In-App Guidance
In-App Guidance is the Salesforce feature that surfaces contextual help, walkthroughs, and prompts directly inside the Lightning Experience UI, without sending users to a separate help site.
Definition
In-App Guidance is the Salesforce feature that surfaces contextual help, walkthroughs, and prompts directly inside the Lightning Experience UI, without sending users to a separate help site. Admins create prompts (single-step pop-ups) and walkthroughs (multi-step tours) under Setup, In-App Guidance, target them at specific pages or components, and choose the audience by profile, permission set, or user-level criteria. Users see the guidance as floating cards or pinned panels in the relevant context.
The feature exists because users abandon any process that requires leaving the app to read documentation. In-App Guidance fixes the problem by putting the documentation inside the moment of use. A new sales rep on their first opportunity sees a walkthrough explaining the required fields. A service agent loading a new console layout sees a prompt explaining what changed. The guidance can include rich text, images, video embeds, and links to deeper help. Adoption of new features improves dramatically when guidance is in-app instead of off-app.
Where In-App Guidance fits in a modern onboarding stack
Prompts and Walkthroughs
In-App Guidance has two formats. Prompts are single floating cards that appear once or repeatedly (configurable) on a chosen page. Walkthroughs are multi-step tours that highlight each element in sequence, with the user advancing through Next buttons. Prompts cover one-off announcements (a new field exists). Walkthroughs cover multi-step processes (here is how to log a customer call).
Targeting and audience filters
Each prompt or walkthrough targets a specific Lightning page (record page, app page, or Home page) and can be filtered by profile, permission set, or user attributes (such as Created Date for new hires). The targeting model is granular enough to send different guidance to the same page based on which user is viewing it.
Setup, In-App Guidance node
The Setup node provides the authoring UI. Admins enter prompt text in a rich-text editor, attach images or videos, set the action button (Learn More with a URL, Dismiss, Watch Video), choose when the prompt fires (on page load, after a delay, on a user gesture), and how often it repeats. The same node lists every existing prompt with metrics on display and dismissal.
Engagement metrics
Each prompt records the number of times it has been shown, the number of unique users who saw it, the average dismissal time, and the number of action-button clicks. The metrics tell admins which prompts work and which get ignored. High-dismiss prompts often need shorter copy or better placement; high-action prompts can be promoted as the model for future guidance.
Integration with the broader UI
In-App Guidance lives inside Lightning Experience. It does not appear in Salesforce Classic. The Salesforce mobile app supports a subset of In-App Guidance, with mobile-specific design considerations (smaller cards, gesture-based navigation). Experience Cloud also supports In-App Guidance for external community users.
Building a guidance program
Successful In-App Guidance is a program, not a one-time configuration. Admins identify the moments of confusion in real user workflows, design prompts to address them, measure engagement, iterate. The strongest customer success teams have a rolling backlog of guidance ideas, each tied to specific support tickets or user feedback.
Comparison with WalkMe, Pendo, Whatfix
Third-party adoption-tools (WalkMe, Pendo, Whatfix) overlap heavily with In-App Guidance. They offer richer authoring, more granular targeting, and cross-app guidance (Salesforce + Slack + Outlook in one tour). Salesforce ships In-App Guidance free of charge with Lightning licenses; the third-party tools cost extra but pay for themselves in larger orgs. Most enterprises mix: native guidance for Salesforce-only flows, third-party tools for cross-app journeys.
Build a Lightning prompt with In-App Guidance
Authoring a prompt is a 10-minute task once the message is clear. The harder work is deciding what message users actually need.
- Open Setup, In-App Guidance
Setup, Quick Find, type In-App Guidance, click the result.
- Click Add Prompt or Add Walkthrough
Prompt for single-step; Walkthrough for multi-step. Pick based on the message complexity.
- Pick the target page
Choose the Lightning page (record page, Home page, app page) where the guidance should appear.
- Author the content
Use the rich-text editor for the title and body. Add an image or video if it helps. Configure the action button.
- Set targeting
Filter by profile, permission set, or user attributes. Pick the audience carefully; broad targeting produces noise.
- Activate and monitor
Activate the guidance. Check engagement metrics weekly; adjust copy or targeting if the prompt is being ignored or universally dismissed.
The Lightning page where the prompt appears.
Rich-text body of the prompt or walkthrough step.
Profile, permission set, or user-level criteria.
Once per user, every visit, on a schedule, or until dismissed.
- Targeting too broadly produces guidance fatigue. Users dismiss everything once they have seen too many irrelevant prompts.
- In-App Guidance does not work in Salesforce Classic. Orgs on Classic see the Setup node but cannot deliver guidance to end users.
- Engagement metrics take a few days to accumulate. Do not judge a new prompt by its first 24 hours.
- Walkthrough steps targeting components that are not currently visible silently skip. Test walkthroughs on real records with the components actually loaded.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- In-App Guidance OverviewSalesforce Help
- Create In-App GuidanceSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on In-App Guidance.
- Manage In-App GuidanceSalesforce 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 In-App Guidance let you do?
Q2. What types of prompts does In-App Guidance support?
Q3. Why is In-App Guidance valuable for adoption?
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