The Activity component is on most standard record pages by default. Adding it to a custom object or tuning its display takes a quick App Builder pass plus a check of object settings.
- Enable Activities on the object
Setup, Object Manager, open the custom object, then check Allow Activities. Without this setting Tasks and Events cannot reference the object and Activity History stays empty.
- Open the Lightning record page in App Builder
Setup, Object Manager, open the object's Lightning Record Pages and edit the active page.
- Drop in the Activity component
Drag the Activities component (Activity Timeline) onto the page, typically in the right rail. Configure which tabs are visible (Past Activity, Upcoming & Overdue, Quick Actions).
- Optionally customise subtypes and order
Use the component properties panel to control which TaskSubtype values appear and the default sort order. Most teams leave Past Activity at the default reverse-chronological.
- Save and activate the page
Save the Lightning page and assign it to the relevant profile or app. Validate against a record that already has historical activities.
- Einstein Activity Capture emails and events show up in the Activity timeline UI but do not write to the Task or Event tables unless Add Emails to Salesforce is enabled. Reports built on Tasks and Events will under-count those activities.
- Custom Task Status values flagged as Closed all count as Activity History inclusion. Adding a Closed status accidentally widens the timeline.
- Sharing for activities follows the Activities OWD, not the parent record's OWD. A user who can see an Account is not guaranteed to see every activity on it.
- Activity volumes grow fast with email capture. Plan for Activity Archival or scheduled deletes before query timeouts start hitting reports and list views.