Lightning Experience Insights
Lightning Experience Insights is the suite of analytics features inside Lightning Experience that surfaces user-adoption, performance, and feature-usage data to administrators and executives.
Definition
Lightning Experience Insights is the suite of analytics features inside Lightning Experience that surfaces user-adoption, performance, and feature-usage data to administrators and executives. The most prominent surface is the Lightning Usage App (formerly Lightning Adoption Dashboard), an Analytics-Cloud-powered app that shows how many users are active in Lightning, what features they use, what pages they visit, and how page-load times compare across releases. Insights also includes the Optimizer report, the Lightning Adoption assistant, and various per-feature analytics dashboards baked into specific products.
The feature exists because Lightning Experience adoption was Salesforce''s single biggest UX transition for the platform. Customers migrating from Classic needed visibility into who was actually using Lightning, which pages worked, and where users got stuck. Lightning Experience Insights answered those questions with packaged dashboards rather than asking each customer to build them from scratch. Today, with the vast majority of orgs on Lightning, the analytics matter less for migration tracking and more for ongoing UX optimization: monitoring page-load times, identifying slow custom Lightning Pages, and surfacing low-adoption features that need attention.
What the Lightning Usage App surfaces and how to use it
The Lightning Usage App
The Lightning Usage App is the central analytics surface for Lightning adoption and performance. Setup, Lightning Usage, opens the app with dashboards for Daily Active Users, Feature Adoption, Page Performance (EPT - experienced page time), Browser Mix, and the Switcher Usage (how often users switch back to Classic). The app is included with Lightning Experience at no extra cost.
EPT and page performance
Experienced Page Time (EPT) is the metric Lightning uses for page-load performance. It measures the time from navigation start to when the page becomes interactive. The Usage App shows EPT per page (record types, app pages, Home pages), per browser, and over time. Pages with EPT consistently above 5 seconds need investigation; pages above 10 seconds are emergency-level.
Salesforce Optimizer
Salesforce Optimizer is a separate but related tool that runs a static analysis of the org and surfaces optimization opportunities: page layouts with too many fields, custom components that slow EPT, validation rules with similar logic that could consolidate, profiles with excessive permissions. The Optimizer report is generated on demand and emailed to the requesting admin.
Lightning Adoption Assistant
The Lightning Adoption Assistant guides admins through the Classic-to-Lightning transition. It surfaces which features need migration (Visualforce pages to convert, Aura components to update, Workflow Rules to flow-migrate), provides estimated effort, and tracks completion. The tool was most relevant during 2018-2022; today most orgs have completed the transition.
Per-feature analytics
Individual Lightning features ship their own analytics. Lightning App Builder shows component drag-and-drop metrics. Path component shows step-completion rates. Einstein features show prediction accuracy. The fragmentation means insights are scattered across many places; the Usage App centralizes the cross-feature view.
Custom Lightning Components and EPT
Custom Lightning Web Components are a frequent source of EPT problems. A page with five custom LWCs each making a SOQL query on render produces dramatically slower EPT than the same page with cached queries or LDS-based reads. The Usage App page-performance breakdown surfaces these problems; the fix lives in the LWC code.
Reporting back to executives
Most CIOs want to know two things about Lightning: are users actually using it, and are they happy? The Usage App''s Daily Active Users and Feature Adoption dashboards answer the first; EPT and Switcher Usage answer the second. Pin these dashboards to executive review templates; the numbers tell the platform health story succinctly.
Use the Lightning Usage App for ongoing UX monitoring
The Usage App ships ready to go. The work is establishing a regular review cadence and acting on what the dashboards show.
- Open the Lightning Usage App
Setup, Quick Find, Lightning Usage. The app opens with the default dashboards.
- Review the EPT dashboard
Sort pages by EPT descending. Anything above 5 seconds is a candidate for investigation.
- Investigate slow pages
Open the slow page in Lightning App Builder. Inspect the components present; identify custom LWCs or heavy related lists.
- Run Salesforce Optimizer
Setup, Optimizer, request a fresh report. Review the recommendations and prioritize the high-impact ones.
- Track Daily Active Users and Switcher Usage
Monitor weekly. Drops in DAU or spikes in Switcher Usage signal user-experience problems that need attention.
- Report to executives quarterly
Build a quarterly executive review using the Usage App dashboards. The data tells the platform-health story with no extra reporting work.
- EPT measures real-world performance, not synthetic benchmarks. A page that benchmarks well in sandbox may have high EPT in production due to data volume or user-specific permissions.
- The Usage App is a snapshot of recent activity, not real-time. Data refreshes daily; do not expect instant feedback after a change.
- Switcher Usage is the canary metric for Lightning adoption problems. A user who switches back to Classic frequently is telling you something about Lightning UX.
- Salesforce Optimizer is recommendation-only. The Optimizer does not change anything; the admin still has to act on the recommendations.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Lightning Usage AppSalesforce Help
- Salesforce OptimizerSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Lightning Experience Insights.
- Experienced Page Time (EPT)Salesforce 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.
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