Feed Filter, Chatter
A Chatter feed filter is a per-user control that narrows which posts and comments show in a Chatter feed view.
Definition
A Chatter feed filter is a per-user control that narrows which posts and comments show in a Chatter feed view. Standard filters in Lightning Experience include All Updates and Fewer Updates, plus category filters such as People, Groups, and Files on the What I Follow feed. Group, profile, and record feeds carry their own filter sets, and admins can build custom filters for the Case feed.
A feed filter changes the display, not the data. It hides posts that would otherwise render, but it never grants or removes access to the underlying records or to the FeedItem rows behind the feed. A user can switch filters at any time to view the same feed differently. Most feeds remember the last filter you picked, so the choice sticks until you change it.
How Chatter feed filters shape what each user sees
All Updates versus Fewer Updates
The two filters you meet most often are All Updates and Fewer Updates, and they control feed density rather than topic. All Updates shows posts and comments from the people, records, and groups you follow, including system-generated posts such as feed-tracked field changes. Fewer Updates keeps the people and records you follow plus your group activity, but it hides system-generated posts that nobody has commented on. That single switch is the fastest way to cut noise on a busy feed. System posts age out on their own. A feed-tracked change with no like or comment is removed after about 45 days, so Fewer Updates and that cleanup work together to keep the feed readable. On the What I Follow feed you also get category filters layered on top: People shows posts from people you follow, Groups shows posts in your groups, and Files surfaces posts about files you follow. These category filters are how a single combined feed becomes several focused views without changing any data underneath.
Filters change the view, never the access
This is the rule that keeps feed filters safe to hand to end users: a filter is a display control, not a security boundary. Selecting Fewer Updates or People does not revoke anyone's record access, and switching back to All Updates does not grant new access. The feed only ever shows posts the user already has permission to see, and the filter decides which of those posts render right now. Treat the filter dropdown as a convenience, not a wall. If a post is sensitive, the answer is record sharing, group membership, or who can see the parent record, not a feed filter. Two users looking at the same record feed with the same filter can still see different posts if their sharing differs. The same logic applies to the API and to reports. A report on the FeedItem object reads the data directly and ignores whatever filter the user last chose in the UI, so never lean on a filter to hide content from analytics.
Each feed type carries its own filter set
Filters are not one global list. They depend on which feed you are looking at, because Salesforce tailors the options to the context. The What I Follow feed offers All Updates and Fewer Updates plus the People, Groups, and Files category filters. A profile feed offers All Updates and Posts by This User. A record feed (Account, Opportunity, Case) offers All Updates, Internal Only, and Fewer Updates so you can separate internal collaboration from posts visible to external users. Group feeds add their own options, including Unread Posts and a set of question filters such as Unanswered Questions and Questions with No Best Answer, which is useful for moderators triaging a Q and A group. The To Me feed and the Company Highlights feed are sort-only and expose no filters at all. Because the list shifts by feed, a filter you rely on in one place may simply not appear in another. If the filter icon is missing next to the feed search field, filters are not available for that feed.
Sorting works alongside filtering
Filtering and sorting are separate controls that often sit next to each other. Sorting decides the order of whatever the filter let through. The two common sort options are Latest Posts, which shows posts newest first by post date, and Most Recent Activity, which floats a post back to the top whenever someone adds a new comment. Most Recent Activity keeps active conversations visible, while Latest Posts is better when you want a straight chronological record of new posts. Some feeds add Top Posts. In Lightning Experience the Company Highlights feed can sort by Top Posts to surface popular content rather than the newest. Knowing the split between sort and filter saves confusion: if a user complains that an old thread keeps reappearing at the top, the cause is usually the Most Recent Activity sort plus fresh comments, not a filter. Switch the sort to Latest Posts and the feed settles into post-date order. Sort choices, like filter choices, are remembered per feed.
Custom feed filters for the Case feed
Beyond the standard options, admins can define custom feed filters for the Case feed so support agents see only the activity that matters for their work. A custom filter narrows the case feed to specific feed item types, for example only emails, or only status changes, or only customer-facing posts. Agents then click the filter to jump straight to that slice of the case history instead of scrolling the full timeline. These filters are set up in the case feed view configuration, and they appear in the feed filter menu alongside the standard choices on the case record. This is the main place where feed filters become an admin-controlled feature rather than a purely personal preference. The payoff shows up on noisy cases that mix emails, internal notes, status updates, and field changes. A filter that isolates customer emails lets an agent reconstruct the conversation in seconds. Plan the set with restraint, because every custom filter is another menu item the agent has to read before choosing.
Filters across mobile and Experience Cloud
Feed filters are not limited to the desktop. The Salesforce mobile app exposes feed filters too, though the layout differs and the exact options can vary by release, so a filter you configured for desktop is not guaranteed to surface the same way on a phone. Test the feeds your mobile users rely on rather than assuming parity. Experience Cloud sites also support feed filtering, and the available options depend on the site template and how the feed component is configured. Customer-facing sites usually expose a leaner set of filters to keep the interface simple, while partner sites can offer a richer set closer to internal Chatter. Record feeds in any context honor the Internal Only filter, which matters in Experience Cloud because it cleanly separates internal-only collaboration from posts that external members can read. When you roll out feeds to an external audience, confirm which filters appear in that template and whether they make sense for people outside your org.
Filters versus reporting on feed data
When you need to measure feed activity rather than browse it, feed filters are the wrong tool. Filters only shape the rendered view for one user in one session. They have no effect on a report or a SOQL query against the FeedItem object, which reads the stored data directly. So if you want to count posts by type, find the most active groups, or audit who posted on a record, build a report or query on FeedItem and apply criteria there. Keep the two jobs separate in your head. Feed filters answer "what do I want to look at right now," and reports answer "what happened across the org." A common mistake is assuming that because a user filtered their feed to Fewer Updates, a report will also exclude system posts. It will not. The report returns the full unfiltered set unless you add report criteria. Use filters for day-to-day reading and reports for analytics, and the line between display and data stays clean.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Filter Your FeedSalesforce
- Feed Sort and Filter OptionsSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Feed Filter, Chatter.
- Chatter Feeds OverviewSalesforce
- Create Custom Feed Filters for Case FeedSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Feed Filter, Chatter.
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. On an Account record page, which Chatter Feed Filter shows only the posts authored directly on that one record?
Q2. Does switching a Chatter Feed Filter change which records or posts a user is actually permitted to see?
Q3. How does a user's last-chosen Feed Filter behave the next time they open the same Chatter feed?
Discussion
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