Chatter Favorite
A Chatter Favorite is a Salesforce Classic feature that lets a user save a list view, a Chatter feed search, or a Topic as a personal shortcut on the Chatter tab.
Definition
A Chatter Favorite is a Salesforce Classic feature that lets a user save a list view, a Chatter feed search, or a Topic as a personal shortcut on the Chatter tab. Once saved, the favorite gives one-click access back to that filtered list, saved search, or topic feed without rebuilding it each time. Each user manages their own set, and the documentation caps the list at 50 favorites per user.
Chatter Favorites belong to the Salesforce Classic experience. In Lightning Experience, the same idea lives in the Favorites menu in the page header, opened with the star icon. That newer menu is broader: it saves records, lists, dashboards, reports, folders, and Chatter groups, and it raises the cap to 200. If you are reading "Chatter Favorite" in a Classic context, this page describes exactly that feature, then maps it to its Lightning successor so you know where the function moved.
How Chatter Favorites work and where they went
The three things you can favorite in Chatter
The Salesforce Help is precise about scope. Chatter Favorites cover list views, Chatter feed searches, and Topics. That is the whole set in Classic. A list view favorite saves a filtered list of records, such as an Accounts list you triage every morning, so you reopen it from the Chatter tab instead of rebuilding the filter. A feed search favorite stores a search you run often against Chatter, which keeps a recurring query one click away. A Topic favorite tracks a hashtag-style topic like a product name or a project, so you can jump straight to that topic feed and see what people are posting. Notice what is absent: a single record like one Account or one Opportunity is not a Chatter Favorite in Classic, and neither is an individual Chatter post. Saving a specific post is the job of Chatter Bookmarks, a separate feature. Keeping these three favoritable types straight is the easiest way to avoid confusion when someone asks why they cannot star a record from the Chatter tab.
Adding and removing favorites on the Chatter tab
Each favoritable type has its own entry point, and all three land in the same place on the Chatter tab. For a list view, you open or create the list, click the feed icon to see Chatter updates for those records, then choose Add to Favorites. For a Topic, you open the topic detail page in Classic and pick Add to Favorites from the topic options menu. For a feed search, you save the search you have run. After that, the favorite appears in the favorites area of the Chatter tab and reuses the original name, so a list view called High Value Accounts shows up under that exact label. Removal is just as direct. Hover over a favorite and click the X that appears to take it off the list. The Chatter tab does not show all 50 at once. It surfaces the four most recently added or viewed favorites and tucks the rest behind an "n more" link, which keeps the panel short while still letting you reach everything you saved.
Favorites are personal, not shared
A Chatter Favorite is private to the user who created it. No teammate sees your favorites, and favoriting is not a recommendation, a follow, or a share. It changes nothing about who can view the underlying list view, topic, or feed. This matters for two reasons. First, it means favorites are safe to use freely; pinning a sensitive list to your own Chatter tab does not expose that list to anyone else. Second, it means an administrator cannot pre-load favorites for a team or push a standard set to everyone. The same rule carries into Lightning Experience, where the Help states plainly that admins cannot edit or share favorites and only the individual user can manage them. So if you want every rep to keep the same shortcut, you cannot set it centrally. You document it and let each person add it once. Because the set is per user, favorites also follow the person rather than the device, which is why the Lightning version stays consistent no matter which browser or computer someone signs in from.
Chatter Favorites versus Chatter Bookmarks
These two features sit close together in Chatter and get mixed up constantly, yet they operate on different objects. A Chatter Bookmark saves one specific feed post so you can return to that exact update later, and bookmarked posts collect under a Bookmarked filter in the feed. A Chatter Favorite saves a list view, a feed search, or a Topic, none of which is a single post. The clean mental split is by unit of work. Reach for a Bookmark when one message matters and you want to find it again, like an announcement you need to act on this week. Reach for a Favorite when a whole stream or view matters and you want to reopen it repeatedly, like the topic feed for a launch or the account list you triage daily. Both are personal organization tools, and both live in Chatter, but they answer different questions. Confusing them usually shows up as someone trying to "favorite" a post or trying to "bookmark" a list view, and neither action exists. Knowing which tool owns which object removes that friction.
