App Manager
App Manager is the Salesforce Setup page where administrators create, view, edit, and assign the apps in an org.
Definition
App Manager is the Salesforce Setup page where administrators create, view, edit, and assign the apps in an org. It lives at Setup, then Apps, then App Manager. The page lists two different things that Salesforce both calls "apps": Lightning apps, which are user-facing bundles of tabs, branding, and a navigation bar, and connected apps, which register external systems that authenticate into Salesforce using OAuth, SAML, or OpenID Connect.
Those two app types solve unrelated problems, but they share this one page because of shared vocabulary. A Lightning app shapes what a group of users sees when they open the App Launcher. A connected app governs how an outside service signs in and what it is allowed to do. App Manager is one of the higher-traffic admin pages because building a team app, adjusting a navigation bar, or wiring an integration all start here.
How App Manager organizes apps, branding, and access
The page layout and its columns
App Manager shows one row per app with columns that make a quick audit possible. The App Name and Developer Name identify the app, while the App Type column marks each entry as Lightning, Connected, or Classic. The Visible in Lightning column tells you at a glance whether a Lightning app actually appears in Lightning Experience, which is the single most common thing admins check when a user reports a missing app. A Description column carries the free-text note the app builder typed, and the dropdown at the end of each row exposes Edit, View, Delete, or Manage depending on the app type. The New button at the top splits into New Lightning App and New Connected App, so the page is also the entry point for creating either type. Because the list mixes both kinds of apps, sorting by App Type is the fastest way to separate the user-experience apps from the integration registrations. For a mid-sized org this list is rarely longer than a screen or two, which is why a yearly review of what is listed here is realistic rather than aspirational.
Lightning apps and the New Lightning App wizard
A Lightning app is a collection of items that work together to serve a particular function, surfaced through a single navigation bar with its own branding. The New Lightning App wizard walks through that setup in clear stages. The first screen captures the App Name, a Description, an optional image (JPG, PNG, BMP, or GIF up to 5 MB, with 128 by 128 pixels recommended), and a primary hex color value for the navigation bar. There is also an option to match the org theme rather than set a custom color. Later screens add app options and utility items, then the navigation items themselves, which are the ordered tabs and objects users will see across the top of the app. The final screen assigns the app to user profiles. Because Lightning apps support a console navigation style as well as the standard style, the same wizard can produce a simple sales app or a multi-tab service console. Saving the app makes it available to assigned users on their next App Launcher load.
The utility bar and navigation items
Two configuration areas give a Lightning app most of its day-to-day usefulness. The navigation items list controls which tabs appear in the top bar and in what order, so admins drag the most-used objects to the front and hide ones a team never touches. Item names are what users read, so clear labels matter more than clever ones here. The utility bar is a specialized Lightning page that sits as a fixed footer at the bottom of the app. It gives users quick access to productivity tools such as Notes, Recent Items, History, and integrated voice, each opening in a docked panel without leaving the current record. Admins add utilities on the Utility Items tab while building or editing the app, and they set properties such as panel height and width along with the label and icon shown in the footer. The utility bar is especially common in service console apps, where agents keep an open call control or a notes panel pinned while they move between cases.
Assigning apps to profiles and permission sets
Creating a Lightning app does not make it visible to anyone by itself. Assignment is a separate step, handled either in the final wizard screen or on the User Profiles section of the app edit page. The wizard exposes profile assignment directly, and each app can be marked visible for the profiles that should see it in the App Launcher. Many teams prefer to layer permission set assignment on top of, or instead of, profile assignment, because permission sets let one person hold access from several sources without editing their profile. Visibility and default settings work together here. A visible flag decides whether an app shows in the App Launcher for that user, and the default app decides which one opens first when an assigned user logs in. Getting assignment wrong is the usual reason a brand-new app seems to vanish, so the Visible in Lightning column and the profile list are the first two things to check when an app does not appear for a user who expected it.
