Settle the navigation style before you start, because changing it later reshapes the screen for everyone already in the app. The rest of the wizard is cheap to revise.
- Open App Manager
From Setup, type App in the Quick Find box and select App Manager. Click New Lightning App. The list mixes Lightning and Classic rows, so read the App Type column before you touch anything existing.
- Name and brand it
Give the app a label, let the developer name generate, and write a description your future self will thank you for. Upload a logo and set a primary color so users can tell at a glance which app they are in.
- Pick the navigation style
On App Options, select Standard or Console. Picking Console adds a Navigation Rules page to the wizard. Work through that page object by object. The defaults ignore how your team pairs records, so a contact that should open under its account will not.
- Add navigation and utility items
Move the tabs the team needs into the selected list. The top item becomes the landing page, so order it deliberately. Then add utility items: Omni-Channel, History, and Notes cover most cases, and stopping well short of ten is wise.
- Assign it, then test it
Add the profiles that should see the app, or skip that and grant visibility through a permission set afterwards. Save, then open the App Launcher as a test user and confirm the tile is there.
Standard or Console, stored as navType. Editable later on App Options, though switching a live app changes how every record opens for its users.
The docked footer panels. Bound to one app by default, and limited to Lightning components, since Visualforce is not supported here.
Present on both profiles and permission sets. Only the profile version carries the Default flag that sets a user's landing app.
- An app that is Visible but not Default still makes users switch to it by hand every session.
- Form factor is easy to miss. An app without the Small form factor never shows up in the Salesforce mobile app, no matter who it is assigned to.
- A utility bar built in the wizard binds to that one app. A second app with the same footer means building it twice, unless you create the bar through the API.
