Field Service Lightning
Field Service Lightning is the former name of Salesforce Field Service, the product that dispatches mobile workers to on-site jobs.
Definition
Field Service Lightning is the former name of Salesforce Field Service, the product that dispatches mobile workers to on-site jobs. Salesforce dropped Lightning in the Winter '20 release, and current documentation no longer uses the old phrase.
Nothing was retired. Work orders, the managed package, the Dispatcher Console and the mobile app all carried over under the shorter name.
The initials outlived the branding. FSL is still the Apex namespace of the Field Service managed package, which is why the abbreviation keeps surfacing in orgs today.
In plain English
“Salesforce sells a tool for sending repair crews out to customers and tracking the jobs they finish. For a few years it was called Field Service Lightning. In late 2019 the company cut the last word. Same tool, shorter name.”
Worked example
A regional elevator maintenance firm hires an admin whose job posting asked for FSL experience. She types Field Service Lightning into Setup's Quick Find box and gets nothing back. Typing field service instead lands her on Field Service Settings, where one toggle turns the feature on. From the App Launcher she opens Service Territories and creates New York Area with operating hours of Mon-Fri 8am-5pm (East). Installing the managed package later, she finds Apex classes sitting under the FSL namespace. Nothing is broken. The product just sits under a shorter name than the job ad used.
From FSL to Agentforce Field Service, two renames deep
The Winter '20 rename
Salesforce announced it in the Winter '20 release notes, under an item titled Field Service Has a New Name. Field Service Lightning became Salesforce Field Service, shortened in most docs to Field Service. Current help and developer documentation use only the new name. The old string survives in archived release notes and a few Trailhead URLs, so seeing it does not mean a page is stale.
Why FSL still turns up in your org
The managed package uses FSL as its Apex namespace. The developer guide says that namespace holds every class, method, Visualforce page and custom object in the package. Renaming API names would break every integration built on them, so they stayed.
The second rebrand
The name moved again. Salesforce Help files the product under Agentforce Field Service and Operations. The Trailhead trail is titled Get on the Road with Agentforce Field Service. That is a branding layer, not a replacement. The same objects and the same scheduling engine sit underneath, and the managed package is still the one Winter '20 inherited.
What to search for instead
Search Field Service, not Field Service Lightning. For code, the Field Service Developer Guide covers the object model and the FSL namespace. Salesforce Help covers setup and day-to-day administration. FSL-era tutorials are usually right about the objects, but their menu labels will not match your screen.
How organizations use Field Service Lightning
Schedules recurring maintenance as service appointments, then technicians close each work order from the mobile app.
Tracks installed assets at customer sites, so a repair visit opens against the right serial number.
Reshuffles the day from the Dispatcher Console when outage calls outrank the scheduled work.
Trust & references
This term has been renamed to Field Service.
View current pageCross-checked against the following references.
- Field Service Has a New Name (Winter '20 Release Notes) (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Field Service Overview (filed under Agentforce Field Service and Operations) (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Field Service Developer Guide: Introduction (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Field Service Apex Namespace (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Enable Field Service and Create Service Resources (opens in new tab)Salesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Field Service Lightning.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Field Service Lightning.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He writes and edits salesforcedictionary.com, published by KineticBit Inc., to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
+5 pts / dayQ1. What happened to the product called Field Service Lightning?
Q2. Where does the abbreviation FSL still appear in a modern Salesforce org?
Q3. An admin needs to turn Field Service on for the first time. Where do they go?
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