Follow
Follow is the Chatter action that subscribes a user to updates from another user, a record, a group, a topic, or a file.
Definition
Follow is the Chatter action that subscribes a user to updates from another user, a record, a group, a topic, or a file. Once a user follows something, every post, comment, file share, or feed-tracked field change on that object appears in their What I Follow Chatter feed. The action is bidirectional in spirit but not in mechanics: following a user does not require their approval, and followers cannot see anything they would not already have permission to see.
Salesforce introduced Follow as the core Chatter engagement model in 2010. The same primitive powers What I Follow on the Home page, the Chatter tab record feed, mobile notifications, and most of the legacy social-style features. Feed tracking on an object decides which field changes generate a follow-worthy post; without feed tracking, following the record gives nothing more than manual posts and comments.
How a Chatter follow actually plumbs together
Followable entities and the subscription record
Users can follow other users, records on any object enabled for feed tracking, public Chatter groups, topics, and files. Each follow relationship is stored as an EntitySubscription record. Querying EntitySubscription with SOQL returns every follow in the org, which is useful for cleanup, reporting, and audit. Salesforce caps each user at 500 followed entities at a time, so users hitting the limit must unfollow before they can subscribe to new ones.
Feed tracking decides what gets posted
Following a record is only half the story. Feed tracking on the object decides which field changes generate automatic feed posts. Enable feed tracking under Setup, Feed Tracking, pick the object, check the box, and select the fields to track. With tracking off, the only posts on the record feed are manual ones, so followers get nothing surprising. The combination of follow + feed tracking is what surfaces meaningful change events in What I Follow.
Auto-follow rules
Salesforce can automatically subscribe users to records they create. Setup, Chatter Settings has a checkbox for User Auto-Follow Records They Create, which is on by default for most editions. Owner change does not auto-follow the new owner; that is a common admin complaint and the reason a record-triggered flow that creates a follow on owner change is one of the more popular automation recipes.
Following users vs. records
Following a user surfaces that user's public posts and any feed items they touch. Following a record surfaces posts and tracked field changes on that record. The two flows feed the same What I Follow stream, but the post types are different. Following a colleague who works five accounts is noisier than following the five accounts directly.
Permissions and visibility
Follow respects record sharing. A user can follow only records they have read access to. Lose access later (sharing rule change, manager reassignment) and the follow becomes inert; the record drops out of the feed silently. Following also respects field-level security; tracked fields the user cannot see appear as redacted in their feed.
Unfollow and bulk cleanup
Users unfollow from the same widget that lets them follow: a button on the user profile, the record header, or the group page. For bulk cleanup, admins query EntitySubscription and delete in batches. A common cleanup is removing follows for inactive users or for records that have been closed for more than a year, both of which add noise to active users' feeds.
Follow inside Salesforce Mobile and notifications
The Salesforce mobile app surfaces What I Follow under the Feed tab and pushes notifications for posts on followed records (configurable per user under Notifications). On desktop, the Chatter tab and the bell icon do the same job. Push notifications respect the user's mobile notification settings, which is the most common reason users complain about missing updates.
Follow a record, user, group, or file
Following is a one-click action surfaced on the entity page. The exact button location depends on whether the entity is a user, a record, a group, or a file.
- Open the entity
Navigate to the user profile, record detail page, Chatter group, or file you want to follow.
- Click Follow
The Follow button appears in the header. Clicking it subscribes the current user; the button label flips to Following.
- Verify in What I Follow
Open the Home page or the Chatter tab. The What I Follow feed should now include posts from the new entity.
- Adjust notifications
Open Personal Settings, Chatter Email Settings, to tune which followed entities email you and how often.
- Unfollow when needed
The same button that says Following toggles back to Follow when clicked. The EntitySubscription record is hard-deleted.
- The 500-followed-entities limit per user is enforced. A user who follows everything will silently fail to follow new records once they hit it.
- Feed tracking is global per object, not per user. Turning on tracking for the Owner field on Account broadcasts owner changes to every follower of every Account.
- Auto-Follow Records They Create captures new records only. Records imported via Data Loader, API, or migration are not auto-followed by the importer.
- Follow does not survive record merges. If a duplicate Account is merged, the followers of the loser record are not migrated to the winner. Plan an EntitySubscription cleanup as part of any merge project.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Follow People, Records, and GroupsSalesforce Help
- Customize Feed TrackingSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Follow.
- EntitySubscription ObjectSalesforce Developers
- Chatter Following OverviewSalesforce Help
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. What does Follow enable in Chatter?
Q2. What's the default follow limit per user?
Q3. What's auto-follow?
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