Where the feature went in Lightning Experience
Chatter Favorites are a Classic feature. Lightning Experience does not carry the Chatter-tab favorites panel forward in the same shape. Instead it offers a Favorites menu in the page header, opened with the star icon, and that menu absorbs and expands the original idea. In Lightning you favorite a page by clicking the star while you are on it, and a highlighted star tells you the current page is already saved. The Lightning menu reaches well beyond the Classic three: it supports record home pages for standard and custom objects, lists, dashboards, reports, report and dashboard folders, and Chatter groups. It also lifts the cap from 50 to 200. There are clear limits, though. You cannot favorite list views on the Reports, Dashboards, Files, or Notes tabs, you cannot favorite a Visualforce override of a list view, you cannot favorite an individual Chatter post, and you cannot favorite items on setup pages. Treat the Lightning Favorites menu as the modern home of this function, with Chatter Favorites as the Classic ancestor that scoped the same need more narrowly.
Practical patterns that hold up in both surfaces
The everyday value is the same whether you favorite from the Classic Chatter tab or the Lightning header: cut repeated navigation down to one click. A few patterns recur across teams. A sales rep favorites the account list view they work first thing each day and, in Lightning, the dashboard they check before calls. A service agent favorites the case list view that feeds their queue so triage starts instantly. A marketer following a launch favorites the campaign Topic in Classic, or the campaign record and a results dashboard in Lightning, to keep the launch one tap away. The throughline is that you favorite destinations you return to, not one-off pages. A useful habit is a periodic cleanup. Stars accumulate, and a favorites list crowded with stale entries slows you down instead of speeding you up. In Lightning, Edit Favorites lets you reorder, rename, and remove in one place; in Classic, you remove with the hover X. Keeping the set lean and current is what turns favorites from a novelty into a real time saver.
How to add a Chatter Favorite
Chatter Favorites are created on the Chatter tab in Salesforce Classic. The steps differ slightly per type, but every favorite ends up in the same favorites area of the Chatter tab. If you are in Lightning Experience, use the star icon in the page header instead, which is the modern equivalent.
- Favorite a list view
Open or create a list view for records like Accounts, Opportunities, or Leads. Click the feed icon to see Chatter updates for those records, then choose Add to Favorites.
- Favorite a Topic
In Salesforce Classic, click a topic name to open its detail page. In the upper-right corner, open the topic options menu and choose Add to Favorites.
- Favorite a feed search
Run the search you use often against Chatter, then save it as a favorite so the same query is one click away from the Chatter tab.
- Open and clean up favorites
Find favorites in the favorites area of the Chatter tab. It shows the four most recent and hides the rest behind an "n more" link. Hover any favorite and click the X to remove it.
Saves a filtered list of records so you reopen the same view without rebuilding the filter.
Saves a Topic so you jump straight to that topic feed to see related posts.
Saves a recurring Chatter search so the query stays one click away.
- Chatter Favorites are Salesforce Classic only. In Lightning Experience, use the Favorites menu and the star icon in the page header instead.
- You can have up to 50 Chatter Favorites; the Lightning Favorites menu raises that cap to 200.
- You cannot favorite a single Chatter post here. Saving one post is the job of Chatter Bookmarks, a separate feature.
- Favorites are personal. Admins cannot pre-load or share them, so each user has to add the ones they want.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Chatter Favorite in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Chatter Favorites OverviewSalesforce
- Create Shortcuts to Salesforce Pages with FavoritesSalesforce
- Favorites ConsiderationsSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Chatter Favorite.
- Chatter Favorites OverviewSalesforce
- Add a List View as a Chatter FavoriteSalesforce
- Add a Topic as a FavoriteSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Chatter Favorite.
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.
Test your knowledge
Q1. Beyond Chatter posts, what else can a user save as a Chatter Favorite?
Q2. In Lightning Experience, where does the Favorites list itself appear?
Q3. Which everyday pattern shows a sales rep using Chatter Favorites well?
Discussion
Loading discussion…