Definition
A Console Layout in Salesforce defines the arrangement and configuration of components displayed in the footer panel of a Salesforce Console (Service Console or Sales Console in Classic). It determines which interactive components (such as chat, softphone, history, or Knowledge sidebar) are available as mini-views in the console footer, giving agents quick access to tools without leaving their current record.
Real-World Example
a Salesforce administrator at Coastal Health recently implemented Console Layout to maintain data quality and enforce organizational policies across the platform. By properly setting up Console Layout, they prevent common data entry errors and ensure that users follow established business processes, which saves the support team hours of cleanup work each week.
Why Console Layout Matters
Console Layout is a Salesforce Classic configuration that defines which interactive components appear in the footer panel of a Console (Service Console or Sales Console). The footer panel is the strip at the bottom of the console where compact 'mini-views' of tools live: chat windows, softphone widgets, history components, Knowledge sidebars, and other utilities. Admins configure Console Layouts in Setup and assign them to specific user profiles, so different agent populations can see different sets of tools.
Console Layouts are largely a Classic-era concept. In Lightning Experience, the equivalent functionality is delivered through the Utility Bar, which is configured per Lightning App and serves the same purpose: giving agents quick-access tools that stay available regardless of which record they're working on. Orgs migrating from Classic to Lightning typically rebuild their Console Layout configuration as Utility Bar configuration during the migration. The underlying need (quick access to common tools) is the same; the implementation has just been modernized.
How Organizations Use Console Layout
- •Coastal Health — Maintained Console Layouts for their legacy Service Console with chat, softphone, and Knowledge sidebar components. When they migrated to Lightning, they rebuilt the same setup as a Utility Bar in their Lightning Service Console app.
- •BrightEdge Solutions — Used Console Layouts to give different agent profiles different footer tools. Tier 1 agents had chat and Knowledge in the footer; tier 2 agents had a custom troubleshooting widget instead.
- •NovaScale — Documented their Console Layout configuration during a Lightning migration so the new Utility Bar setup matched the old footer experience exactly.