re using

For a tab to appear in a user’s nav bar:

1. The tab must be included in the app they’re currently using
2. Their profile must have the tab set to “Default On” or “Default Off”
3. For “Default Off” — the user must manually add it via the nav bar pencil icon

Tab Best Practices

1. Choose meaningful icons. The tab icon is used everywhere — list views, related lists, mobile, App Launcher. A distinctive icon helps users identify the object at a glance.

2. Don’t create tabs for every object. Some objects are only accessed through related lists (e.g., Deliverables might only be accessed from the Project record page). They don’t need their own tab.

3. Use “Tab Hidden” instead of not creating a tab. Even if you don’t want users navigating to an object directly, creating a hidden tab gives the object an icon and makes it available for App Launcher search if needed.

4. Web Tabs are great for tool consolidation. If your team uses an external knowledge base, Jira board, or analytics dashboard, a Web Tab puts it one click away inside Salesforce.

The Navigation Bar

In Lightning Experience, users can customize their own navigation bar:

1. Click the pencil icon at the right end of the nav bar
2. Add More Items — Add tabs from the “Default Off” list or other available tabs
3. Reorder — Drag tabs to rearrange
4. Remove — Remove tabs they don’t use (doesn’t affect other users)

These personalized nav bars override the app’s default tab order for that specific user. As an admin, be aware that users can customize their view — if you add a new tab to an app, users who’ve personalized their nav won’t automatically see it. They’ll need to add it manually or reset their navigation to the app default.

Resetting Personalized Navigation

Users can reset their nav bar to the app’s default:

1. Click the pencil icon on the nav bar
2. Click “Reset to App Default”

Admins cannot force-reset user navigation personalizations (without scripting).

Putting It All Together: An Example

Let’s say you’re building a Project Management workspace:

The App:

• Name: “Project Management”
• Logo: Custom project icon
• Navigation Style: Standard
• Utility Bar: History, Notes

The Tabs:

1. Home — Default Salesforce home (or a custom home page)
2. Projects — Custom object tab (Project__c)
3. Deliverables — Custom object tab (Deliverable__c)
4. Project Dashboard — Lightning Page tab (an App Page with project-related report charts)
5. Reports — Standard Reports tab (filtered to a Project Reports folder)
6. Dashboards — Standard Dashboards tab

Profile Assignment:

• Project Manager profile — Full access
• Team Member profile — Full access
• Executive profile — View only
• Sales Rep profile — Not assigned (they use the Sales app)

The result: Project managers switch to the “Project Management” app and see only project-relevant navigation. No Leads, no Cases, no marketing clutter — just the tools they need.

Next up: Profiles and Permission Sets — the security layer that controls what users can see, create, edit, and delete across your entire org.

This is Part 9 of the Salesforce series. Next: Profiles and Permission Sets — understanding the permission model that governs everything from object access to system administration.