Connected apps on the same page
The other kind of entry in App Manager is the connected app. A connected app lets an external application integrate with Salesforce using APIs and standard protocols such as SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect. These protocols handle authentication, authorization, and single sign-on, and they let an admin set security policies and control exactly who can use the app. Salesforce mobile clients, Outlook and Gmail integrations, Marketing Cloud, and partner systems all sign in through a connected app. Creating one through New Connected App captures basic information, then the API (Enable OAuth Settings) section, where the admin supplies a callback URL and picks the OAuth scopes the external system may request. On save, Salesforce generates a consumer key and consumer secret that the outside system uses to start an OAuth flow. Connected app behavior is further tightened through separate policy settings that control IP relaxation, refresh token lifetime, session timeout, and whether users must be pre-authorized. Rotating the secret on a schedule matters, because an expired or leaked secret can break an integration quietly.
App Type Classic and legacy entries
The App Type column sometimes reads Classic, which is a holdover from Salesforce Classic apps that predate Lightning Experience. These older apps were simple tab sets without the branding, utility bar, or console options that Lightning apps offer. New orgs rarely create them, but orgs that have run for years still carry them through from earlier configurations. App Manager treats Classic apps as legacy entries. They appear in the list and continue to function for any users still on them, but the modern app-building experience is built around Lightning apps. When an admin is modernizing an org, a common task is recreating each meaningful Classic app as a Lightning app, then assigning users across and retiring the old one. Leaving stale Classic apps in place is not harmful on its own, yet it clutters the list and the App Launcher, which is one more reason the periodic audit through App Manager is worth doing. The column makes spotting these entries a matter of one glance.
Metadata, deployment, and change tracking
Lightning and Classic apps are both stored as CustomApplication metadata, while connected apps are stored as a separate ConnectedApp metadata type. That distinction matters for any team that manages change through source control rather than clicking in production. With Salesforce DX, an admin or developer can retrieve a CustomApplication into a project, see exactly which navigation items, branding values, and utility components it contains, and deploy it from one sandbox to the next with confidence. The App Manager UI itself does not keep a history of who changed an app or when. If someone reorders a navigation bar or swaps a logo, the next admin who opens the app has no in-product record of the previous state. Source-controlled metadata fills that gap. It turns an app definition into a reviewable, diffable file, so a pull request shows the change before it ships and a prior version is always recoverable. For orgs past a handful of apps, treating app configuration as code is the difference between a managed surface and a guessing game.
How to create a Lightning app in App Manager
Build a new user-facing Lightning app from Setup so a specific team gets its own branded navigation bar and tab set in the App Launcher.
- Open App Manager
From Setup, type App in the Quick Find box and select App Manager. Click the New button and choose New Lightning App to start the wizard.
- Set details and branding
Enter the App Name and Description, upload an optional logo image, and pick a primary hex color or match the org theme. These shape how the app looks in the navigation bar.
- Add utilities and navigation items
On the App Options and Utility Items steps, add any docked tools you want, then on Navigation Items add and order the tabs and objects the team will use most.
- Assign and save
On the final screen, add the user profiles that should see the app, then click Save and Finish. Assigned users get the app on their next App Launcher load.
The display name shown in the App Launcher and the navigation header. A matching Developer Name (API name) is generated for metadata reference.
The ordered list of tabs and objects that appear across the top of the app. An app with no navigation items has nothing for users to open.
The profiles the app is made visible to. Without at least one assignment, the app exists but no one can see it in the App Launcher.
- If a new app does not show up, check the Visible in Lightning column and confirm the user's profile (or a permission set) actually grants access.
- The image must be JPG, PNG, BMP, or GIF and 5 MB or smaller; 128 by 128 pixels is the recommended size for a crisp navigation logo.
- App Manager keeps no change history, so capture the CustomApplication metadata in source control if you want to track or roll back edits.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to App Manager in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Lightning AppsSalesforce
- Connected Apps OverviewSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on App Manager.
- Add a Utility Bar to Lightning AppsSalesforce
- ConnectedApp | Metadata API Developer GuideSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on App Manager.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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Q1. What can an admin configure inside the App Manager Setup page?
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Q3. Why is the App Manager a single centralized workspace?
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